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My distinguished ladies and gentlemen, who here can deny that the election is about the leadership and qualities that the Presidential candidate will bring to bear on the state of affairs of this country? Who can tell me that leadership, character and decency are mutually exclusive? It is not for nothing that our electoral rules insist that the parties indicate who is going to be their Presidential candidate before the elections are held. Otherwise they would just ask the parties to go for elections and after the elections they will decide on who is going to be the leader of the party. I bring to the table my core values of truth, honesty and humility. I will lead a government that is decent, truthful, honest and caring, to mend the broken trust between elected officials and the people of this country. Due to political partisanship over the years, our country has become polarised. Indeed, if you do not belong to the ruling party, you are discriminated against. Let me say this, I Atta Mills will be President not only of the NDC but of all the people of Ghana. Once the elections are over we should all be united in a common cause with a common objective. There is no need to make any distinction. Ladies and gentlemen, I have said before that this country is not short of blueprints and plans for development. The problem is with implementation, which is easily traceable to leadership. Sometimes we lack the political will. There are instances where we have beautiful promises but we over-state the successes. Sometimes, even before policies are implemented or before they finish the implementation, government ministers rush to announce successes just to score cheap political points. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, good governance means fairness. Indeed leadership must strive for the common good. I will not rig the economy to benefit my relations, my family, my close friends and members of my party. Indeed those of us who subscribe to the social democracy theory believe that it is the responsibility of the government to take care of those who are underprivileged and marginalised because as you can see these fingers are not equal and we believe that we should be each other’s keeper. Those on the other side also insist that it should be the survival of the fittest. They say we should have each man for himself and God for us all. We 2
consider this unacceptable. Even more unacceptable to us, is the statement that it is each man for himself and God for us, the selective few. My brothers and sisters, fairness is being gradually lost in our society. When we were in power, we implemented a policy where, if there were funds in the Road Fund, we would equally distribute them to contractors whom we owed so that they could keep their businesses on the road. That was fairness. What do we see now? The discrimination that is going on in our society! Distinguished ladies and gentlemen; it is my candid view that government should be a tool in the service of the people. It should not be an instrument to aid people to loot state coffers or acquire illegal wealth. That is why I have said and repeat that Atta Mills will crack the whip when any of my appointees crosses the line or does anything that smacks of illegality and corruption. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, good governance also means that the government must be alive to its responsibilities. The government must solve ordinary problems confronting the people; the government must be interested in the welfare of people and what it’s going to achieve will inure to the common good. We have some problems in this country. Water is a rare commodity. You are lucky if water runs through your tap continuously for one week. It will be a miracle. Electricity supply is as erratic as ever and yet nobody seems to be doing anything. It is pathetic to see children and women walk long distances to fetch water. A government that is caring must be interested in solving these many problems. There are other matters of concern. When you go round our country especially in the cities, you see structures springing up. They are developing urban slums. Do we have structural or zoning laws? If we do are we enforcing them? And I will suggest that we involve the transport sector to synchronise our activities. My brothers and sisters, the global economic crisis is causing additional hardship for the people of this country and any government must be interested in this. The India example is worth looking at where austerity 3
Page 1 and 2: Delivering On Your Promises: IEA Gh
Page 3 and 4: The Institute of Economic Affairs (
Page 5 and 6: PREFACE The Institute of Economic A
Page 7: 1. AN EVENING ENCOUNTER WITH PRESID
Page 11 and 12: HIV/AIDS. Indeed, about a week ago
Page 13 and 14: ated with its production and distri
Page 15 and 16: ing glory to the efforts by the GNP
Page 17 and 18: QUESTION AND ANSWER SECTION Matilda
Page 19 and 20: youth, who are the future. Here we
Page 21 and 22: Now you ask about the language we a
Page 23 and 24: teaching will no longer be taken in
Page 25 and 26: It tells you that where you have a
Page 27 and 28: Ernest Owusu Aboagye, Pharmaceutica
Page 29 and 30: their full dignity. We have a lot o
Page 31 and 32: of you come to me under cover of da
Page 33 and 34: Harry Williams: Prof. you spoke ext
Page 35 and 36: Akwasi Sarpong, JOY FM: Prof Mills,
Page 37 and 38: know that it is not the state’s d
Page 39 and 40: Indeed we have cases where there is
Page 41 and 42: what you are saying. That is what m
Page 43 and 44: teachers, the teacher is at the cen
Page 45 and 46: issue if we think that NHIS alone i
Page 47 and 48: get enough. We’ve already said th
Page 49 and 50: As a young lecturer I used to think
Page 51 and 52: • We look at the judiciary - is t
Page 53 and 54: Dr. Nduom that the time has come wh
Page 55 and 56: Prof. Mills: I have two. I would ha
Page 57 and 58: Question: According to the 2000 Pop
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Prof. Mills: I will say that afford
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Question: You have each touched on
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There is the perception that we are
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with you. You may have heard our di
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THE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS I
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