ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
On previous occasions, I have held to my part of the peace pact, and, on this third occasion as President of the Republic, I will do the same.
I stand here as the representative of the New Patriotic Party, a political party founded on the strong belief that Ghana is best governed under a constitutional arrangement that guarantees multi-parties.
We come from a long tradition that believes in disputes being settled by superior arguments, and not by violence.
It has been a long and tortuous journey that has brought this nation finally to this Fourth Republic and the consensus of a multi-party democracy.
We believe in elections, we have always done and we, in the NPP, can safely claim without any fear of contradiction that every improvement that has brought more widespread credibility to our electoral process has been at our instigation.
( A younger generation might not even be aware that the use in the electoral process of transparent ballot boxes and photo-ID cards were resisted. )
We believe in an electoral process that is genuinely free and fair, and in which the people can have confidence.
We believe in an electoral process in which the losers will feel they have been in a fair fight, and would willingly congratulate the winners, and go back to regroup to seek more persuasive ways to convince the electorate.
It is in the interest of the political parties that there is not only an absence of violence, but that there is no tension, and there is a truly peaceful atmosphere throughout the country.
I would like to call on the security agencies to be up and doing in their work, in making make sure that the atmosphere in the country is one conducive for the conduct of a fair and transparent process.
The strictures as to the consequences of the Ayawaso West Wuogon elections maybe an opportunity for all of us to look at this issue.
For myself, I do not want to use this platform to engage in controversy, but merely to state that whatever were the acceptable recommendations of the Commission of Enquiry have been faithfully adhered to by the Government.
The security services in the Volta Region are there to respond to the well-documented secessionist activities, and not to engage in any imaginary intimidation of the people of the Region.
The best manifesto policies and promises would come to naught if there is no peace.
You can assemble the sharpest brains and the greatest workaholics to run a government, if there is no peace, your promises remain promises, and you can even have a combination of the best policies, the brightest and most hardworking and incorruptible people to run the government, if there is no peace, you cannot deliver on your promises.
I would say, therefore, that we the politicians and political parties have the most to lose if there is no peace.
I dare say there are some organisations and some individuals whose very existence depend on continuing turmoil in Africa, and African nations being led to believe they would remain poor, dependent and underdeveloped forever.
I do not ask that we behave like the famous three monkeys, and see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil, but I do not think we help our situation very much when all we see is evil, all we hear is evil, and all we speak is evil.
I am not suggesting that we cover up our failings in any way; we are nowhere near where we should be, there is still poverty, young people remain at risk, and the public purse is not as properly guarded as it could be.
But there is a lot that we can and should be proud of, and these too should be part of the narrative.
In the immediate matters that concern all of us, I would say we have conducted admirably the electoral process thus far.
In the midst of a global pandemic, the Electoral Commission has compiled a credible voters’ register.
The Special Voting process passed off peacefully, with all political parties happy with the process.
It does not help that a would-be Nreputable media organisation puts out a totally false story that the EC had been caught with illegally printed excess ballots.
If we are concerned about peace, such media outlets should be condemned by all.
Such deliberate malice heightens tensions and incites passions unnecessarily.
We, in the NPP, want a credible election, conducted in a peaceful and tranquil atmosphere.
We are certain we have a track record that will make Ghanaians vote to renew our mandate.
Just as it was in 2016, we want this victory to be sweet and incontestable.
I have said that we believe in elections, and I am happy to give my word that we shall accept the verdict of the people of Ghana.
Above all, I pledge that the peace, unity and safety of Ghana will be our primary consideration.
Fellow Ghanaians, let me start by welcoming our special guest of honour, the redoubtable President of our western neighbour, the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, His Excellency Alassane Ouattara, to the formal celebrations of the 67th anniversary of Ghana’s independence.
First is the Agreement for Strategic Partnership that was entered into by President Ouattara and I, on 17th October 2017, during my first year at the presidency, which has paid off, especially in the cocoa sector, by enabling our two countries to co-ordinate our policies over cocoa, of which we are the world’s biggest producers, accounting jointly for some 65% of global output.
The work of all these great patriots culminated in the immemorial words of our nation’s first leader, Kwame Nkrumah, when he stated, on the eve of 6th March 1957, that “at long last, the battle has ended.
Indeed, Tetteh Quarshie, an indigene of Mampong Akuapem, here in the Eastern Region, brought back, in the late 19th century, the cocoa pod from Fernando Po, now Bioko, in Equatorial Guinea, an act which led him and others to establish our nation’s first commercial cocoa farms here in the Eastern Region.
It is, furthermore, the home of the Akyems, the single biggest ethnic group in the Region, who founded one of the most ancient states of Ghana’s history, with an unbroken record of chiefly government, dating from the 14th century till today.
