ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
Fellow countrymen and women, after the inept and clueless Finance Minister over-borrowed and got Ghana locked out of the capital market due to our unsustainable debt obligations, the NPP government chose the easy, reckless, lazy and criminal path of printing money.
This is how the Governor of the Central Bank, Dr.
Ernest Addison who is now known as the “Printer of Money”, conspired with members of the Economic mis-management Team led by the failed Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia and the inept Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta aka “One Problem, One Bond”, to destroy Ghana’s Central Bank.
After this dastardly act of over-lending to the government by the Central Bank, they then proceeded to do the unthinkable – to write-off a whooping GHC 48.4 billion, about half of Ghana Government’s indebtedness to the Central Bank, without so much as seek parliamentary approval.
This is illegal and criminal and the NDC Members of Parliament will not allow this to pass.
Beyond the mismanagement of the economy and our finances, the spectacular recklessness and ineptitude of the Governor and his team has called into question the wisdom of leaving him at the helm of affairs of the Central Bank as we seek to get ourselves out of this mess of securing policy solvency for the Bank to carry out its primary mandate.
Please note below the manifestations of mismanagement, ineptitude and potential corruption at the Central Bank revealed by the Annual Report and Financial Statement of the Bank of Ghana.
The 2022 Report revealed that millions of Ghana Cedis have been wasted on frivolous administrative expenditures.
The Bank of Ghana spent a whopping GHS131.6 million on Motor vehicle maintenance and running in 2022 alone - a 114% increase over the previous year’s expenditure.
Similarly, foreign and domestic travels of the Bank of Ghana cost the Ghanaian tax payer a staggering GHS97.4 million, which is about 246% increase over the previous year.
The Bank of Ghana also dissipated another GHS8.6 million on Director’s remuneration alone.
This represents about 87% increase over the previous year’s expenditure.
This means that Ghanaians were charged a “Mismanagement Fee” to deliver the collapse of the Bank.
The Bank further claimed to have spent a colossal GHS357.9 million on Banking Supervision Expenses.
The Report disclosed ‘other’ undisclosed expenses amounted to GHS287.8 million of the taxpayer’s money.
Perhaps the more troubling fact is that, having brought the bank of Ghana to this terrible financial state, the Governor working with the Board, has found it prudent and expedient to invest $250 million (GHC2.8 billion) on another Head Office building somewhere at Ridge.
In our circumstances, this is the height of criminality in the management of the finances of a troubled country.
It is now obvious that many more members of the Akuffo Addo Government will likely be keeping several more millions of dollars in their bedrooms and building a war chest to illegally buy electoral votes at both party primaries and the upcoming general elections of December 2024.
We will not be surprised if members of the Economic Management Team involved in these contests make a strong showing.
We in the NDC will continue to explore ways of rescuing this country to prevent it from the doom that have befallen several West African countries.
The IMF has made offers to assist develop a plan for the recapitalization of the Central Bank (see paragraph 18 of the Ghana’s Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policy).
It is however our position that those who have so recklessly mismanaged the Central Bank and brought it to its knees cannot remain at the helm of affairs of the bank without being held accountable.
Those who have by their reckless and criminal conduct unleashed economic hardship and financial distress on the suffering people of Ghana must be held to account.
Impunity of the highest order can no longer be tolerated by the suffering masses of Ghanaians.
We must not allow dangerous precedents to be set for future leaders.
In this regard, we call for the resignation of the Governor of the Central Bank within 21 days from today.
We are resolved to embark upon popular action to Occupy the Central Bank and drive out the team of inept, callous and criminal mis-managers of the finances of this country and Save The Bank of Ghana.
The March to Ensure Accountability will begin in 21 days if the Governor of the Bank of Ghana does not do the needful and pack bag and baggage out of that sacred institution that he has so desecrated.
Dr Ernest Addisson Must Go!
There has to be an end to impunity and it is NOW!
Fellow country men and women, Arise for Ghana!
Thank you and God Bless our March.
