ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
Having congratulated her, we believe it is important to remind all of us what Professor Naana Opoku Agyemang brings to the John Mahama ticket.
In an ideal world, one of the strongest things going for the selection of the good Professor would be that she is a woman, and this would be met with a lot of enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, Prof Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang hardly meets the expectations of someone who has a track record of fighting for women and their welfare.
Luckily for all of us, Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang is not new to Ghana politics, and it is her performance during her period as a political appointee that we refer to.
Need we remind anyone that it was during the tenure of Naana Jane that training teachers' allowances were scrapped.
It was done without paying any heed to the many appeals to reconsider the decision.
Indeed, it was one of the things she was proud to have done.
Teachers were the hardest hit when Naana Opoku Agyemang was at the helm of affairs at the Education Ministry.
Apart from their transportation allowances not being paid, Naana Opoku Agyemang also introduced the practice of teachers working for two years without being paid and being restricted to being paid only three months back pay, no matter how long they had worked.
This inhumane treatment meted out to Ghanaian teachers at the time was the brainchild of Prof.
Naana Opoku Agyemang, the then Minister for Education.
The cold hearted manner in which teachers were treated by Naana Opoku Agyemang cannot easily be forgotten.
Let it not be forgotten that Prof.
Naana Opoku Agyemang had been a teacher herself before she came to the position of Minister of Education, and yet it was during her period that classroom teachers were denied common chalk to be able to write on blackboards.
We remember the infamous "We won't give you chalk today or tomorrow" comment by Matilda Amissah-Arthur, and this was under the supervision of Naana Opoku Agyemang.
It would be unconscionable on our part not to remind ourselves of the key role played by Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang in the Montie Trio saga.
When the ‘Montie Trio’ threatened death upon some Supreme Court Justices, including the then Chief Justice Theodora Georgina Wood, this newly appointed running mate to Mahama was one of those who joined the campaign for their release.
Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang's ardent anti-feminist posturing was too obvious to ignore when she appended her signature to the petition to have the trio who had then been incarcerated at Nsawam to be freed against sound advice from well-meaning Ghanaians.
How can a woman who hates her fellow women to the extent that she advocated the release of the jailed trio so that they could rape and kill her fellow women be given such a responsibility?
We wonder what the message is that John Dramani Mahama is sending Ghanaians by picking Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang as his vice presidential candidate when her stewardship in the past brought such heartache to teachers and trauma to her colleague women.
While we would wish the NDC well in this regard, we also wish to emphasize that we are ready to tell Ghanaians the danger she poses to our growth and development as a country.
She superintended over a supposed Progressively Free S.H.S where students were made to pay Gh1500 to GH1700 per student in some schools.
It is on record that, monies budgeted for and approved by Parliament to be paid on behalf of students as day students were never paid till date.
When she reigned as the Minister for Education: • Teachers were paid three months’ arrears for three years of work, sometimes more than that and sometimes less than that.
• Yearly incremental jump in salary scales of Teachers was wickedly cancelled.
• Allowance for Trainee Teachers was cancelled at a time they were paying only 9000 beneficiaries claiming it was huge on government's purse.
Today, we have reintroduced the teacher training allowances and we are paying around 46,000 students.
• Research and Book allowances of our hard working Lecturers were cancelled.
Today we have reintroduced Book and research allowance and government has also put together a stand-alone bill to dedicate enough resources for the fund.
• There were no Teaching and Learning Materials in our schools, Ghanaians were insulted even when they asked for common chalk.
• She was by the side of Mr.
John Mahama when he promised to build 200 Community Day SHSs and it turned out to be a “suuliya” promise.
• She was again by the side of Mr.
John Mahama when they failed to deliver on their promise of building 10 Colleges of Education.
• It was during her reign as Minister for Education that Teachers were always harassed by B.N.I.
Officials.
• She presided over the freezing of employment in the Education Sector.
And the heightened corrupt practices at the N.S.S.
Remember the Secretariat is under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Education.
• She has, recently, advised John Mahama to cancel the Licensure Examination for Teachers when, God forbid, they come to power.
Any rational person wouldn't do that because professionalism is anchored on licensing.
• During her tenure as the Minister for Education, the funding for the Progressively Free S.H.S., School Feeding Program, Capitation Grant----were all in arrears.
• She presided over the near collapse of the scholarships Secretariat.
Students on Foreign Scholarships were always complaining because their fees and other allowances were always in arrears.
All these anomalies have since been corrected by the N.P.P.
CONCLUSION We can only conclude that the choice of Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman by Mr John Dramani Mahama is a clear indication that he does not take the Ghanaian electorate seriously.
But then as our own Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has famously said, it does not matter who the running mate is, if the main man himself is indecisive and incompetent, we still have a problem.
