ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
The relief and excitement on the faces of the graduates are apparent.
I can feel the excitement with which they want to re-unite with their families and to resume normal life.
But, there is nothing normal with our lives these days.
The novel Coronavirus situation has changed our pattern of lifestyle and it is important that we learn to adjust to this new reality.
The new normal.
I have noticed with satisfaction the change of venue and the stringent measures put in place for this ceremony to ensure safety.
I am also aware of the many directives from the Military High Command over the last five months that effectively complemented Government’s response to the pandemic aimed at protecting our troops and families.
Indeed, the role of the Ghana Armed Forces during this global crisis has brought to the limelight the many roles of the Military during peace time.
I therefore wish to use this opportunity to commend the rank and file of the Armed Forces and other security services for their steadfastness and professionalism in the execution of OP COVID SAFETY.
Let me add quickly that we are not out of the woods yet.
I urge all our troops, our families and the general public to continue to stick to the directives issued and adhere strictly to the protocols outlined as part of the national response to the pandemic.
GRADUATES Now to the graduates.
Undoubtedly, this occasion will remain memorable to you and your loved ones who are not here but share in your toils and joy.
In the same vein, those of us here share in your success and achievements.
This day marks the culmination of months of sustained and focused academic work as well as exercises that have brought the best out of you and also put to the test, your physical and mental endurance.
I am reliably informed that this is a period during which most of you come to terms with your innate qualities and potentials and the prospects of shouldering higher responsibilities.
It is only appropriate that we share with you your success and achievement.
It would be recalled that during the graduation ceremony for Course 40 last year, I stated that the Staff College is a prime national asset.
It is gratifying to note the prestigious space the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College continue to occupy as a Centre of Excellence on the African continent when it comes to the training of Middle and Senior Level Officers for Staff, Command and Leadership roles for the Ghana Armed Forces, the Armed Forces of sister African countries and Allied Security Institutions.
Many products of this prestigious Institution have risen to the very top of different establishments in various countries.
We are therefore not surprised that requests for vacancies from our sister African countries for their officers to be trained at this College continue to rise.
From the Commandant’s Report, Course 41 has 26 Allied officers from 11 sister African countries.
It is heartwarming to note that authorities of the College continue to strengthen such regional and international connections.
These linkages are very relevant in responding to bi-lateral, sub-regional and continental defence and security issues.
To our Allied officers, on your return to your home establishments, I am optimistic that due to already established precedence you may see yourselves elevated and appointed to positions of authority and influence in your respective countries.
In this connection, let me remind you that the acquaintances and networks established here in GAFCSC are fundamental in engaging your course mates on matters of national and international strategic significance.
As a result, I urge you to maintain and sustain these cordial relationships at both the personal and professional levels in order to enhance your career accomplishments.
To my Ghanaian officers, you are returning to your units and into appointments that will require you to place the knowledge you acquired here at the disposal of all.
It is our expectation that you will in your own way become one of the lead agents in the ongoing transformation agenda of the Ghana Armed Forces, and indeed, of the Government’s agenda to build a versatile and technologically savvy professional Armed Forces .
To all the graduates, I charge you to maintain the networks you have developed with each other and your lecturers in order that your respective countries will continue to have a cohesive security architecture through you as field commanders.
From the Commandant’s report, I noticed that the COVID-19 restrictions denied you networking opportunities with expatriate facilitators from Cranfield University, United Kingdom, especially for your modular packages in Defence Management Course, the Conflict and Crises Management Course, the Peace Operations Course and the Counter Terrorism/Counter Improvised Explosive Devices Package.
It is gratifying to know that we had local subject matter experts who expertly filled the gaps and gave as much to your benefit.
As in many areas, COVID-19 is compelling us to dig deep into our own resources.
I trust that some of them were revelations of hidden talents, and believe that the contacts you have with them should be exploited to the benefit of your respective countries.
I am also aware that for obvious reasons, your Course was unable to embark on the Africa Study Tour in April as part of the Experiential Learning package.
However, I note with satisfaction, as reported by the Commandant, that through your resourcefulness, you were able to do online research and virtual interviews that enabled you to submit quality work with sound recommendations.
I do assure you that these recommendations and those of your Regional Study Tour will find expression in Government policy in respect of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the handling of the six-newly created regions in the country.
I entreat the Regional Coordinating Councils to continue to support the College during the tours of their respective regions in the future.
Despite these COVID-19 induced limitations, I am glad to note the support the United Kingdom (UK) government extended to the College through the sponsorship of the Defence Management and the Conflict and Crises Management Courses as well as the Counter Terrorism/Counter Improvised Explosive Devices package.