Fellow Ghanaians, we have good reason to choose as our theme and to celebrate OUR DEMOCRACY, OUR PRIDE at the 67th anniversary of our independence.
We have not got a perfect system, but, every time we have had elections during this 4th Republic, it has been an improvement on the previous occasion.
This year, we have seen the highest-ever enrolment of first-year students into senior high school in our nation’s history, that is five hundred and three thousand (503,000) students, a clear indication of the widespread embrace of the Free Senior High School Policy.
I must, at this stage, reaffirm Government’s continued commitment to providing the support for victims of the recent, extensive flooding in downstream communities, in the Greater Accra, Eastern and Volta Regions, caused by the spillage of the Akosombo Dam last year – a necessary action which was taken to maintain the dam’s structural integrity.
Fellow Ghanaians, on Friday, 8th March, the 13th African Games will be officially opened in Accra, and we shall be playing host to fifty-three (53) African nations, that will participate in the Games.
Happy 67th Independence Day Celebration to all of us, and may God bless us all and our homeland Ghana, and make her great and strong.
Madam President, Secretary-General, Your Excellencies Ghana salutes the historical significance of your election to preside over this 73rd session of the General Assembly as the first female Latin American, and congratulates you most heartily, Madam President.Your election reinforces our common preoccupation that gender equality must be a central feature of the global agenda.
Madam President, thirteen days ago, we laid to rest in his home soil of Ghana, Kofi Annan, the 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations, the first from sub-Saharan Africa to occupy this exalted position.
On behalf of the people and government of Ghana, I wish to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the United Nations Secretariat, led by the Secretary-General, His Excellency António Guterres, and the whole world community for the outpouring of grief and condolences that we received on the passing of Kofi Annan.
We were deeply touched that so many world leaders and people took the trouble to come to Accra to bid him farewell.
Kofi Annan’s passionate and profound belief in the United Nations, and his certainty that a better organised and stronger UN would make the world a better place, is an ideal that should not be allowed to die.
Today, we continue to be faced with the stark reality that resolutions, norms and any number of votes in the Security Council and General Assembly mean nothing without the political will to enforce them.
We are still to come to terms with what the role of our organization should be.
Should it just be a club of nation states that exists to look after their own interests?
What of its constitution by “we the peoples”, as declared in its founding document?
Does the theme we have chosen for this assembly have any relevance in real life, and do we want to make the United Nations relevant to all people?
Do we want an organization that ensures shared responsibilities for peaceful, equitable and sustainable societies?
Or should it remain the place to pass resolutions that are ignored with impunity?
Madam President, when some of the nations of the world gathered in San Francisco 73 years ago, and signed the landmark document that created this organization, it was a very different world from what we have today.
And I do not refer only to the difference in the numbers in the room on that occasion, nor the difference in the mode of travel that brought the leaders to that meeting and the jet planes that have brought us all to New York this week.
Nor do I refer to the tweets by which we communicate now, and the elegant handwriting that they employed back in 1945.
I refer to the theme we have drawn up for this General Assembly, and wonder if it would have been comprehensible to that group in San Francisco.
It is a different world we currently live in, and we should accept that this organization must change to suit contemporary needs.
Madam President, ten years ago as the General Assembly was starting its proceedings, the world was plunged into a financial crisis.
The first scenes of that crisis were played out on a street not far from where we are gathered, but the consequences were felt and are still being felt around the world, and in small countries like Ghana.
Some say that upheaval lies at the heart of the change in politics and outlook around the world.
Today, as we speak, a trade war is being stoked between the two largest economies of the world.
The consequences will affect those who have had no say, including small countries like Ghana.
These events provide proof, if some were needed, that ours is an interdependent world.
We in Ghana (and other parts of the African continent) are determined to pull our country out of poverty and into prosperity.
We do not think that a nation needs to remain poor or become poor for others to become prosperous.
We believe that there is room, and there are enough resources on this planet for us all to be prosperous.
But it does mean that the rules and regulations that we fashion to guide our dealings with each other have to be respected by all of us.
From the environment to trading rules, we have to accept that there cannot be different set of rules for different countries.
Thus far, the United Nations provides the best vehicle for all nations to address their aspirations and challenges.
Ghana has always displayed her belief in the United Nations and sought to contribute her share in making the organization a successful one.
We have embraced the SDGs and integrated the seventeen ambitious goals into our national vision and budget.
We intend that Ghana will in July 2019, take her turn to present our Voluntary National Review during the ECOSOC High-Level Political Forum, and we will share our successes and challenges as well as opportunities for new and continuing partnerships.
Madam President, it is important to reiterate that advocating for a world order in which all countries sign up to obey the rules does not mean that we want uniformity.