It is our view that after having looked so long and wide, the NDC still has a problem.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the Media.
Today’s briefing is devoted to the activities the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Party has affirmed that we carry out till the end of the year.
Constituency Annual Delegates Conference But before that, we wish to take this opportunity to thank our rank and file and all stakeholders of the Party for the successful conduct of the Party’s 2021 constituency annual delegates conference held across all the 275 constituencies of the country from 21st August to 27th August, 2021.
With the right protocols and in the open air, the NPP has managed to hold all its Constituency Conferences across the country.
The external branches of our Party are not left out.
They are due to have their conferences from the 18th of September 2021.
Code of Conduct for pre-elections period The Party also wishes to commend its members for largely complying with the Code of Conduct issued by the Party for pre-presidential and parliamentary primaries ahead of the 2024 presidential and parliamentary primaries of the party.
Since the issuance of the Code of conduct on 27th July, 2021, some significant sanity has been achieved in this space.
We will continue to monitor the implementation of the Code of Conduct and crack the whip where need be.
It is evidently clear that the combined effect of discussions and the publication of the Code has calmed the waters of competition quite dramatically and we want to congratulate all aspirants, announced and yet to be announced, for their disciplined observance of the Code.
We also want to thank all supporters of the aspirants for accepting the need to moderate their efforts and to act with decorum whilst we focus on delivering on our mandate to the good people of Ghana, who have rested their confidence in us for another term.
This Code and its successful implementation bring two crucial things to light, relative to the constitutional mandate for governance.
First, after practical experience of the workings of the 1992 Constitution, it is evident that a mere rotation of parties just based on the passage of eight years, interrupts good governance.
The NPP believes its policies deliver value for money and thus continuity of those policies is beneficial in the long term.
Indeed, social and economic transformation takes time and consistency of policy implementation.
Nowhere in the 1992 Constitution does it say that a party that is performing well should be changed after eight years.
It is rather the president leading the party.
So, a president who performs well must leave after eight years but the party can continue with a new president to consolidate good policies and present a fresh eye and vision.
That is what informs the NPP desire to break the eight.
The NPP believes strongly that after eight elections and two rotations between NPP and NDC, Ghana would want an NPP government to continue to deliver on the policies and programmes that are gradually changing this nation for the better.
We are humbly counting on Ghanaians to sustain the NPP in power after 2024 by voting massively to endorse the best of our policies and grant our new leader the opportunity to carry the torch of progress forward.
That brings me to the second matter of change of leadership.
The NPP welcomes the competition.
At the presidential level, the national constitution demands competition because our hardworking compassionate President will end his constitutional term.
Early in the year, however, there was some amount of unease and disquiet in our support base as noble leading members of our dear Party, appeared to be jostling for space.
Not wanting anyone to peak too early and considering that every potential successor to HE the President has a major contribution to make now, the Party came out with the Code of Conduct.
We are very happy at how the Code has been received and respected.
We expect to open nominations at the right time, and we believe the Party will present a very good successor to His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
That leader will continue to listen to the people, mobilise the best of our values and talents and accelerate the social and economic transformation of Ghana.
Declaration of the month of September as Mass Registration The remaining days in the month of September have been declared by the National Executive Committee of the Party as the month for mass membership registration and updating of existing names.
This will see the party undertake a nationwide exercise of compiling a register of all members of the party as well as persons wishing to be members.
The exercise will take place simultaneously at each polling station, which is the only vehicle through which citizens of Ghana may enrol for membership in the NPP, in any parliamentary constituency where the citizen resides or hails from.
Article 3(1)(1) of our Party Constitution opens membership of the Party to all citizens of voting age, irrespective of origin, circumstances of birth, race, status, occupation, gender, ethnic origin, religion, creed, or any other belief or social fetter.
The core requirement is that you always promote and defend the good name of the Party and be loyal and truthful to the Party and its policies.
When you write your name, you will become an ambassador of the Party, living and breathing the best of the NPP.
You will share with your family, neighbour, friend and co-worker, what you see, feel and hear about the things the NPP is doing.
You will talk about the new road in your area, your child in SHS, your nephew employed as a nurse, your uncle selling his produce to the new 1D1F factory in your village.
You will share your experiences from enjoying regular electricity, the easy renewal of your NHIS card and driving licence.
You will talk about your new job with the Ambulance Service and how the digital address system makes it easy to help people.
You will project the NPP everywhere you go.
Then you will feel the satisfaction of being part of a party that cares deeply about people.
Members of the Party at all levels are therefore requested to update their membership of the party by visiting their respective polling stations to get their details captured in the new membership register.
Persons wishing to join the Party are equally requested to also visit their polling stations and provide their relevant details to be captured in the new membership register.
