ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
We know about all-powerful, cannot-be-questioned Messiahs, we know about liberators, and we know about redeemers and deities in military uniform.
It might sound new to some, but those of us who have been around for a while have heard the argument made passionately that democracy was not a suitable form of Government if we wanted rapid development.
It is a tired argument that was regularly used by coup d’etat apologists.
It is also not new to have political parties and politics, in general, being denigrated, indeed, there used to be national campaigns of fear waged against politics and political parties.
It took time and it took long battles, but, in the end, a consensus did emerge, and we opted for a multi-party democratic form of Government under the Constitution, which ushered in the Fourth Republic.
Mr Speaker, it is not a perfect document, Constitutions do not ever pretend to be; but it has served us well these past thirty-two (32) years, considering where we have come from.
It is a sacred document that should not be tampered with lightly, but, I hasten to add, our Constitution did not descend from heaven, we, Ghanaians, drew it up to serve our needs, and we can amend it to suit our changing needs and circumstances.
We should work towards finding a consensus on the changes that the majority of Ghanaians want made to the Constitution.
Mr Speaker, democracies are founded on elections, and the holding of free and credible elections ensure that people have confidence in the government that emerges at the end of the process.
The Honourable Members of this House, who are at the centre of it all, know more than the rest of us that this is an election year.
The increased decibel level in all communications would ensure that even the most politically uninterested person among us would know that, on December 7, we shall be going to the polls to elect a new President and Members of Parliament.
5 A lot of the responsibility lies on the Electoral Commission to put the organisation in place that would ensure that we have credible elections.
Government is doing its part to make the work of the Electoral Commission go smoothly.
A lot of responsibility lies on the political parties as well, and I hope that the parties recognise that their credibility is also on the line, with some people wanting to undermine the multi-party democratic system of government.
It is up to the parties to demonstrate that competitive elections are an honourable, character enhancing experience, and, at the end of the process, the loser will congratulate the winner, and the world does not come to an end because an election has been lost.
There is nothing inherently dirty or corrupt about politics, and nothing about elections that should generate violence.
We, who are in politics and we who are members of political parties, owe it to ourselves, the institutions we claim to belong to, and, above all, we owe it to Ghana and the people of Ghana to make politics and elections the serious and joyful phenomenon they should be.
In discharging their responsibility, I urge the Electoral Commission to work with the political parties to iron out whatever problems there might be, and I am happy that the Electoral Commission, after engaging the parties, has shelved plans to change the 7th December date.
Politics, after all, has been described as the art of the possible, and, if that is what we are engaged in, it should not be beyond us to resolve the problems that come up, and concentrate on working to build the happy and prosperous country we want.
Government, on its part, will do what is expected of it to make sure that the reputation of Ghana is not damaged, and the free will of the people is manifested at the end of the electoral process; and I want to reassure the people of Ghana that I will do everything in my power to help ensure the conduct of transparent, free and fair elections on 7th December.
I have confidence in the security services to ensure that those who might want to cause havoc or any kind of mischief to disrupt the electoral process will have no room to operate.
Mr Speaker, there are those amongst us who, for ideological or other unstated reasons, have never accepted multi-party democracy, and, 6 therefore, take every opportunity to portray the governance efforts in the most disparaging manner.
There are also those amongst us who consider the rough and tumble of politics to be beneath them, and would not want their sainted images to be soiled by what they term the dirt of politics.
Mr Speaker, we can and we should continuously improve upon the performance of the institutions that hold the state together, but nobody should undermine the integrity of the arms of government for parochial reasons.
There is definitely much room for improvement in the workings of the Executive arm of Government, the Judiciary and our Parliament.
Even those who have had Parliaments as part of their governance systems for hundreds of years still make mistakes, and, sometimes, get things alarmingly wrong.
It would be surprising if our thirty-one (31) year old Parliament did not get things wrong sometimes.
This august House, which holds so many fond memories for me of my personal political journey, does not always measure up to the expectations of the people or, even sometimes, of its own members.
There is a lot of anxiety currently about how our MPs get elected, there is anxiety about the rapid turnover of Members in the House, and the loss of institutional memory.
There is a lot of anxiety about some of the procedures in the House.
We would not all agree with everything that Parliament does and, I daresay, Mr Speaker, that I do not agree with everything that goes on in here, but that is the beauty of what we, as a people, are trying to do in our governance structure.
Mr Speaker, the president and his appointees are not universally loved, and it will be strange and unproductive if they were.
It is probably worthwhile making what I consider to be important observations at this stage on some of the issues in our public discourse, in the lead up to the elections for a new President.
Under the Constitution, the executive power of the state is vested in the President of the Republic.
He or she is the Executive.