We are most grateful for this gesture.
Our gratitude also goes to the German Government for the sponsorship of the Peace Operations Course in collaboration with the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre.
I must also commend the Government of the United Kingdom for the sponsorship of officers from sister African countries on courses at the College.
For Course 41, the UK Government sponsored 10 such officers and we are most grateful for the opportunity you continue to offer our officers to network and to cross-fertilise ideas.
For the civilians who pursued the Master of Science in Defence and International Politics programme, I urge you to reflect the values of time management, leadership and the sense of duty you have acquired here as you return to your respective institutions and organisations.
You remain ambassadors of this renowned Institution and you owe it as a responsibility to the College to ensure that the knowledge you have gained here will manifest in your work environment and in whatever sphere of life you find yourselves.
May I now express my gratitude to the various institutions who continue to lend the needed support to the College that enables it to keep pace in its reputation as a Centre of Excellence.
The outstanding role of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) in providing direction and mentorship to the College is very much acknowledged.
Let me once again express my appreciation to the Chairman of the Governing Board, the Rector and his staff for their tireless effort in this regard.
It is my hope that the relationship between your two institutions will be a good example to other institutions in the country.
I am also informed that other partners who have supported the College include the Ghana Maritime Authority, Ghana Shippers Authority, the Forestry Commission and the CDH Group.
I wish to express my profound gratitude to you all for your kind gestures.
During my address at the 2019 Joint Graduation Ceremony for Course 40 of the College, I pledged to ensure that funds are made available for the completion of the students’ accommodation.
I am glad to note that the construction of the 54-Unit residential accommodation funded through the GET-Fund is near completion.
As mentioned in the Commandant’s report, these facilities have enabled the College to expand its intake at both the Junior and Senior Divisions by additional 10 students each and to accommodate other sister security services who join the College for modular courses.
Let me assure High Command of Government’s desire to continue to support infrastructural development in the College in particular and the Ghana Armed Forces in general.
The retooling of the three Services is very paramount in our quest to modernise the operations of the Armed Forces and allied security services to support national development.
To the graduates, you have earned your certificates through your measure of hard work.
But I believe you have also been transformed as great actors at the operations level.
And ready to showcase your knowledge and understanding of strategic thinking.
You have also been equipped with the great analytical, communication, leadership and managerial skills to operate smoothly in your next higher appointments.
These are qualities and skills that would help you achieve the highest standards in today’s multifaceted defence, security and global political arena.
The ultimate goal therefore of obtaining a ‘pass staff college’ (psc) symbol and a Master of Science in Defence and International Politics (MDIP) degree from this revered Institution should therefore be of immense pride to any officer of the Armed Forces, other security services, Ministries, Departments, Agencies and related organizations.
I extend my sincere congratulations to all of you, graduates of Senior Command and Staff Course 41 and the MDIP Class of 2020 for diligently applying yourselves to your studies and emerging victorious.
As I commend all of you for your sterling performances on the course, I wish to take the opportunity to congratulate all the award winners especially Major K. A Appau for winning the Honour Graduate Award.
Be reminded that winning the awards place additional responsibilities on you.
Your work output should be unquestionable and should at all times justify your award.
This recognition should encourage you to work harder to achieve greater laurels in the future.
To my Allied officers, I say “Congratulations” for being such worthy ambassadors of your respective countries.
The relationship between your countries and Ghana has been strengthened by your participation on this very important course.
We are optimistic that these relationships would be strengthened through your continuous participation on the Command and Staff Course in Ghana.
It is my firm conviction that you have formed constructive impressions about our people and culture during the one year that you have been with us.
I trust that as our goodwill ambassadors, you will extend the good wishes of our humble and hospitable people to your people, your Armed Forces and to your governments.
I wish all of you safe journey back home and happy re-union with your families and loved ones.
You are always welcome to Ghana which has now become your second home.
May I, at this stage, through you the graduates, extend my congratulations to your spouses for the sacrifices they made over the period of your studies.
Surely, they cannot be left out of the success story of this day, having ensured that you had the peace of mind to pursue the course and that there was stability at home while you focused on achieving this great feat.
We should celebrate them.
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I wish to express my sincerest gratitude to the Minister for Defence and the Staff College Control Board for their commitment, dedication and the direction they continue to give the College.
I urge them to remain innovative and resourceful as they have done in the past to meet the challenges of contemporary defence management.
I am also profoundly grateful to the Commandant, and past Commandants and Staff for projecting the image of the College to this enviable status.
Let us continue to translate this sense of selflessness into our national lives.
