ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
We in the NDC will not acquiesce in the deformation of a constitution that the people of Ghana approved for themselves and for their generations unborn.
For a statute which is for a particular purpose, it is questionable why there are no time limits for its expiration.
This unfettered power is unconstitutional.
As hinted at earlier, this proposed law is virtually silent on the well-known and accepted constitutional procedures by which alone the dignity and freedoms of the Ghanaian citizens are protected.
In conclusion, we call on civil society, religious leaders, the House of Chiefs and peace-loving Ghanaians including those in NPP itself not to be complicit in their silence in the face of this latest assault on democratic rule by the President.
We must all fight against the pernicious legislation which will confer unfettered power on President Akuffo Addo and others who may come after him.
The Imposition of Restrictions Bill has little to do with the fight against the coronavirus.
The Bill is from the playbook of "wanabe" despots who capitalize on emergencies such as we have to muzzle dissent and suppress opposition in order to consolidate their hold on power.
May God help us to resist oppressors rule with all our hearts and minds.
Sir Keir Starmer has announced he is stepping down as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party.
Here is his resignation speech in full: Thank you.
Walking up this street two years ago was the proudest moment of my life.
A new Labour government.
The first in 14 years.
A page in our country's history turned after years of disappointment and despair.
The chance to change the lives of millions of people for the better.
That's what I came into politics for.
The journey to that point was not easy.
Six years ago, I inherited a Labour Party that was politically, financially and morally bankrupt.
I was told, time and time again, that my party was finished.
That we were consigned to history, that a majority at the general election, let alone a landslide majority, was impossible.
But we proved those people wrong because we changed our party.
Ripping out the poison of antisemitism, restoring trust on the economy, defence, and national security.
And becoming a party that, once again, stood proudly with, not against, our national flag.
The hard work of change was with a singular purpose.
Not power for power's sake but to change Britain for the better.
To build a fairer country, with dignity and respect, where everyone is seen, everyone is valued.
Wealth and opportunity for all, not just the privileged few.
And look at what we've achieved in just two years.
An economy that is stronger, growing faster than our peers.
Wages rising faster than inflation in every single month since we came to power.
Investment secured, infrastructure being built.
An end to austerity, with the fastest fall in NHS waiting lists for 17 years.
The biggest improvement in rights for workers and renters in a generation.
The biggest uplift in defence spending since the Cold War.
Small boat crossings falling, asylum hotels closing, protecting young people from social media, and half a million children being lifted out of poverty because of the choices that I made.
Our reputation in the world restored, with Britain once again standing up for decency, respect and the rule of law.
Securing trade deals, standing with Ukraine, standing up for our values, and rebuilding our relationship with our allies in Europe.
Change promised by a Labour government.
Change fought for by a Labour government, change delivered by a Labour government.
But I know the question being asked now is not who was best placed to change the Labour Party, to take us into power, and to begin the vital work of improving lives for millions of people.
Those questions have been answered.
The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election.
I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question.
And I accept that answer with good grace.
Every decision I've taken has been about putting the country I love first.
That is why I will resign as leader of the Labour Party.
I have spoken to His Majesty the King this morning to inform him of my decision.
I will ask the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party to set out a timetable with nominations opening on 9 July and completed by the summer recess.
In the case of a contest, this will ensure a new leader is in place before Parliament returns in September.
I will remain in post as Prime Minister until the contest is complete.
And I will do everything I can to ensure an orderly handover of power.
I will also give my successor my full and unequivocal support, knowing that they will inherit a Britain that is far stronger and fairer than the one I inherited two years ago, better prepared for the challenges ahead, and better able to ensure the Labour Party secures a second term in office.
I want to thank all of those friends and colleagues who have been at my side for these past six years or so for their incredible commitment, service and support.
I want to thank the brilliant No 10 staff and our country's extraordinary civil service, who dedicate their lives to public service.
And when I leave, the biggest job in the country.
I shall spend more time on the most important job.
Being the best husband I can to my fantastic wife, Vic, who has been a rock by my side, through good times and bad.
And being the best dad I can to my beautiful children, who are my pride and my joy.
On December 31, 1981, Rawlings, supported by lower-ranking soldiers, most of whom served in the Reconnaissance Regiment, seized power to cure what they said were deep-seated corruption and harsh economic situation.
Rawlings then established the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) to rule the country, dissolved parliament, and banned all political parties.
On January 21, 1982, Rawlings appointed a sixteen-member civilian government with a cabinet of secretaries and told them to "serve the people sacrificially."
The PNDC also assumed control of the Ministry of Defence.