There is no ambiguity about where the buck stops, when it comes to responsibility for what happens in the government.
It stops with the President, he or she has ultimate responsibility.
It would be an unwise 7 President that would pretend to have all the answers, and refuse the advice of his officials, but the fact remains that the President holds the executive power.
The Cabinet, the Ministers of State all act in an advisory manner.
Of course, a member of the government might take an idea, be it generated by the President or the official or a committee, and turn it into a huge success, and the honours would be claimed or shared where public perception falls.
But, ultimately, the President is responsible, and, therefore, takes the credit or the blame for whatever happens in his or her government.
Let me make a second point.
The programmes that come from the Executive benefit from the rigorous public examination and debates to which they are subjected.
We all now take for granted and, sometimes, even bemoan the vigorous media and civil society organisation scrutiny that characterise public discourse.
It gives me quiet satisfaction and great pride to hear young Ghanaians, today, who believe that criticising the President of the Republic and challenging government proposals are normal, regular activities.
Some of the young people listen with incredulity when they hear about a Ghana that was once without private radio stations, and people had to tune in to foreign stations to hear critical and opposition voices.
Today, there are some five hundred and fifty (550) radio stations in operation in the country.
In spite of all its shortcomings and difficulties, the people of Ghana have shown admirable commitment to multi-party democracy, and have not fallen for the instigations to resort to the violent overthrow of an elected government.
The past thirty-two (32) years of the Fourth Republic have witnessed the most sustained period of stability and economic growth in our country, and we should be proud of what we have achieved, and seek to protect and build on it, and that is why the theme for the sixty-seventh (67th) independence anniversary celebration, on 6th March, is “Our Democracy, Our Pride”.
8 Mr Speaker, I am pleased to report on the progress we are making in the administration of justice.
This past year, a total of seventy-six (76) Judges and Magistrates were appointed.
They comprised a new Chief Justice, two (2) new Justices of the Supreme Court, twenty-three (23) new High Court Judges, twenty-nine (29) new Circuit Court Judges, and twenty-one (21) new Magistrates.
Two hundred and sixty-two (262) staff were recruited to address some of the human resource gaps created because of the newly established courts throughout the country.
In January 2024, three (3) additional Justices have been appointed to the Supreme Court to replace three (3) Justices who have retired from the Court.
We have made unprecedented progress in the provision of court buildings and residences for judges around the country.
In 2020, Government set out to construct one hundred (100) courthouses with residential facilities nationwide.
As at 31st January 2024, sixty-seven (67) courthouses had been successfully inaugurated, and are in use at various sites around the country.
Twelve (12) completed projects have been slated for inauguration by the end of this month of February 2024.
The remaining twenty-one (21) projects are at various stages of completion, and are expected to be completed and inaugurated before May 2024.
In addition, one hundred and twenty-one (121) residential units have been constructed for judges throughout the country.
Further, twenty (20) fully furnished 4-bedroom units, together with social amenities, have been constructed for Justices of the Court of Appeal in Kumasi.
The project is not complete yet, but we have done enough to be able to say that we have resolved the problem of the disgraceful state of court buildings.
The attention now is to the digitalisation process of the courts to modernise the entire system.
The Judicial Service has undertaken a digitalisation initiative to modernise legal operations, and foster greater access to justice.
A virtual court system was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the continuity of business.
The virtual court system was rolled out to seventeen (17) courts, and then, subsequently, to nineteen (19) High Courts for the smooth hearing of court cases.
By the end of December 2023, one hundred and sixty (160) courts had been equipped with devices for the real-time transcription of cases, in addition to fifty-one (51) courts piloting the paperless court system in Accra.
The integration of real-time transcription devices in one hundred and sixty (160) courts has revolutionised the way in which court proceedings are recorded and 9 documented.
The service is rolling out a comprehensive digitalisation of the court system.
The Attorney-General has continued, in a very effective manner, the tradition under this administration of contesting every civil litigation against the state, and has avoided the numerous judgement debts that used to be given against the state.
The Office, as a result, has saved the country over ten trillion Ghana cedis (GH¢10 trillion).
I shall be performing a pleasant duty, in a few weeks’ time, when I commission the Law House, the twelve (12)-storey office building, which will house the offices of the Attorney-General and his Ministry, and, finally, bring an end to the age-old office accommodation problem.
I must declare a personal interest in it, as the building was started when I was Attorney- General in the Government of President John Agyekum Kufuor, back in 2001.
Mr Speaker, I acknowledge and share the frustration and deep disappointment we all have that a convergence of events and fate have conspired to place impediments on the path of the rapid development trajectory we were on.
