ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
There are some who have argued, and continue to argue that, in the midst of a pandemic, the compilation of a new register, and, indeed, the conduct of the presidential and parliamentary elections should be put on hold, and scheduled for a later date, perhaps, when the pandemic ends.
The Constitution of our Republic makes no provision for the extension of the mandate of the President, who wields executive power, beyond four (4) years.
To exercise executive power in the Ghanaian state, you must be duly elected by the Ghanaian people.
You must have their freely-expressed consent.
On 7 th January, 2021, when my mandate as the current President expires, a duly elected person must be ready to be sworn in as President of the Republic.
There is no other way, and, in order to forestall any needless constitutional controversy, which could throw our nation into jeopardy, we must vote on 7 th December 2020.
The same applies to Parliament.
We should not fear or be alarmed.
Despite the COVID pandemic, elections are being properly conducted in many nations across the globe.
In Asia, we have witnessed the conduct of the successful elections of South Korea in April, at the height of the pandemic in that country.
In Europe, last week, we have seen those of Poland; and, in our own continent of Africa, both Mali and Malawi have preceded us in organising successful, national elections.
Surely, it is not beyond Ghana to join these nations in organising a successful general election, even in the midst of the pandemic.
Fellow Ghanaians, we have chosen to govern our country according to the tenets of multiparty democracy and the principles of democratic accountability, and we dare not trade them off, more so, during times of crisis.
To guarantee the safety of all eligible Ghanaians, at the thirty-three thousand, three hundred and twenty-seven (33,327) polling stations across the country, the Electoral Commission has put in place the necessary, elaborate protocols, as outlined earlier in the day by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa.
All these protocols should be adhered to strictly.
Additionally, I want to remind all Ghanaians that all the other protocols and restrictions, especially those dealing with large gatherings, must be adhered to and enforced at the polling stations at all times.
So, let us all abide by them, and conduct ourselves in a manner befitting the image and status of Ghana.
So, I urge all eligible Ghanaians, I repeat all eligible citizens, that is Ghanaians of eighteen (18) years of age or above, and of sound mind, no matter what party they belong to, if any, to go out and register, so that they can exercise their civic responsibilities on 7 th December, 2020, to elect a government of their choice in a free, fair, peaceful and transparent election.
The pandemic, notwithstanding, we have to strengthen Ghanaian democracy.
It must be our collective duty to ensure that we have a register that is fit for purpose in December, and we must all make sure that persons who do not meet the requirements, as set out clearly in the Constitution, do not find their names into the register.
If you aid the registration of an ineligible person, and you are caught, you will face the full rigours of the law.
The election on 7 th December must be a Ghanaian election, not a West African election, conducted with a voter register of Ghanaians.
That is the only way the true will of the Ghanaian people can manifest.
It is crucial that both the registration exercise and the electoral process itself be conducted in an atmosphere of peace and security, devoid of intimidation and violence.
The Ghanaian people must go about the exercise of their civic duties in peace and in freedom.
The security agencies have assured me that they have made adequate preparations for this, and to guarantee the sanctity of the process.
Improper behaviour by any citizen, no matter their political colour, will not be tolerated, and I am encouraged by the recent reassurance by the Inspector General of Police that Police have been instructed to be even-handed in their response to issues.
The longstanding deployment of security personnel, especially the military, along our borders is another dimension of this process of guaranteeing the peace of the nation.
Fellow Ghanaians, it is no secret that our neighbour to the north, Burkina Faso, has, in recent times, been at the receiving end of a number of terrorist attacks, as has another neighbour, Cote d’ivoire.
To shore up our borders against such attacks, and to defend our nation’s territorial integrity, the Armed Forces, at least since I came into office, have been very proactive in engaging in operations to secure our borders, and foil any potential terror attacks on our soil.
Operations such as ‘Conquered Fist’ and ‘Koudangou’ have been going along for some time, since 21 st February 2019, to meet this objective.
Deployments of soldiers in areas along our borders have been regular, and residents living in border towns will bear testimony to this.
Again, in the fight against COVID-19, I took the decision, on Saturday, 21 st March, to close all our borders by land, air and sea.
To ensure substantial compliance with this directive, and to assist personnel of the Immigration Service, our eastern, western and northern borders were shored up by some personnel from the military.
This development, for example, during the period of the three-week lockdown of Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi, led to the arrest of some five thousand (5,000) persons along our borders, who had entered our country illegally.
Indeed, the first six (6) recorded cases of COVID-19 in the Volta Region, for example, were those of West African nationals, who entered the country illegally.