STATEMENT READ BY HON.
CASSIEL ATO FORSON, LEADER OF THE NDC CAUCUS IN PARLIAMENT
Here is the full statement from NDC's November 19 press conference over the alleged plot to rig the upcoming elections.
It was addressed by the Communications Officer for NDC, Sammy Gyamfi.
Good morning, distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the press.
We thank you for responding to our call to this very important engagement.
We have invited you here today in connection with credible reports we have received on the nefarious activities of one Brigadier-General Micheal Opoku, calculated at rigging the upcoming December 7 Polls for the ruling New Patriotic Party.
Ladies and gentlemen, Brigadier-General Micheal Opoku is currently the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Central Command of the Ghana Armed Forces, a position he was inducted into as recent as July this year.
The name of this man must ring a bell to Ghanaians as he is the person who masterminded the mayhem and brutalities inflicted on innocent Ghanaians during the infamous Ayawaso West Wugon bye-elections on January 31, 2019.
As Director of Operations at the National Security Secretariat, Colonel Michael Kwadwo Opoku, as he was then known, commandeered and unleashed NPP thugs, including 'Double' to attack innocent civilians.
You will recall, that many innocent Ghanaians were shot, brutalized and maimed.
Not even the sitting member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Hon.
Samuel Nartey George was spared by the NPP thugs acting under the guise of National Security.
Appearing before the Emile Short Commission after the incident, Colonel Michael Opoku, as he then was, admitted that the masked NPP bandits who attacked and maimed innocent civilians did so under his express instructions.
It is instructive to note, that the Short Commission placed ultimate liability on this military officer who is the subject of this press conference.
The Commission recommended that he be reprimanded "for being ultimately responsible for the outcome of the SWAT operation at the La Bawaleshie School Polling Station."
Sadly but unsurprisingly, President Akufo Addo under whose leadership the said atrocities were committed by Colonel Opoku and his bandits, rejected the findings of the Commission in his infamous White Paper.
To add insult to injury, he has now been promoted to the high rank of Brigadier-General and rewarded with the position of General Officer Commanding of the Central Command of the Ghana Armed Forces.
This is what has further emboldened him to champion yet another election rigging scheme.
In his current position, Brigadier-General Opoku has been mandated by President Akufo Addo to take charge of a well-crafted scheme that has been designed by the New Patriotic Party to rig the upcoming election, particularly in the Ashanti region, through ballot stuffing, swapping of ballot boxes, swapping of pink sheets, and other clandestine activities starting with the special voting exercise scheduled for December 2nd.
Having relocated his family to the United Kingdom, Brigadier-General Opoku has vowed to do all it takes to carry out this shady election-rigging plot of the NPP in exchange for the position Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) in the unlikely event that the NPP wins the 2024 elections.
The NDC has received reliable intel to the effect that Brigadier-General Michael Opoku is responsible for the training of NPP thugs at Asutsuare Military camp and other places who he plans to clothe in military apparel to unleash violence on NDC agents and supporters on voting day.
The NDC acknowledges and commends personnel in our security agencies who work tirelessly to protect our dear nation and are determined to protect the votes of suffering Ghanaians.
Sadly, unlike the many professional and noble men and women in Ghana’s security agencies, Brigadier-General Opoku has turned himself into a rabid NPP functionary who openly mobilizes funds from businessmen for the New Patriotic Party.
Per our credible intel, Brigadier-General Opoku’s residence in Kumasi is currently the storage facility for weapons, illegally-printed ballot papers, military apparels and other election materials, which the NPP intends to use to execute this dastardly and subversive agenda.
Ladies and gentlemen, in Brigadier-General Opoku, we have an officer with a notorious record unbecoming of the position he holds.
This devious character carries the mayhem and brutality he supervised at AWW as a badge of dishonor.
A person like him has no place in the current environment where Ghanaians are calling for violence-free elections.
Given his history, we call for his immediate removal from his position as GOC of the Central Command.