I thank all those who were engaged in the planning and execution of this impressive ceremony.
Finally, to our Distinguished Guests who graced this graduation with your presence, I wish you safe journey back home.
God Bless our homeland Ghana
REMARKS DELIVERED BY VICE PRESIDENT MAHAMUDU BAWUMIA AT THE 2021 NPP NATIONAL ANNUAL DELEGATES CONFERENCE, KUMASI Kukrudu!
Kukrudu!!
Kukrudu!!!
The National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Hon.
Freddie Blay, Your Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Your Excellency, Former President John Agyekum Kufuor, Members of the National Council of the NPP, Honourable Ministers of State, Majority Leader, Honourable Members of Parliament, Distinguished Elders of our Party, Chiefs and Traditional Leaders, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, National, Regional, Constituency, and Polling Station Executives, Rank and file of the great Kukrudu Family, Representatives of other political parties, Members of the Media, Assalamu Alaikum!
This is our first annual delegates conference since the 2020 election.
Congratulations to each and everyone of us for our victory.
My thanks to everyone including our footsoldiers, polling station executives, electoral area coordinators, constituency executives, regional executives, and national executives and party supporters who in diverse ways worked so hard for this victory; those who were in the markets, those who went door to door, those who contributed resources, those who manned the polling stations, those who collated our results, those who secured our pink sheets, and so on.
Ayekoo to all of you!
Interestingly, the NDC decided to challenge our victory at the Supreme Court.
However, rather than mounting a serious effort, they rather went there to tell us that they were given tea without biscuits!
You remember that when we went to the Supreme Court after the 2012 election we presented over 10,000 pink sheets.
We told the Court that we were relying on the data contained in the Pink Sheets because “You and I were not there”.
When Asiedu Nketia went to the Supreme Court he said rather surprisingly that they were not there to challenge the results!
And when they asked him for the pink sheets he said and I paraphrase “My Lords the pink sheets are not there”.
The Supreme Court told them that 'no pink sheet no case.'
Their case was fundamentally incompetent.
So bottom line is that they had no evidence to challenge our victory notwithstanding all the noise they made to deceive their members.
Kukrudu!
It is very important to remind ourselves that our party and the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition was built on the patriotism, strategic thinking, actions, dedication, sacrifices and accomplishments of such great political icons of our country and party such as Dr.
Danquah, Chief S.D.
Dombo, Baffuor Osei Akoto, Edward Akufo-Addo, Mr.
William Ofori Atta, Alhaji Yakubu Tali, Tolon Naa, Obetsebi Lamptey, Prof.
Busia, Jato Kaleo, Naa Abayifa Karbo, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, C.K.
Tedam, S.G.
Antor, Albert Adu-Boahen, R.R.
Amponsah, J.B.
Da Rocha, J.H.
Mensah, J.A.
Kufuor and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Without them, we would not be here.
We are also indebted to so many men and women who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice for our party and country on a daily basis most of whom may not have gotten outward recognition.
Chairman, it is our collective responsibility, as members of the great Kukrudu family and as Ghanaians, to ensure that the sacrifices of these great men and women have not been in vain.
They have built and handed over to us a party and a tradition that we must always treasure.
We have a charge to continue this great legacy.
We have worked hard as a government under the leadership of H.E.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and are committed to continuing to serve the good people of Ghana.
Protecting our efforts, vision and legacy means we necessarily have to break the eight as we have termed it.
In this regard, let us all be aware that breaking the eight will not be easy.
It has not been done before in our history but I believe that if we are united, we will break the eight.
Our success will depend on how well we conduct ourselves going forward; a strong united party with a focus on highlighting our successes while countering the desperate, misleading and misguided NDC propaganda.
Rather than taking down each other, we must focus on taking down the NDC who will be a disaster for this country.
The NPP has a solid record of achievement in the Fourth Republic.
Our party has become the most important driver of the Ghanaian vision and development agenda.
We have been responsible for the most important policies which touch every Ghanaian in every corner of our nation, the NHIS, the school feeding program, the free antenatal services, the Free SHS, the free TVET program etc.
As we meet here today at Conference, we are reminded that it is the party that birthed the government.
Thus, strengthening party-government relations is key to our collective success.
I believe that Insha Allah we will be able to break the eight because our record is a superior record.
Whether we are talking about agriculture, industry, roads, housing, education, health, transformational policies like digitalization, social interventions and so on the comparison between us and the NDC will be like night and day.
Can you remember any transformational policy implemented by the NDC in their last 8 years in Government?
Can you remember any social intervention implemented by the NDC in their last eight years in government to reduce the suffering of Ghanaians?