We take pride in what distinguishes us as Africans and as Ghanaians.
55% of the work of the Security Council last year had to do with Africa.
Unfortunately, this invariably meant peacekeeping and poverty related issues.
We no longer want to be the place that requires peacekeepers and poverty fighting NGOs, no matter how noble their motives.
Our regional bodies, like ECOWAS, and our continental body, the AU, are making systematic efforts, despite significant handicaps, to bring peace and stability to the entire continent, and, sooner rather than later, they will succeed.
We know we must get our population educated and trained, and we are setting about it.
We must address our infrastructural deficit.
The traditional methods of tackling this problem will not provide the answer.
We are looking for new ways to resolve it.
Ghana, like many countries in Africa, is forging relations with China to make arrangements to help address part of our infrastructure deficit.
This is not a uniquely Ghanaian or African phenomenon.
It has not been lost on us that the developed, rich and well-established countries have been paying regular visits to China, and seeking to open new economic ties and improve upon existing ones.
It is also not lost on us that a lot of anxiety is being expressed about the possibility of a recolonization of the African continent by a new power.
We should, indeed, learn from history.
It was at the turn of the 20th century that China’s first railways were built by Western companies, financed by Western loans to a nearly bankrupt Qing Dynasty, and it was under those circumstances that a certain strategic port called Hong Kong was leased for 99 years, and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.
Today, the former victim of Western Railways imperialism is lending billions to countries throughout Asia, Africa and Europe to construct not only railroads, but also highways, ports, power plants and other infrastructure, and many businesses.
The historical echoes are certainly worrisome, but, yes, surely, we must and can learn from history.
We, in Ghana, must build roads, bridges, railways, ports, schools, hospitals, and we must create jobs to keep our young people engaged.
It is obvious to us that the development trajectory we had been on for many decades is not working.
We are trying a different one, and we would appreciate the support and goodwill of the world, especially in helping to stem the huge flow of illicit funds from the continent.
It is in everybody’s interest that we, who are counted amongst the poor of the world, make a rapid transformation from poverty to prosperity.
We are determined in Ghana, and, increasingly, in more and more parts of Africa, to chart our own paths to prosperity, and pay our own way in the world.
We are no longer interested in being a burden on others.
We will shoulder our own responsibilities and build societies and nations that will be attractive to our youth.
We have the necessary sense of enterprise, creativity, innovation and hard work to engineer this transition.
Hence, our vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid, indeed, of an Africa Beyond Aid.
Madam President, it is equally important that the United Nations is reformed to be able to preside over this changed and changing world to which we all aspire.
The powerful nations must be willing to adapt to the changes to make our world a better place.
After all, we all inhabit the same planet, and we all owe the same duty of care to ensure its survival.
The African Common Position on UN Reform, as expressed in the Ezulwini Consensus, remains the most comprehensive proposal for reform of the United Nations, particularly of the Security Council.
It is time the global community endorsed it to create a modern United Nations fit for purpose in our time.
May God bless the United Nations and us all.
I am grateful to the Bar Council for the invitation and opportunity to address this year’s Bar Conference, my seventh time of doing so as President of the Republic.
I am aware that it is a privilege, which I will continue not to abuse.
Before I touch on the theme of this year’s conference, “Ensuring High Standards and Integrity in Public Life; The Role of the Legal Profession” , I want to place on record my appreciation, once again, to the Council for making me a member in permanent good-standing, i.e., one who does not have to pay dues.
It is an enviable status, one which I cherish.
I am also very grateful to the President and members of the Council for re-arranging today’s programme in a manner that allows me to fulfil other important engagements of the day.
It means, unfortunately, that I will not be able to enjoy the fellowship of the traditional lunch after this ceremony, which allows us all to break bread together.
God willing, next year, we will resume the fellowship, as I continue to be extremely proud of my membership of this Association, which has been and continues to be, so devoted to advancing the public interest of our nation.
Learned friends, I come from a background where public service is considered a duty, and where privilege and good fortune demand even greater commitment to the common good.
Generations of my forebears and relations established this rich tradition of public service, to which I am greatly indebted, as it is a source of constant inspiration.
Indeed, Kofi Abrefa Busia, Prime Minister of the Progress Party government of the 2 nd Republic, and one of the great Ghanaians, said in these pregnant words: “We regard politics as an avenue of service to our fellow men.
We hold that political power is to be exercised to make life nobler and happier.”
I am fully aware of the responsibility the job of President of the Republic brings, as I am fortunate enough to carry a sense of the history and struggles that made that job possible, as well as being apprised of the challenges and opportunities of the future.
Crucial to the progressive and prosperous future I seek to help create for the Ghanaian people is how to sustain their confidence in the democratic journey on which we have embarked.