A miscreant like him should not be allowed anywhere near the security architecture for the impending 2024 general elections.
The NDC wishes to serve notice to Brigadier-General Michael Opoku and his collaborators in the New Patriotic Party that we have them under our radar and will continue to monitor them with eagle eyes.
This time around, he and his ilk shall not succeed.
Violence cannot and will not win the NPP this year’s election.
The NDC hereby calls on the Inspector-General of Police who is the Chairman of the Elections Security Task Force not to allow any persons to usurp his authority.
Ghanaians still await justice for the eight innocent Ghanaians who were shot and killed during the 2020 elections, including those shot in broad daylight at Techiman South.
The IGP and the Elections Security Task Force must get to the bottom of this election-rigging agenda and stop Brigadier-General Opoku and his thugs from embarking on another Techiman South-styled killings.
The IGP, owes a duty to the people of Ghana to be firm and fair-minded to ensure peace during and after the elections.
In this regard, we assure him of our fullest cooperation.
We also call on the Chief of Defence Staff to institute investigations into these issues and bring Brigadier-General Opoku to book.
The NDC and by extension, the people of Ghana will hold the IGP, the Chief of Defence Staff and our security heads responsible for the loss of a single life in the 2024 general elections.
Elections are about counting heads and not cutting heads.
No person must lose his or her life on the altar of elections.
Friends from the media, peace has a price, and all of us well-meaning Ghanaians must be prepared to pay that price for peace to prevail in Ghana before, during and after the 2024 elections.
One of the ways to preserve the peace and stability of Ghana is to join hands in condemning persons who have the tendency and proclivity of compromising free, fair and peaceful elections.
With barely 18 days to the December 7 polls, the NDC is confident of a resounding victory.
This is because the NDC has a superior Presidential Candidate with a superior vision and message, backed by a superior proven track-record.
The upcoming election is a choice between a trustworthy, reliable and honest leader in the person of H.E John Dramani Mahama, against the dishonest, discredited, unrepentant pathological liar and conman Alhaji Bawumia.
We in the NDC have no doubt that Ghanaians will choose an honest leader who upholds the virtues of truth, decency and candour in public life, over one who is completely allergic to the truth.
The December 7 polls, is a choice between a political party, the NDC, that truly believes in the promotion of proper human sexual rights and family values for the protection of the innocence of our children and a political party, the NPP, that supports the promotion of LGBTQ++, hence the refusal of their leader to sign the anti-LGBTQ++ Bill (Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill) into law.
This election is a choice between the nation-builder H.E.
John Dramani Mahama as against the failed economist, Alhaji Bawumia.
It is a choice between President Mahama who bequeathed a solid economy with a stable credit rating of B-, sustainable public debt and strong economic buffers, as compared to the failed economist Alhaji Bawumia who has borrowed Ghana into bankruptcy and supervised the near collapse of Ghana's economy.
Friends, our dear nation is at a crossroads and requires an urgent reset.
Not only have the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government failed to keep almost all their flagship promises to Ghanaians, but they have totally run down Ghana's economy, leading to unprecedented hardships and an ever-worsening standard of living.
Ghana needs the experienced and steady pair of hands H.E.
John Dramani Mahama offers.
His proven track-record of sound economic management and the right transformational vision is what Ghana needs at a time such as this, to steer us out of our current mess.
We in the NDC are convinced that Ghanaians will vote for change on December 7, because the people of Ghana will choose the experienced, tried and tested nation builder, John Dramani Mahama over the dangerous and fraudulent experiment called Alhaji Bawumia.
The NPP knows this and seeing defeat staring at them in the face, have resorted to dark and evil plans to rig the election through ballot stuffing, swapping of ballot boxes, pink sheets and other shady activities using willing and dangerous collaborators in the state security apparatus such as Brigadier-General Opoku and the 2BN Commanding Officer, Lt.
Colonel Nyarko Osae.
Ladies and gentlemen, Ghana is all we have, hence the NDC's unconditional commitment to peace.