In total, two hundred and seven (207) soldiers have been deployed along the borders of the Upper East Region; one hundred and ten soldiers (110) in the Northern Region; one hundred and two (102) in the North East Region; ninety eight (98) in the Volta Region; seventy two (72) in the Oti Region; sixty-nine (69) in Upper West; sixty-four (64) in Bono Region; twenty-one (21) in Savannah Region; and fourteen (14) in the Western Region.
Let me state, without any form of equivocation, that these deployments are not in any way intended to intimidate or prevent eligible Ghanaians from registering to vote in December.
They are there for their express purpose, which is to guard our borders.
That is the limit of their remit, and they will not be permitted to stray beyond that remit.
I am fully aware, like the military commanders, of the sensitivity of their deployments at this point in our history, and I am confident that that sensitivity will be fully respected.
I have no interest in disenfranchising any eligible Ghanaian from registering in tomorrow’s exercise, nor am I interested in any improper machinations to win any election.
I have spent my life fighting for free, democratic institutions in our country, and I will continue in that fight for the rest of my life.
The idea of being a President, who emerges from a rigged election, is abhorrent to every fibre of my being.
I want to continue to be the President of a Ghanaian people who have given me their free consent, with the blessing of the Almighty.
So please, once again, if you are eighteen years of age and above, and are of sound mind, from tomorrow, or the appointed time, go to your polling station and register.
If you do not register now, you cannot vote in December.
Present your Ghana card or passport, which are the only two forms of valid identification.
In the absence of any of these valid IDs, an applicant can submit one completed Identification Guarantee Form, endorsed by two registered voters, to be registered and issued with a voter ID card.
By these procedures, all eligible voters will be registered.
No disenfranchisement of voters is contemplated by them.
Together, and adhering to the safety protocols at the polling stations, let us demonstrate that, even during a pandemic, we, in Ghana, continue to be a beacon of democracy on the continent.
Our democracy requires not a unity of ideas or political allegiances, but a unity of commitment to the Ghana project: the free, democratic, open, prosperous and united nation, respectful of human rights and the rule of law, that animated our forebears to make the sacrifices for the liberation of our nation from foreign rule, that has bequeathed to us our beloved Ghana.
Climate change is the greatest threat to the realisation of Sustainable Development Goals.
It has an enormous impact on the fundamentals required for our survival on earth, which is why we have converged in Glasgow.
Even though we, in Africa, are the least of the contributors to this phenomenon, responsible for less than 4% of the global volume of carbon emissions, we suffer the most because our agrarian and resource-driven economies are peculiarly susceptible to the effects of climate change, and our capacity to withstand its shocks is weak.
Agriculture, water, energy, and the extraction of mineral resources are essential drivers of developments in our countries but, at the same time, are characteristically sensitive to changing climate.
The African Development Bank has stated that the continent will need some $3 trillion “in mitigation and adaptation by 2030” to enable us to implement our nationally determined contributions.
The obvious question arises as to how do we, in Africa, finance these commitments, especially as our socio-economic development continues, unfortunately, to be low.
The Almighty has blessed our lands with abundant natural resources, and it would be wholly unfair for the world to demand that Africa abandons the exploitation of these same resources needed to finance its development and help us to cope better with the threat of climate change at a time when many countries on the continent have only just discovered them.
The development and industrialisation of today's wealthy nations were also hinged on the exploitation of their natural resources.
This development came at the expense of pollution and the emission of greenhouse gases.
Even today, the western world is responsible for 76% of carbon emissions.
Ghana acknowledges the importance and effects of Climate Change and the urgent need to combat it, and we acknowledge equally the importance of protecting our development.
However, we believe that a balance must be struck and maintained between our social, economic and environmental imperatives.
We are, naturally, very disappointed by the failure of the wealthy nations to honour their commitments of making available $100 billion annually to the poorer countries to assist us in the fight against climate change and by the unavailability of the technology transfer that will help us find sustainable ways of charting a path out of this existential crisis.
However, those same nations are insisting that we abandon the opportunity for rapid development of our economies.
That would be tantamount to enshrining inequality of the highest order, a totally unacceptable conclusion.
We must find an equitable and fair solution, a solution that levels the playing field, a solution that recognises the historical imbalances between the high emitters and low emitters.
Ghana, therefore, supports the call for debt-for-climate swaps, which will address a multitude of issues in one fell swoop.
Let us use this Summit as a turning point to create a more prosperous, greener and fairer world, which maintains the balance between the social, economic and environmental requirements of all nations of the earth, rich and poor.
Success, in this endeavour, is the most significant inheritance we can leave for current and future generations.
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 67 th anniversary of Ghana’s independence.