We celebrated, this year, 30 years of multiparty democracy under the Constitution of the 4 th Republic, which has provided the framework for the longest period of uninterrupted, stable, constitutional governance in our otherwise turbulent history.
Next year, we will be going to the polls, for the ninth time in the 4 th Republic, to elect a new President and new Members of Parliament.
We will, in the results of those polls, witness either the changing of power from one political party to another, as we have done on three separate occasions in the 4 th Republic, or the breaking of the eight, something that has never happened before in the 4 th Republic.
I am sure I do not need to tell you what my preference is.
It is public knowledge.
What is important, however, is that the Ghanaian people have demonstrated that they are fully conversant with the process of peaceful democratic transitions, and need no lessons in the exercise of their democratic rights.
Maintaining high standards and integrity in public life is key to extending our association with multiparty democracy.
As one writer put it, and I quote, “Standards in public life help to maintain the health of the democratic system and uphold public confidence in it.
They help prevent politicians and officials from being swayed by outside interests in their decision-making, and help to maintain a political culture that fosters open and constructive debate.
They, thereby, contribute to a political system that is fair, inclusive, stable, and effective.”
The Ghanaian people are expectant that Parliament, the legislative arm of government, will continue to grow into its proper role as an effective machinery for accountability and oversight of the Executive, and not be its junior partner.
Parliament must stand out as an institution that represents all the values that we hold dear and in which citizens can take pride.
Our Judiciary must inspire confidence in the citizenry, so we can all see the courts as the ultimate arbiters when disputes arise.
A Ghanaian judge must be a reassuring presence and the epitome of fairness.
Ensuring High Standards and Integrity in public life has its own impact on the image of our nation, and our ability to attract the substantial amounts of investment, foreign and domestic, needed to help grow our economy.
We will attract the requisite investments if we continue to hold ourselves as a haven of peace, security and stability; and if we continue to show that we are a country where the separation of powers is real and the principles of democratic accountability and respect for the rule of law, individual liberties and human rights are firmly entrenched in our body politic.
The legal profession has a catalytic role to play in guaranteeing the sustenance of these values, and, thereby, in helping us uphold the maintenance of integrity in the ordering of our state.
Learned friends, in recent times, the debate on standards and integrity in public life has centered, largely, on the fight against corruption, and whether or not this President and his government are doing enough to combat this canker.
It is true that corruption is not an exclusively Ghanaian phenomenon, but one which permeates all nations of the world.
It results in reputational damage to businesses and establishments, and undermines the public trust in governments.
The manifestations of corruption are getting increasingly complex, as they often occur with the aid of professional enablers, such as accountants, lawyers, bankers, real estate agents, shell companies and opaque financial systems that provide opportunities for the laundering and concealment of illicit wealth.
If not controlled, corruption can stultify the economic aspirations of any nation.
Globally, the World Economic Forum has estimated the cost of corruption around the world at some US$2.6 trillion a year.
I accepted the invitation to speak here in order to take advantage of this occasion to place, once again, my government’s record on corruption for public scrutiny.
It will show that my government has undertaken, arguably, the boldest initiatives since our nation attained independence, nearly sixty-six (66) years ago, to reform and strengthen the capacity of our institutions to tackle corruption in the public sector.
Charity, they say, begins at home, and that is why, so far, every single alleged act of corruption levelled against any of my appointees has been investigated by independent bodies, such as CHRAJ, the CID, and, in some cases, by Parliament itself.
It is not my job to clear or convict any person accused of wrongdoing, or of engaging in acts of corruption.
That is the job of the courts and the law enforcement agencies.
My job is to act on allegations of corruption by referring the issue or issues to the proper investigative agencies for the relevant enquiry and action, including, if necessary, the suspension of the affected official, pending the conclusion of investigations.
That is exactly what has been done since I assumed the mantle of leadership on 7th January, 2017.
From the allegations against the then Minister-Designate for Energy, Boakye Agyarko, at his parliamentary confirmation hearings in 2017; to that against the former CEO of BOST, Hon.
Alfred Obeng; to those against the then two deputy Chiefs of Staff at the Office of the President, Hon.
Francis Asenso Boakye and Hon.
Samuel Abu Jinapor; to the conflict of interest allegations against the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta; to the claims of extortion against the then Trade and Industry Minister-designate, Alan Kyerematen, at his parliamentary confirmation hearings in 2017; to allegations of doubling in visa racketeering against the then deputy Minister for Youth and Sports, Pius Hadzide, and the then Director General of the National Sports Authority, Hon.
Robert Sarfo Mensah who, even though exonerated by the CID, later resigned; the Chairperson of the Board of the National Sports Authority, Hon.