Anyone who plots or attempts to subvert the will of the people by undermining the sanctity of the electoral process is an enemy of the state and must be dealt with in accordance with law.
We all owe it a sacred duty to God and country to expose and stop such characters so as to ensure that the peace and democracy we enjoy today is sustained.
Thank you for your attention and may God bless our homeland Ghana.
The framers of the 1992 Constitution were spot on when they made provision in clause 1 of article 1 that "the Sovereignty of Ghana resides in the PEOPLE OF GHANA in whose name and for whose welfare the powers of government are to be exercised in the manner and within the limits laid down in this Constitution."
In strict adherence to the meaning of this provision, Your Excellency, you took the presidential oath on January 7, 2017, when you were first elected President of the Republic.
Although our party, the NDC contested the general elections which were subsequently decided in your favour by the Supreme Court of our Republic, you took the same oath on January 7, 2021, to serve another four-year term.
The Presidential oath, as we know it, was not and cannot be fanciful words said for purposes of formality.
Despite the polarized nature of our country, Ghanaians who voted for you, and indeed, those who voted for your opponents succumbed to our Constitutional arrangements and entrusted their will and aspirations in your hands.
The hopes of every Ghanaian, including your political adversaries, was to see you uphold the tenets of our Constitution, sustain the peace you inherited from your predecessor, improve upon the economic wellbeing of Ghanaians, fight corruption ruthlessly, provide decent employment for the youth in particular, and ensure the safety of everybody, amongst other things; needless to say, these were the very teething issues you campaigned on and promised to deliver.
Your Excellency, without mincing words, it is heart-wrenching to state that your government has so far delivered the antithesis of almost all what you promised Ghanaians.
It cannot be gainsaid that if you objectively and sincerely looked back, reflect on the state of the country bequeathed to you and what you have done with it in five years, you have eroded almost all the strides our country have made.
If our country was a clock, you have rolled it anti-clockwise.
Though our country was riddled with some age-long challenges before you took over; issues of corruption, unemployment, nepotism, cronyism and insecurity among other things, have increased unimaginably.
You will agree with us that our country needs fixing and there cannot be any good time to fix it than now.
The danger, Your Excellency, is that there is no commitment from you and your government that these life-threatening challenges facing our country will be, at least, reduced.
Instead of teaming up with those who have taken inspiration from your edicts to be citizens and not spectators to fix the country, your government is surprisingly averse to calls asking for the fixing of our beloved country.
Those crusading for the country to be fixed have become enemies of your government as they are either being intimidated, harassed or killed.
Respectfully, Mr President, it is not out of place to point out to you that, though Ghanaians signed a social contract with you to resolve their problems, your government has become an insurmountable challenge that they are struggling to resolve.
Objective minds in our nation and those in your own government whispering on corridors have growing apprehension about where you are leading this dear country of ours.
The leadership you have provided so far is one of "let's finish everything today because there is no tomorrow."
There is no hope for the youth under your stewardship.
The very people you promised to protect are the ones being beaten and/or killed daily by thugs recruited into our Security Services, those you promised jobs have either been laid off, lost their investments or have not been employed at all.
You have failed to build a just society.
Today, more than ever in the history of the construction of our State, access to the few opportunities is soley based on possession of an NPP party card.
Those you promised infrastructural development have either have what your predecessor started abandoned by you or not seen any infrastructure at all.
Perhaps, the best thing about your government is how far your family members and cronies are feeding on the national kitty to the chagrin of all of us.
The case of students, nurses, teachers, tailors, carpenters, Okada riders, trotro drivers, doctors, Masons, lawyers, traders, civil servants, farmers, to the last man on the street, has been of agony, pain and sorrow.
There is simply no hope in sight.
In the world all over, governments are elected to work for people and not otherwise.
Your Excellency, your government is not working for the generality of Ghanaians but a select few, mainly family members and cronies.
With each passing day, you and your government manifest more examples of insensitivity to the cries of Ghanaians.