President Akufo-Addo will, in this 20-days mass registration period visit his polling station at Abuakwa South in the Eastern Region to update his membership of the Party in the new register.
Vice President Bawumia will also go his polling station in Walewale to update his membership of the Party.
National Officers of the Party, Ministers of State and all government appointees who are party members will all participate in this mass registration exercise by visiting their respective polling stations to get their details captured in the new register.
In accordance with Article 3(10) of the Party Constitution, the membership register shall be kept at the polling station level.
The register shall be updated every six months.
The polling station registers shall be in the custody of polling station executives who shall avail themselves at a publicized venue in and around the polling station and within the electoral area during the 20-day period of the mass registration.
(i.e., from 10th September to 30th September).
Ahead of this exercise, the party has already distributed polling station registers to all the 38,000+ polling stations in the country.
The Party has equally printed and submitted constituency registers to all the 275 constituencies of the country.
It is expected that at the end of the mass registration period, the data contained in the polling station registers of a particular constituency will be transferred into the constituency register by the constituency secretariat.
Equally, entries made in the polling station registers will be transferred to the constituency registers from time to time.
In the same vein, regional registers will be compiled from the entries in constituency registers at regular intervals.
This membership registration forms part of the party’s restructuring and reorganization efforts towards breaking the eight-year governance cycle and thus ensuring a resounding victory for the party in 2024.
It is therefore anticipated that members of the Party will accord this important exercise their maximum cooperation and support.
Regional Annual Delegates Conferences The Party has scheduled the month of October to hold Regional Annual Delegates Conferences in all the 16 regions of the country in accordance with Article 9 of the Party Constitution.
Just like the just ended Constituency Annual Delegates Conferences, the Regional Conferences will also be held in strict compliance with standard guidelines and Covid-19 health protocols.
The National Executive Committee has approved dates and zonal arrangements for the regional annual delegates conference.
National Annual Delegates Conference The Party shall hold its 2021 National Annual Delegates Conference from December 18 to December 20, 2021, in Kumasi, the Regional Capital of the Ashanti Region.
The Conference will also be held in strict compliance with standard guidelines and Covid-19 health protocols to be observed by all.
Notice of Amendment to the Party Constitution With reference to Article 19 of the Party Constitution, which mandates the General Secretary of the Party to receive notice or proposals for amendments to the Party Constitution not later than two months before the National Annual Delegates Conference, the General Secretary is, through this medium, announcing that his office is ready to receive proposals or motions for constitutional amendments from the members of the Party.
Utterances from The NDC’s Perpetual Flagbearer Finally, ladies and gentlemen, let me share a few words on the “do or die” comment of perpetual candidate Mahama.
It is a distasteful comment that does not belong in our fast-maturing electoral democracy.
We note that John Mahama stubbornly refuses to retract.
Rather, he is seeking refuge in semantics and grammar, struggling to explain the impossible.
However, we are not surprised.
Being in opposition and desperate to come back to power, John Mahama must be panicking at the pace at which the Akufo-Addo Administration is moving.
The President continues to commission completed projects and initiate new ones on his working tours of the country.
Everywhere the President goes, there is fervent support for his policies which are visibly changing lives.
Infrastructure is springing up fast in the new regions.
One hundred and six 1D1F factories are working full blast with many more in the pipeline.
The Presidents’ sterling management of Covid-19 has opened the space for former President Mahama to move around easily.
Growth is moving in the right direction.
We are the destination for the highest FDI inflows in West Africa.
Agenda 111 has been launched with strong prospects to change the health sector to another level.
In confirmation of these works, the IMF has granted Ghana one billion dollars in Special Drawing Rights without any conditionalities whatsoever.
No wonder former President Mahama is desperate.
He has no blueprint to match the progress he is seeing.
He has no alternative for Ghanaians.
Indeed, if he had something of substance to sell, he would not resort to the language of ‘do or die’.
‘Do or die’ at polling stations depends on the preparedness of the party.
The NDCs’ history shows they have never truly been prepared at polling stations.
They have not been able to design and implement an architecture that can deliver results at polling station to enable them inform themselves.
In 2016, when they told the world they were in a comfortable lead, they had no inkling of the direction of the results.
Again, in 2020, when they lost, they again told the world they had won and proceeded to the supreme court without a shred of evidence to back their claims.
On the contrary, the NPP can tell within six hours, the results of a national election.
Because we are serious about governance.
John Mahama’s lack of electoral preparedness, which he blames on everybody but himself, stems from his own admission of indecisiveness as a leader.
His own observations about his lack of decisiveness in his infamous autobiography reflects where he is now.
This is a man who has been MP, Deputy Minister, Minister, Vice President, President and losing Presidential Candidate.
He is the greatest beneficiary of high-profile positions within the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Yet, he still does not realise and appreciate that leadership is about service.