I thank the children from across the country for their excellent march.
I thank the cultural troupes from across the country on their magnificent display, which has showcased the best of Ghanaian culture.
I thank the officers, men and women of the Ghana Armed Forces, the Police Service and the other Security Services for their display of order, pomp and ceremony.
And I thank them all for their willingness to put their lives on the line to secure the safety of our nation, the peace of our society, and the sanctity of our property.
I am sure it is not too late for us to extend warm congratulations to you, Monsieur le President, and your country on staging a most successful AFCON, and the dramatic exploits of your national team that ended in your winning the continental competition, and being crowned African football champions.
Congratulations to you, to Cote d’Ivoire, and to the Elephants.
As we all saw, the year begun with the victory of the Elephants.
I am afraid that, over here in Ghana, this is a competition we would much rather not remember or even talk about, but Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are good neighbours, and we cannot begrudge your excellent performance, and learn from the many lessons that AFCON 2023 has to teach.
Welcome to Ghana, Monsieur le President, and thank you very much for honouring our invitation, and joining us for our independence anniversary celebrations.
Ghana is your home, the relationship between our countries is as it should be, for we share a common boundary, a common history and a common culture, including common languages, and as we would both say, akwaaba.
We are greatly honoured by your presence, and we pay homage to your distinguished leadership, pre-eminent in the annals of contemporary Africa, which has brought your country back from the chaos of a painful civil war and its aftermath, to the stability and prosperity that have been traditionally associated with Cote d’Ivoire.
The strong bonds of friendship and co-operation that have existed during our respective tenures of office are evidenced by two key developments.
First is the Agreement for Strategic Partnership that was entered into by President Ouattara and I, on 17 th 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 sixtyfive percent (65%) of global output.
This has been of considerable benefit to our respective farmers, who have received the highest price per bag of cocoa in our respective histories.
The other is the mature manner in which the maritime border dispute between our two countries was settled by the Maritime Court.
The elevated stance of statesmanship shown by President Ouattara ensured that its result, in Ghana’s favour, was peacefully accommodated by Cote d’Ivoire.
My dear compatriots, fellow Ghanaians, the theme chosen for this year’s Independence Day celebrations is “OUR DEMOCRACY, OUR PRIDE”, and I welcome you all to Koforidua, the capital of the Eastern Region, which is hosting the celebrations this year.
The decision to rotate the scene of the national celebrations around the country, instead of staging them only in Accra, the national capital, has, certainly, turned out to be a welcome, nation-building exercise, that helps to focus attention on a different region every year, and, at the same time, rallies the nation together.
Our host this year, the Eastern Region, was very much at the centre of the independence struggle of our country – it is home to three (3) members of the BIG SIX of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), the acknowledged founders of our nation, Joseph Boakye Danquah, Edward Akufo-Addo and William Ofori-Atta.
Their love of politics would seem to have continued into succeeding generations with the son of one of them being the current president of our country.
The other members of the Big Six were Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey, Ebenezer Ako Adjei and Kwame Nkrumah, who, together with George Alfred ‘Paa’ Grant, R.S Blay, Cobbina Kessie, Francis Awonor Williams, Nii Kwabena Bonney, Boycott hene, and others, were the successors of the early generation of nationalists, such as the members of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society.
Their membership included Jacob Sey, George Moor, Joseph Casely Hayford, John Mensah Sarbah, W.E.G (Kobina) Sekyi, J.W.
de Graft-Johnson, J.P Brown and others, who protected our lands from the grasp of the greedy imperialists, and who initiated the first phase of our struggle for national independence.
On such a day, we must also remember the contribution of Yaa Asantewaa, James Aggrey Kwegyir, Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe, Private Odartey Lamptey, V.B Annan, Jimmy Quist-Therson, Mabel Dove, Akua Shorshorshor, Dede Ashikinshan, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, Kojo Botsio, Kofi Baako, Krobo Edusei, Nancy Tsiboe, Mumuni Bawumia, S.D.
Dombo, Kofi Abrefa Busia, Joe Appiah, Victor Owusu, R.R.
Amponsah, Baffuor Osei Akoto, Modesto Apaloo, S.G Antor, Yakubu Tali, Ephraim Amu, to the liberation of our country, and to the birth of our democracy.
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 6 th March 1957, that “at long last, the battle has ended.
Ghana, your beloved country is free, free forever.”
Today, the Eastern Region is, of course, not the geographic east of Ghana, but it retains the nomenclature from the colonial days, when it was the eastern border of what was the Gold Coast colony.
This Region is the most heterogeneous in our country and a microcosm of Ghana, and home to the most diverse of our peoples.