The Rawlings regime further consolidated its power by promulgating PNDC Law 42, which suspended the constitution and gave the government wide powers over Ghanaian citizens.
On Monday, December 31, 2018, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), led by Mr Rawlings, held the 37th anniversary of the revolution.
It was held under the theme, “Deepening the Core Principles of Good Leadership for Political Governance”.
Read Mr Rawlngs’ full address below.
ADDRESS BY H.E.
JERRY JOHN RAWLINGS AT THE 37TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 31ST DECEMBER REVOLUTION MANDELA PARK, ASHAIMAN MONDAY 31ST DECEMBER 2018 Niimei, Naamei, Comrades, Invited Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen: Another year draws to a close in a few hours and as we take stock of 2018, we also remember events that led to the 31st December Revolution and the decade that changed Ghana’s history - a history that some have sought to distort for their selfish ends to the detriment of the future of many of our youth who have been fed on political half-truths and total falsehoods.
It is quite positive that some have taken it upon themselves to present the facts as they are and even develop them into theatre productions in a bid to tell the history through the arts.
I welcome you all to today’s durbar in Ashaiman.
Afiii ooo to all present.
Ladies and Gentlemen, tackling corruption at all levels of our society is an issue I never get tired of speaking about.
Corruption and indiscipline is a plague that we should take very seriously if we are to achieve true development in our country.
If we do not uproot the main stems of corruption in this country, soon we will also contribute to the consolidation of the evil of corruption.
We would have squandered another God-given opportunity to free this country and restore its soul and our humanity.
If the practice of multi-party democracy can work for Western powers, is there any reason why it shouldn’t work for us?
Could it be because of the influence and power that vices like untruthfulness, injustice and the general political immorality wields over the virtue of principles?
And yet these principles are very much a part of our black African culture.
If the same practice of multi-party democracy can bring the best or close to the best out of them, why does it bring the worst out of us?
And once again is it because we have elevated wrongdoing to an acceptable level where there is no outcry of condemnation and as a consequence we wholeheartedly embrace the corruption we are steadily breeding?
The simple answer is our refusal to liberate truth and justice.
To accord truth and justice the place of respect in our lives.
If injustice, lying, stealing and robbery can comfortably be used in our everyday lives by both the rulers and the ruled then we seem unaware of the serious consequences.
Events like today’s should be an avenue to confront the realities of our current political circumstances.
For political expediency and sheer fleeting personal comfort many of us have thrown out the true ideals behind the sacrifices of 31st December and June 4th.
The injustice, the corruption, the lying and the plain thievery that we experience and witness daily is only an expression of who we have become.
Within our own political family and of course on a national scale, liberating truth and justice is almost alien to us.
We may speak against it at public forums like this but many of us will go back and further perpetuate the negatives in their quest for political power and control.
We can never liberate our country with such a masquerade, Ladies and Gentlemen!
As we bemoan the lack of truth and justice in our daily lives, we have to confront some of the challenges that further aggravate our social, political, cultural and economic circumstances.
As many as 4.5 million West Africans from neighbouring countries have added unto our population.
This is the official figure.
The true figure however is likely to be three times more.
This has undoubtedly increased the stress on our space and resources.
Added to this, is the rampant stealing, robbery and brazen killings we are experiencing as a country.
Majority of Ghanaians do not have the luxury of engaging in the trading activities of some of our visitors or in their lawlessness, something that our police sometimes handle with kid gloves.
Ladies and Gentlemen, citizens of the developed world started working their way out of their poverty when they woke up to the consequences of lack of family planning.
Are we ever going to wake up to the realisation that the discipline and accountability that comes with family planning fosters development?
If we however start taking measures to re-engage the discipline of family planning as we did during the Revolution, what measures are we going to put in place to ensure that the space we toiled for is not taken over and consumed by non-Ghanaians, many of whom do not even carry the required ECOWAS identification cards?
Before I take my seat, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is important that I refer to one of the challenges that has affected the quality of integrity in our party.
Per the regulations of the NDC, every member is expected to pay a token annual fee to justify their membership.
Unfortunately, though we have millions who sympathise with the ideals of the party many prefer not to offer their widow’s mite to the successful management of the party.
This has resulted in a situation where a few individuals have constituted themselves into power brokers who dictate the direction of the party by holding it to ransom with their financial strength.
The vast majority of the party have become subservient to the dictates of these power brokers.
It is imperative that members own and actively participate in the activities of the party by contributing their widow’s mite at all levels.
We need to devise a mechanism that makes it attractive to pay our dues and levies.
In conscientizing members on their obligations, ease of payment, proper records, transparency and accountability should be embraced.
