“You have every reason to be proud of the Party to which you belong, because we have a track record that is superior to any in the 4th Republic, if not, in the entire history of Ghana. We are putting Ghana back to work, and, most of all, we have shown that we have the people, the values, the skills, the commitment and the leadership to put Ghana onto a sustained path of progress and prosperity.”
These were the words of the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Tuesday, 18th February, 2020, at the 20th anniversary celebration of the Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) in Ho, in the Volta Region.
With his Government in the final year of its first term in office, President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that they “we have shown by every stretch of imagination to be better managers of the economy. Yes, we have performed better!!”
By dint of hard work and prudent management of the nation’s resources, he stated that the affairs of the nation have been steered away from the morass and economic mess inherited in 2017.
“We are no longer under the tutelage of the IMF, a situation in which our predecessors placed us. Ghana is projected, this year, by the IMF, to be one of the fastest-growing economies not just in Africa, but in the entire world. Indeed, all our macroeconomic indices are pointing in the right direction,” the President said.
He continued, “The NHIS is working, we have sanitized the banking sector, and ‘dumsor’ is a thing of the past. Ghana, as a result of our programme for Planting for Food and Jobs, has witnessed two bumper years of produce, and, last year, we did not import, unlike in previous years, a single grain of maize. On the contrary, we are now a net exporter of food stuffs, and food prices are at their lowest in decades.”
In addressing the issues of unemployment, President Akufo-Addo stated that, 100,000 graduates have been put to work. Again, a total of 54,892 health workers, and 67,000 teachers have been employed.
“We have embraced the application of digital technology in the delivery of public services, like the paperless clearance system at the ports, the mobile interoperability payment system, and the national digital property address system,” he said.
The allowances of nursing and teacher trainees that were scrapped by the Mahama government, he stressed have been restored, and Government has fulfilled the 1-Constituency-1-Ambulance promise.
“Free SHS, which was described as an impossibility and a misplaced priority by our opponents, has been successfully implemented. 1.2 million Children, the highest enrolment of pupils in Senior High School in our history, are benefitting from the policy, which has been hailed all over the nation,” he added.
In addition to superintending over the successful reorganisation of the country’s regional governance structure, resulting in the creation of six (6) new regions, with strong popular support, President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that “on the global stage, the image and reputation of our country, which had been compromised, are now high.”
The President, however, stressed that “having achieved all these significant milestones, even in the midst of the difficulties we met, I am prayerful that the Ghanaian people would reward the NPP with another resounding victory in 2020. We cannot, however, afford to be complacent. We have to work hard for victory, regardless of the fact that ‘One Good Term Deserves Another’. The Battle is still the Lord’s.”
Help keep NPP in power
To members of TESCON, President Akufo-Addo urged them to help keep the NPP in power, “and help ensure that we raise the standards of living of our people, and change irreversibly the face of our nation.”
He added that “we have signed a contract with the Ghanaian people to unleash their enterprise and creativity in order to take into their own hands the manifest destiny of our Ghana, our beloved Ghana, united in her diversity and in her attachment to freedom, the Black Star of hope and beacon of progress.”
The President continued, “So, go out there, spread the word, win hearts and minds. I urge all of you to believe in our capacity to achieve the greatness that others have achieved. We must believe in Ghana and do what is right by our nation, and thereby fulfil the dreams and aspirations of those far-sighted individuals, who assembled at Saltpond on that most seminal of days of 4th August 1947, to initiate the steps for our national freedom and independence.”