I am proud that, in spite of the dramatic financial crisis that we encountered in 2021, whose worst effects became manifest in 2022, the transformative measures we introduced in the first four years of office make it possible to showcase an impressive array of developmental projects across the length and breadth of the country.
I do not intend to go through the long, even if interesting process of enumerating the projects the Akufo-Addo Government has undertaken since coming into office, their location and what stage of completion they are in.
Mr Speaker, with the best will in the world, there simply will not be the time to do that, even if we spent all day here.
It will be recalled that last year, during the Message on the State of the Nation, faced with a similar problem about road projects, I came to the House, armed with a fat book that had the details of the road projects around the country, and all Honourable Members were given copies to go through at their own leisure.
10 This year, we are taking things to a higher level.
This Government, after all, is the Digitalisation Government, and the man who has led the entire digitalisation process these past seven (7) years, my indefatigable Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Dr Digitalisation, the NPP’s excellent presidential candidate for the 2024 election, is coming up with what will allow everyone and anyone to check on every project being undertaken by the government without having to listen to the President’s Message on the State of the Nation.
We are calling it the Performance Tracker.
You can check and satisfy yourself about the status of the projects and their location, and you could stop by and make a physical inspection if you were so minded.
Mr Speaker, if you want to check on roads, classroom blocks or CHIP compounds or Agenda 111 hospitals, or bridges, or science laboratories, or water projects, or sanitation projects, or landing sites and harbours, and other infrastructural projects, or whatever this Government used your tax money to execute, the key to your query is right there on your phone.
Mr Speaker, the Performance Tracker will be formally launched in March, and I am offering it as the device which would help bring accountability into your hands.
With the Performance Tracker, we can be sure that never again will pictures of an artist’s impression be offered as projects that have been executed.
I am able to recommend the Performance Tracker in the sure knowledge that the Akufo-Addo Government has done more in education in terms of student enrolment, teacher training and employment, provision of infrastructure, than any government; we have similarly done more in health, agriculture, security, roads, railways, tourism, digitalisation than any other Government.
Thanks to the Performance Tracker, the President no longer has to go through lists, and I have the confidence to say that every performance indicator used shows we have done more in these seven (7) years than in any of the eight (8) years under the NDC.
Indeed, Mr Speaker, on coming into office seven years ago, my government took the decision, as we promised, to modernize and formalise the economy through digitalisation.
In this regard, we have embarked on one of the most far-reaching digitalisation exercises in Africa.
Up from the figure of nine hundred thousand (900,000), which we inherited when we came into office in 2017, we have, thus far, enrolled 17.6 million on the Ghanacard, and, therefore, provided unique biometric 11 identity to the majority of Ghanaians.
We have also implemented a digital property address system with unique addresses for all properties in Ghana.
Furthermore, through the implementation of mobile money interoperability, we have also provided access to financial services for adult Ghanaians through mobile money accounts that are interoperable with bank accounts.
Ghana is now ranked number one in Africa in terms of access to financial inclusion.
We have digitalised the provision of public services at the ports, DVLA, NHIS, GRA, Births and Deaths, Registrar of Companies, ECG, Ghana Water, amongst others.
Ghana is ranked number one in West Africa and number seven in Africa in e-Governance.
We have also implemented the use of drones in the delivery of medicines, blood and vaccines, and Ghana currently runs the world’s largest medical drone delivery service.
We have also networked all teaching, regional and district hospitals and patient records can easily be accessed in these hospitals without the need for a folder.
Ghana is making giant strides in the area of digitalisation, thereby improving transparency, accountability and efficiency in the public sector, and accelerating the growth of our economy.
We are definitely going to be part of the digital revolution that is sweeping the world.
Mr Speaker, last year when I came to the House to deliver the annual Message on the State of the Nation, we were in the midst of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.
We were faced with a very difficult situation, and had to take a lot of unpleasant, but unavoidable measures, to bring stability and confidence back to the economy.
These included tax measures that we did not like, but we knew we had to take in the knowledge that the medicine would be bitter, but temporary.
Speaker, a year ago, I also stated the decision to undertake a comprehensive debt restructuring of our domestic and external debt to ensure we remain resolute in our objective to restore macroeconomic stability and sustainable growth.
The decision was not an easy one, considering the complex and diverse domestic debt landscape.
We had to consider safeguarding the financial 12 sector, preserving social and economic conditions, and protecting our domestic debt market.
A year on, I am happy to inform you, Mr.
Speaker, that we have made significant progress.
We requested an unprecedented number of bondholders to participate in a voluntary exchange, and we were able to exchange successfully some two hundred and three billion cedis (GH¢203 billion) worth of bonds.
Not only was the exchange successful, but it helped us to secure, within five (5) months, the shortest possible time in recent debt restructuring history, a Staff Level Agreement to an Executive Board Agreement with the IMF.