This will energise the base, deepen commitment and enhance the chances of winning elections.
Some senior members of the party are vying to lead the party to the next election.
In their messages to the rank and file, it is important that they inculcate the spirit of inclusiveness in the processes of the party.
The process should not be of how much your candidate can give you, but how committed you can be to your party.
Let us listen to ourselves in the choices we make.
Let us not allow material and monetary inducements to sway our judgement.
The power belongs to us.
Ladies and Gentlemen, one of the major challenges facing our world is the threat of global warming created by the emission of ‘greenhouse’ gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which then tend to trap heat, leading to the melting of glaciers in colder climates, rising sea levels, deterioration of our forests and the dwindling numbers of our wild life .
The rate at which global warming is rising threatens human existence.
The terrible heat we are experiencing is not by accident.
We contribute our bit through the reckless burning instead of responsible disposal of refuse.
Industries release large doses of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere with many making no effort to embrace more environmentally safer ways of production.
It is necessary that we do not look at some of these threats as problems belonging to other parts of the world.
The crisis is real and the earlier we educate ourselves on these issues and make individual choices to have a less polluted atmosphere the better it will be for our world.
I face a few dilemmas and I would very much have wished to share some of these concerns with you and to hear your opinions.
I will however end here by wishing all Ghanaians a Happy and Wonderful New Year.
Fellow countrymen and women, let me on your behalf say a big thank you to our soldiers and service personnel for the reward of the victory of that fateful June 4th.
I thank you all not only for June 4th but for 31st December as well, which pre-empted a repetition of another even bloodier June 4th because people felt betrayed by the elite and political leadership.
I have chosen to speak less and rather allow the force of observation and the pain of circumstances to serve as a stimulus in awakening all of us from the deep sleep we have fallen into over the past decades.
We must be reminded that we are a country borne out of difficult situations where some had to toil and shed their blood.
The positive disruptive force and energy of June 4th was not a product of any political movement or action.
The spontaneous eruption on that fateful day represented the unadulterated spirit of liberation that was collectively sought after, as a nation at the brink of collapse.
Nothing more has signified or exemplified the patriotism and resilience of Ghanaians than in those difficult moments.
Many were those who sacrificed their lives and livelihoods in order to bequeath to subsequent generations a more just society with equal opportunities for all, irrespective of their religion, tribe, ethnicity, political or educational status.
We must never forget our past nor erase the memories of where we came from.
Commemorations like this allow us to ponder, reflect and re-examine ourselves - our conduct and policies and to see if these have properly been aligned to our core values of probity, accountability, integrity and social justice.
The difficult times we faced in the past that propelled the engine of the revolution is almost parallel in hardship with the present era of Covid-19.
But the question is, do we have the same mental fortitude and integrity that would enable us to survive the circumstances of today’s trials?
History, it is often said, repeats itself whenever we refuse to learn most especially from adversities and volcanic and near bloody eruptions.
We have many dedicated and learned men and women who could provide leadership at various levels to the benefit of this country.
The very ordinary people in Ghana are not unwise about issues and developments in this country.
We are, however, as a learned group unable to bring the best out of our people.
The inability of our people to communicate with us in the administrative English language puts them at a disadvantage and makes them unable to demand accountability and transparency from us.
The spirituality and respect in the language of our culture evokes and demands integrity, accountability and transparency from us.
This, however, does not and cannot happen because the foreign and colonial language has been used opportunistically to intimidate and promote falsehood and degrade the essence and substance of our being.
Had we as a people carried our integrity and spirituality in our culture and language into the use of the administrative English language, a higher level of integrity would have been prevailing in Ghana and this continent and the quality of liberation would have enhanced our developmental efforts.
The material and immaterial corruption in this country would not have undermined our ability and capabilities to the extent where the authority of truth would have been so badly undermined by the corrupted truth of authority.
In other words, the authority of truthfulness should not be undermined by the words or supposed truths of those in positions of power or authority.
The morality and authority of truth is godly and divine and it should always supersede and override the truth of the authority of mortals.
We have so mastered the art of untruth in our books, on our radios, on our televisions and now through the Internet so much so that historical truths and facts are struggling to be recognized.
People are paid a lot of corrupt money to distort and lie about historical truths.
Is it any wonder that the precious lessons we should be learning are invariably lost on us?
And we end up committing the same blunders over and over.
The royal families of France and Russia were executed for their corrupt and unaccountable leadership.
The royal families who learnt their lessons from France and Russia embarked upon serious democratic reforms and that is why the royal family of England and other places in Europe have survived.
Instead of learning useful lessons from our not-too-distant past here in Ghana, some have made it their business to corrupt others to distort and wipe out our history.