He cannot understand that leadership is about vision.
He does not know that leadership is about hope.
We will not expend precious hours persuading him of the error of his ways.
John Mahama’s deeds and utterances will continue to expose the incompetence and desperation again and again.
He is simply incapable of leading this cherished democracy that Ghana is carefully building.
NPP will continue to implement policies that are responsive to the needs of the people.
That has always been the NPP way.
V\SPEECH BY H.E.
MAHAMUDU BAWUMIA, NEWLY ELECTED FLAGBEARER OF THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 4, 2023, AT THE ACCRA SPORTS STADIUM Your Excellency, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic, Your Excellency Former President J.A.
Kufuor (who I am sure is watching from home), Our National Chairman, Stephen Ntim, General Secretary, Lawyer Justin Kodua, Chairman of the Council of Elders, Hon.
Hackman Owusu Agyemang, National Council Members, Members of the National Executive Committee, Chairman and Members of the Elections Committee, Ministers of State, Hon.
Members of Parliament, Constituency Chairmen and Executives, Members of our great party, Our friends from the media fraternity, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Moments ago, the Electoral Commission of Ghana declared the outcome of the 2023 NPP Presidential Primary.
From the certified results, I was pronounced the clear winner with 61% of the valid votes cast and I won in 14 out of 16 regions.
I therefore stand here with profound gratitude and humility, having received the greatest honor of my life.
The victory is not mine but ours, from Bogoso to Bolga, from Axim to Zarantinga, as the party has united and chosen a path to walk in unison.
As a wise man once said, ”a leader without any followers is just a man out for a walk”, and I can proudly say that I feel the support from each and every one of our members today as the poll results show that these are the highest percentage numbers for any first time presidential candidate in the history of our party.
We said it was possible.
I thank the Almighty God for making this emphatic victory possible and for His unending blessings on me, the NPP, and Ghana.
It is a victory for the rank and file of our great party; particularly to you, our hardworking grassroot members at the constituency, electoral area and polling station levels.
You enthusiastically came out in your numbers when I visited you throughout the country, and you rallied support for me, amongst yourselves, at your respective electoral areas.
I am immensely grateful to all of you.
The significance of this victory is not lost on me.
I am humbled and overwhelmed.
I attended Sakasaka Primary School in Tamale, Tamale Secondary School, Buckingham University in the UK, Oxford University and Simon Fraser University in Canada.
However, It has not been an easy journey.
My work experience includes a stint as a farm-by-day worker (with my good friend Dr.
Abass Awolu (who is now in the civil service) during holidays in my secondary school years, to driving a minicab (taxi) in London and cleaning dormitories in Canada with friends like Richard Oppong of Vancouver (as I studied for my PhD) to make ends meet.
God has brought me this far.
I have always worked very hard; as a student, a lecturer, a deputy Governor, a running mate and a Vice President.
And on this historic day, I have been elected as Presidential Candidate and Leader of the Great New Patriotic Party!
That is just surreal.
I thank God for how far he has brought me.
I have always believed that with hard work, honesty, discipline and faith in God, one can fulfill one’s potential.
I congratulate the Electoral Commission of Ghana and the Presidential Election Committee of the NPP, chaired by the venerable Prof.
Mike Ocquaye, for an excellent job done.
I also thank and congratulate the security services for an excellent job done.
I also congratulate my fellow aspirants for participating in the process and deepening the democratic credentials of the NPP.
Their energies, time, engagements, and resources have contributed to energizing the base of the party and prepared us all for the crucial battle of 2024.
Now let us join together.
I am determined to work with all of them and all our supporters to achieve the Party's ambition of "Breaking the 8''.
That ambition requires the participation of all the aspirants including Hon.
Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, Dr.
Akoto Afriyie, Boakye Agyarko, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, Hon.
Joe Ghartey, Dr.
Kofi Konadu Apraku, Addai Nimo and Kojo Poku.
There are those who would say we are divided as a party, but I am here to tell them that it couldn’t be less true.
The NPP is a thriving democracy, where leaders are elected, not anointed, and I salute my fellow competitors in this race for partaking in this crucial process.
While our plans may differ at times, our visions are aligned – we share a passion for Ghana and a firm conviction that the NPP is the only party that can transform her.
The New Patriotic Party will enter 2024 united and energised.
We are ready to make a strong and convincing case for another term in office with a fresh mandate and a new leader.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the journey towards today has been exciting and at the same time fraught with challenges.
I remember the auspicious day on the 14th of August, 2008, when, through the visionary leadership of candidate Nana Akufo-Addo, as he then was, and the NPP, I was outdoored unto the uncertain political terrain of our nation.
I owe endless gratitude to President Akufo-Addo for his decision in 2008 and his undying confidence in me in the periods of 2012, 2016, and 2020.