Ghana’s ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has vowed to win this year’s general elections despite alleged wrangling among its rank and file. The party said President John Kufuor’s leadership qualities and the level of development projects undertaken by the government would serve as a good track record on which to win the December elections. But the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says it has the popular support of Ghanaians and that President Kufuor’s has reneged on his promise to weed out corruption, which some have described as endemic in the country’s body politic.
Ken Agyepong is a ruling NPP party parliamentarian. He tells reporter Peter Clottey that the party’s goal is to continue the good work of President Kufuor by winning this year’s elections.
“We are going to win this election just that I don’t want complacency to set in. So we are going to work hard, we will not rest until we are declared the winner in 2008 December,” Agyepong noted.
He said President Kufuor’s leadership qualities are unparalleled to previous presidents.
“What President Kufuor has done for this country, I don’t think we can get any president within eight years to perform the way he has performed in this country. Even Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana’s first President) that I admire, I mean he did a lot for Ghana, but he had the resources. But when we took over, I remember Spio Garbrah (Ghana’s former information minister) saying that with all the promises NPP is making to Ghanaians, where are they going to get the money to do it? Which means there was no money in the coffers. And Professor Mills (Ghana’s former vice president) in one of his speeches admitted that when we were leaving office our foreign reserve was nearing depletion. And they left us with $ 340 million dollars. As I speak today, our foreign reserve today is $2.64 billion. In seven years we have increased it,” he said.
Agyepong said the government is doing a lot for the ordinary Ghanaian.
“Come and see the development that is going on in this country; roads, infrastructures, everything we are doing. So I’m surprised some people are saying Kufuor has not done well and therefore NPP is not going to win the elections. We are going to base our campaign on our track record, what we have done in the country and I know for sure we are going to win because NDC has no vision. They don’t know what they are talking about, they can only sit back and criticize,” Agyepong pointed out.
He denied the government has failed to live up to its promises.
“My brother it’s not true. In logic we call something fallacy of argumentum ad homonym. These guys are saying President Kufuor proven successful because of the goodwill that he has. My brother it is because of his prudent management that is why he has the goodwill the World Bank and the rest of the donor countries. Why didn’t they do that for the NDC? Because whatever given to them they embezzled it. All these monies that you are talking about we can show what we have done with these monies and Ghanaians have their monies worth. So I don’t buy that argument,” he maintained.
Agyepong said the government has managed Ghana resources better than previous governments.
“We have done well, we have utilized the monies well. And Ghanaians are seeing whatever monies we took and what we have done with it,” Agyepong said.
Meanwhile, the opposition NDC has also assured its supporters of a resounding victory in the December poll. The party urged all partisans to organize the party base for this year’s vote.