These people with selfish, myopic and wicked motives have consistently re-presented a one-sided story of a history that should serve as a guide for the future and ensure that we do not make the same mistakes that led to the eruptions of the past.
Where have the distortions taken us?
What has the failure to tell the truth done to us?
Has it not brought us right back almost to where we started?
We have rather belittled the national psyche.
We could have been far richer, socially, culturally and economically, but for our negative desire to destroy the inspirational history that could have lifted us onto another pedestal.
When people shamelessly attempt to erase the truth, because they lack scruples, it rather perpetuates a state of corruption that derails all we have achieved while glorifying exploitation, perversion, dishonesty, immorality and criminality.
I have countless examples of the evil actions of some of our elite in perpetuating their own depraved reality.
More painful is the fact that while we expect some of these historical distortions to come from our natural opponents, some within our own political culture decided it was time to join the bandwagon and re-write the history that birthed our political culture.
Last year I spoke about how the intelligence machinery of the former Apartheid regime of South Africa used to pay treacherous characters in some of our countries.
They served as spies and helped to spread malicious disinformation.
Because the post-Apartheid leadership of South Africa has been silent about some of these traitors spread across the continent including Ghana, many of these characters are still doing some perfidious things.
I urge the South Africans to expose these Apartheid collaborators, some of whom parade in their countries as patriots after performing some unconscionable and extremely repulsive acts.
COVID-19 Ladies and Gentlemen, early this year the world was struck by a pandemic whose effects eventually affected every facet of our lives.
Despite the interventions from state institutions to alleviate the plight of the under-privileged there is still a lot to be done by all of us in our very own communities to support these groups of people.
The health force across the country some of whom have been infected with the virus, in the line of duty have taught us a sense of purpose, selflessness, commitment, dedication and patriotism.
I commend all health workers as well as all other frontline workers for proving equal to the task in this defining moment of ours.
Fellow compatriots, we have hurt our own by institutionalizing corruption for far too long; giving a little few the access to amass wealth at the risk of the livelihood of the ordinary citizens who are languishing in poverty and misery.
National monuments, groups, events, institutions and important state assets are labelled after some deserving individuals to inspire and direct subsequent generations on the good path they must emulate namely: courage, the spirit of patriotism, resilience and integrity.
In some instances, it serves as a crucial reminder for history’s defining moments.
In Ghana, these actions that subtly influence us are sometimes taken for granted.
Unsurprisingly, some important roads in Accra have been named after undeserving personalities.
Such actions are spite of the Ghana Armed Forces and an affront to many.
There are many distinguished African figures such as our own General Akuffo, Commodore Boakye, Admiral Amedume, Colonel Mensah Gbedemah, General Erskine, General Nunoo-Mensah, General Arnold Quainoo, Commodore Boakye, Brigadier Alphonse Kojo Kattah, Ayikwei Armah, Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe and a couple more who merit such honour.
In like manner, another administration desecrated the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum and rendered it a sheer family cemetery.
Ladies and gentlemen, our democracy is borne out of the fire and we must dearly and compassionately protect its flames.
One of the key institutional arms of this democratic discourse from pre-colonial to modern-day Ghana is the protection of right and choice.
We must endeavour as a nation to deepen the spirit of the consultative process, equity, respect for the rule of law or in simple terms, the tenet of democracy and multiparty democracy.
The Electoral Commission which is the fulcrum of our multiparty democracy must be supported and protected by all stakeholders; to ensure a free and fair election and a peaceful society.
That notwithstanding, it is equally important for that revered institution, EC, to ensure that the processes leading to this year’s elections are done in consultation with the stakeholders of the nation; to prevent unnecessary suspicion, and promote a peaceful and cohesive society.
An election is an event but, building a democratic, free and peaceful society is a process so the debate surrounding the new voter’s register must be thoroughly examined so we do not undermine the successes we have chalked so far, as a nation.
In addition, the constitutional mandate of the Electoral Commission must be respected by all.
While we work towards perfecting our electoral process, I urge you all to pursue and sustain our uniqueness as a country in the democratization process.
The sanctity of the right of choice is not a matter we can compromise with.
That sanctity must be preserved at all cost and as we inch towards November let us ensure that the institutional processes are transparent and beyond blemish.
Freedom and justice is not abstract.
It is very much related to the sanctity of the right of choice.
Those who are eligible to exercise that right of choice should not and cannot be disenfranchised by dictates that defeat one’s right to vote.
The sanctity of justice should be preserved and protected with all of us being subject to the practice of what is just.
An unjust society deepens the inequities that exist.