Over the centuries, the Region has attracted citizens from all parts of the country and beyond, who come to work and find a welcome and lasting home.
The attraction is obviously the abundant mineral resources and the rich and fertile soils.
It is, after all, only a few kilometres from here that the first cocoa farm in the country was planted in 1895, some one hundred and twenty-nine (129) years ago, and from there the planting of cocoa spread to other parts of the country, and became our leading cash crop.
Indeed, Tetteh Quarshie, an indigene of Mampong Akuapem, here in the Eastern Region, brought back, in the late 19 th 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 noteworthy that the hills and mountains of the Region, and the relatively cooler weather, made it attractive to the European colonialists and missionaries, whose footprints remain around the Region.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Region is home to many educational institutions, including the first middle school and first training college in the country – both in Akropong.
The old and beautiful stone churches along the scenic mountain road of the Akuapem hills remain an attraction.
It must surely be, as a result of Akuapem Twi being the first Ghanaian language to have been written, that the culture and mannerisms of the people became adopted in the formal recognition and rendition of Ghanaian culture.
When we say it is part of Ghanaian culture to be respectful in conversations, I daresay the source must be the legendary Akuapem insistence that even an insult must be preceded with a PLEASE.
They remain the repository of the rules of proper behaviour.
It is here, in the Eastern Region, that we find the beautiful and intricate beadworks that are defining features of Ghanaian jewellery.
The Krobos are the masters of the ancient art, and have modernised it to make beads attractive not only to the old, but also to the present generation as well.
The Eastern Region is also the home of the Kwahus, Ghana’s unquestioned leading entrepreneurs, and an example to all of us of what private enterprise can achieve.
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 14 th century till today.
I have mentioned some specific groups that make up the Eastern Region, but, as I stated earlier, it is a Region where the whole of Ghana merges into a melting pot and lives in harmony, and different groups feed on the strengths of each other for the good of the whole.
This is the same scenario that is played on the national scale, where different people have come together to form the Ghanaian nation and a national identity for the past sixty-seven (67) years.
Fellow Ghanaians, we have good reason to choose as our theme and to celebrate OUR DEMOCRACY, OUR PRIDE at the 67 th anniversary of our independence.
We are a democratic nation, and not every country can make such a claim.
It is important to note that the democratic system of government we have today was not given to us at independence; more than a hundred years (100) of British rule had not prepared us in any way for democracy, there is nothing democratic about colonial rule, and, whatever we have today, we have worked out for ourselves.
All the defining elements of a democracy, that are part of our governance architecture today, we have had to fabricate ourselves.
Everything we know about elections today, and we know quite a bit, we have learnt through hard practice, and, in the past thirty-one (31) years, we have been stable.
We have not got a perfect system, but, every time we have had elections during this 4 th Republic, it has been an improvement on the previous occasion.
We still have a lot more to learn especially when it comes to the tolerance of opposing views.
But we also know that we dare not relapse, as there are many examples of countries that have disintegrated into chaos as a result of disputed elections.
We know that technology is a useful tool that we must embrace to make the electoral process more transparent, but we are very much aware that technology also now makes it possible and easier for the deliberate manipulation and propagation of falsehood to influence public opinion.
When it comes to free speech and a vigorous media as indicators of a working democracy, I believe we can say we are doing well.
There is no danger of dissenting voices not being heard on any subject, even though we still have more work to do on elevating the quality of public discourse.
We take our disputes to the courts for resolution, and the judicial system operates within agreed and acceptable rules.
When we look around our neighbourhood, we might be tempted to think that our work is done, but we, Ghanaians, have never been known to settle for mediocrity.
We aim for the best in every field.
We should compare ourselves with the best that there is, and not settle for anything less.
For as long as there is poverty and injustice anywhere in Ghana, our work is not done.
On a day like this, we should pay homage, of course, as I have done, to our forebears and the elders who fought for independence, and worked through the years to establish all that we have to be proud of today, but our attitude should always be that there are better days ahead, and work towards that, instead of yearning for some bygone good old days.
The greatest challenge remains the provision of good quality education to all of Ghana’s children and young people.
We have a lot to be proud of, but we have more work to do.
I am happy that, through the implementation of the Free Senior High School policy, we are removing financial barriers to education, unlocking the potential of thousands of young Ghanaians, and laying the foundation for a brighter future for our country.
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.
We should be able to offer every Ghanaian child the best education there can be, and, having completed High School, our children should be equipped with skills that make them prepared to face the modern world.
Our schools must prepare our children to be comfortable with Science and Technology, and ready to compete in the modern economy.