My gratitude goes to all financial sector players, organised labour, firms, regulatory institutions, and all individuals who made this painful exercise successful.
Speaker, as you may recall, Government successfully paid the first coupon of two-point-three billion cedis (GH¢2,369.67 million) on the new bonds on 22nd August 2023.
At the time, that was the single biggest payout of domestic payments in a single day for Ghana.
We, then paid two billion and sixty million cedis (GH¢2,060.72 million) for the last leg of the domestic debt exchange on 5th September 2023.
A week ago, last Tuesday, on 20th February 2024, the second coupon of five-point-eight billion cedis (GH¢5,847.72 million) was paid to domestic bondholders.
This is the largest coupon paid in a day in Ghana’s history.
On the external debt side, we achieved a significant milestone by reaching an agreement with our public creditors, and I will use this occasion to express our appreciation to the Republic of France and the People’s Republic of China, co-Chairs of the Official Creditors Committee, for their positive roles in this achievement.
We have also intensified our engagement with our external bondholders on the principles of transparency, fair treatment, consistency with the IMF debt sustainability analysis, and good faith.
We are focused and committed to accelerating the process.
Speaker, we are committed to concluding the external debt restructuring process as soon as possible, so we move past the crisis.
This will enable us to complete substantially projects that have been constrained due to financial challenges.
In the meantime, some of the 13 priority projects have been transferred onto the GOG budget within the same fiscal space to ensure their completion.
This will enable the Kumasi International Airport, which is some ninety- eight (98%) complete, to be completed by May.
Other projects like the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) Maternity Block in Kumasi, the Takoradi Interchange, the Obetsebi-Lamptey Interchange in Accra, the University of Environment and Sustainable Development Project at Bunso in the Eastern Region, phase two of the construction of roads in Tamale, and the construction of the eighty-four-kilometre (84km) railway line between Tema and Akosombo, would also be completed.
Speaker, I am happy to announce that an alternative source of funding has also been secured for the reconstruction and completion of La Hospital Project, as a fully functional modern hospital, with the necessary equipment for diagnosis and treatment.
The contractor has been paid an advance mobilisation of fifteen percent (15%), representing some seven-point-five million dollars (US$7.5 million), and work is has begun.
The project commenced, effectively, in January this year, and will be completed in twenty-eight (28) months.
Mr Speaker, it is important to underline that the recent change in the leadership of the Finance Ministry will not affect Government’s commitment to implementing the terms agreed with the IMF to ensure that we restore the economy to healthy growth as soon as possible.
Indeed, the macroeconomy was much stronger at the end of 2023 than in 2022.
Inflation, which peaked at 54.1% in December 2022 has reduced to 23.5% in January 2024.
Real GDP Growth for the first three quarters of 2023 averaged 2.8 percent, higher than the targeted growth rate of 1.5% for 2023.
The cedi has been largely stable since February 2023, with a cumulative depreciation of nine percent (9%) between February and December 2023.
Gross International Reserves reflected a significant build- up of at five-point-nine billion dollars (US$5.9 billion), enough to cover 2.7 months of imports of goods and services.
The current account turned positive at 1.4% of GDP at the end of September 2023, from negative- two-point-one percent (-2.1%) at the end of December 2022.
Generally, the macroeconomic indicators are, once again, pointing in the right direction.
14 I should point out that, in all our discussions with the Fund, a paramount consideration has been to ensure that the poor and vulnerable do not bear the brunt of the sacrifices that have to be made.
Programmes like LEAP, School Feeding and Capitation Grant have been protected, and, indeed, enhanced.
Mr Speaker, right from the start of this Government coming into office, we have sought to place the maximum effort on the education and training of the youth as the base for building the prosperous nation we seek.
A foreign statesman once posed the question: “Why am I the first member of my family in a thousand generations to have gone to the university?”
In the past seven years, I have met many people, young and old, across this country, who have told me about the first person in their families and in their communities to have gone to Senior High School.
They might well ask the question, why are they the first boy or girl in their family to have gone to Senior High school.
The answer is not far-fetched.
Not being able to go to secondary school for lack of money was so widespread and an accepted phenomenon that it led to some people thinking Senior High School was not meant for them or their children or for people from their village, and, therefore, a child in the family finishing Junior High School and moving on to Senior High School was simply not factored in their expectations.
Mr Speaker, Free SHS might be labelled by its detractors as a mere political slogan that must be demonised, but it is, in fact, a transformative programme that has broken myths and liberated minds.
It is humbling on the one hand and frightening on the other, to think of the sheer number of talents that Free SHS has unearthed that would otherwise have ended their formal education at BECE.