KUKRUDU!
It is important to acknowledge that we in the NPP have not solved all the problems facing Ghanaians but we have solved many problems and we have a plan we are working to.
After all, we are only in the first year of a four year mandate which was given to us at the end of last year.
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the cost of living virtually everywhere in the world including countries like the US, UK, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Cote d’Ívoire, etc.
and Ghana has similarly been affected.
Nevertheless, it is important to remind ourselves that notwithstanding the global economic adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on economic growth, debts and deficits, at the macroeconomic level, Inflation in Ghana today at 12.2% is lower than it was in 2016 (15.4%) Average Bank lending rates in Ghana today (21%) are much lower than they were 2016 (32%).
According to the Bank of Ghana, the average exchange rate depreciation over the last four years (7.3%) is the lowest for any first term government since 1992.
The year 2020 recorded one of the lowest rate of depreciation in the last 28 years.
The cumulative exchange rate depreciation of 2.6% in November 2021 the year is lower than 9.7% depreciation recorded in 2016.
For the first time in over two decades, the trade balance (the difference between what we export and what we import) recorded a surplus for four consecutive years from 2017-2020.
Gross International Reserves are at $10.8 billion (4.9 months of import cover compared to $6.9 billion (3.5 months of import cover) in 2016 Our record of creating jobs (over 750,000 jobs) is vastly superior to the record of the NDC government which froze public service recruitment.
So if our performance on the key macroeconomic indicators (inflation, interest rates, depreciation, external reserves, trade balance and jobs) during the worst global pandemic in 100 years is better than your performance without such a pandemic how can you say your economic management is better?
The changes we are making as a party in government are historic and we are building on the distinguished legacy of President J.A.
Kufuor.
Ours is a government that is thinking outside the box to transform Ghana.
Under the leadership of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo: For the first time in our history, Ghana has successfully issued a digital National ID card For the first time in our history, Ghana has implemented a Digital Property Address system For the first time in our history, Ghana has Mobile Money Interoperability For the first time in our history, any Ghanaian who has a National ID card can open a bank account using their mobile phone For the first time in our history, over 80% of adults in Ghana have Tax Identification Numbers versus 4% in 2017 For the first time in our history, Ghana has drones for medical delivery and is the world’s largest medical drone delivery service.
For the first time in our history Ghana is implementing One district one district hospital (AGENDA 111).
By the end of our second term we would have built more hospitals than any government in our history.
For the first time in our history Ghana is implementing One district one factory – Our government has facilitated the establishment of more factories than any other government since independence.
For the first time in our history, Ghana has Paperless clearing of goods at the ports We have digitized the process of passport acquisition For the first time in our history, Ghana has digitized the process of drivers license acquisition For the first time in our history, Ghana has implemented the Ghana.Gov platform.
A one stop shop for public service delivery For the first time in our history, Ghanaians can renew their NHIS membership from their mobile phones For the first time in our history, Ghanaians can apply for scholarships on their mobile phones For the first time in our history, Ghanaian students can apply for student loans without the need for a guarantor For the first time in our history, Government is implementing a pension scheme for cocoa farmers For the first time in our history, Ghanaians and law enforcement can find out the insurance status of any vehicle on their mobile phone using the Motor insurance database For the first time in our history, Ghanaians were provided free electricity for life line consumers for a year during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic For the first time in our history, Ghanaians were provided 50% reduction in electricity tariffs for non-life line consumers for a year during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic For the first time in our history, Ghanaians were provided free water for a year during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic For the first time in our history import duties on all goods were reduced by between 30%-50% For the first time in our history, Government has provided Free Wifi to over 700 senior high schools, 42 colleges of education and 13 public universities For the first time in our history, Ghanaian pensioners can obtain their SSNIT pension 10 days after making an application.
For the first time in our history, Ghana is implementing a Nationwide E-Pharmacy which I will launch next week.
We will be one of a few countries in the world to have a nationwide E-Pharmacy.
For the first time in our history, Government, has implemented a One Constituency One Ambulance programme For the first time in our history, Government has established a Zongo Development Fund We have built more roads in our first term than the first term of any government in the Fourth Republic and we are continuing.
For the first time in our history, we are implementing Free TVET and have established the Ghana TVET service For the first time in our history, our Government has implemented Free SHS and confounded the naysayers.
And by the Grace of God, for the first time in the history of the Fourth Republic, we will break the 8!
The future is bright for the youth and for Ghana, so lets stay with the elephant.
God Bless the NPP and God bless our homeland Ghana.
KUKRUDU!!!