The latest being your decision to pay your wife Rebecca and Samira Bawumia salaries equivalent to Cabinet Ministers at a time like this.
Clearly, you have lost it.
The Country our forefathers laboured at the peril of their lives to build for us cannot be gambled with and treated this way.
Without sounding exaggerative, where you have led the country too, points to a direction that we urgently need liberation from the ills of state powers which must start from the seat of government; we are not lost at all of the powers allocated to the executive arm of our government and it’s authority to change things for the better.
The ills of your government are just too many to mention but of course, you cannot be bothered.
You fulfilled a long-held ambition to be President and that is what appears to matter to you most.
Though it sounds needless to remind you of your pledge and campaign messages to the good people of Ghana, it is worthy to make the following demands: 1.
Immediately, implement recommendations of the Emile Short Commission of Inquiry Report forthwith.
In particular, pay compensations to all victims and direct the Attorney General to prosecute all culprits.
Beyond investigating all acts of violence perpetrated by officers of the security agencies under your watch, ensure that all victims get justice as required by law.
Victims of acts of violence from Ejura, Ablekuma Central, Odododiodioo, Banda etc must all not be denied justice.
Make provisions towards providing decent jobs for the teeming youth of the Country through proper structural economic reforms and business support for enterprises of young people.
Ensure the safety and security of all Ghanaians 5.
Stamp out corruption by prosecuting corrupt officials in your government other than shielding them.
We ask that there is a fierce urgency to halt the hopeless nature of cronyism that has crept into the Government.
Take steps to fulfil campaign promises to the good people of Ghana and be respectful and truthful to the citizenry.
De-politicize the Security Services introducing reforms to give true meaning to its independence.
We charge that these reforms be led by experts in our country and not partisan appointees.
Instruct the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice to improve the justice system and Wean the Judiciary off partisan political influence.
We count on your fail-safe commitment to our nation as its President in this historic moment.
Written for and on behalf of the Youth of Ghana.
Under my hand, George Opare Addo, Esq.
National Youth Organiser, NDC.
The verdict of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on the performance of the six-month-old government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was that of a failed one.
In a press conference addressed by the leader and chairman of the party Kofi Portuphy, he spoke about the state of affairs attributing the current lawlessness in the country to the Akufo-Addo government.
"The state of insecurity has given rise to fear-filled anxiety amongst innocent Ghanaians who are struggling to make ends meet under the current excruciating and suffocating economy," he said.
He added that "the fact that lawlessness has been allowed to fester and run riot, with an unprecedented upsurge in violent crimes to the disbelief of Ghanaians."
Mr Portuphy also highlighted "the profligate expenditure that has surrounded all the wasteful state dinners, is not the best way of protecting the public purse."
"Is it not sheer callousness for the government to have money to be importing expensive dinner suits and bowties from the United Kingdom, Paris, and Italy, and be spending lavishly on state banquets, while innocent people die in our hospitals because there are not enough nurses to give medicare?"
he alleged.
The party sought to tell the President "governance is not a tea party."
Below is the full statement: PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY COMRADE KOFI PORTUPHY, RELATING TO PRESIDENT AKUFO-ADDO’S SIX MONTHS GROSS INCOMPETENT STATE OF LEADERSHIP.
Good morning Ladies and gentlemen of the press, on behalf of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), I welcome you to this all-important Press gathering to speak to very pertinent issues that are not boding well for the democratic path that we have chosen to walk on since the inception of our 4 th Republican dispensation in 1992.
Ghana has been going through very unbearable moments since January 07, 2017, when the mantle of leadership and a peaceful nation was handed over to President Akufo-Addo.
Six months into the moribund maladministration of the Akufo-Addo-led NPP Administration, it has been a sordid story after a sordid story.
Having flown on the wings of lavish and unachievable campaign promises to come into power, it is not surprising that President Akufo-Addo and his over-bloated Government are swimming and groping in the dark and not achieving any meaningful results.