I Stand for Nana 2016

Season's Greetings to you all...the CHANGE is here

REACTION from our incoming president of Ghana,
Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on the Paris attack;
I received news of the terrorist attacks in Paris, which have left at least 153 people dead so far and several hundreds injured, with utter shock and sadness. I join the rest of the world in sympathising with the families of the dead and the injured.
I wish to condemn, unreservedly, these insane and cowardly acts. No religion or ideology justifies the killing of innocent people, and the world must stand up together against all the atrocities that go on around the world in a twisted understanding of religion or ideology.
President François Hollande and the French people need to be assured with deeds, not just words, that the world stands with France and stands ready to support them in the necessary fight against such evil.
Once again, I send my deepest sympathies to the affected families.

Fellow Ghanaian,

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Thank you and GOD BLESS

A NEW GHANA HAS ARRIVED

Last night, our president in waiting attended a church service held at the Osu Ebenezer Presbyterian Church for victims of last week's flood.

RESCUE GHANA...SUPPORT NANA 2016....

Interview: Ghana is bankrupt and back in the hands of the IMF - Akufo-Addo
By Billie Adwoa McTernan and Patrick Smith in Accra

It is early in the morning on a public holiday, but opposition presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo is already ensconced with advisers at his house and campaign headquarters.
The compound, its gates emblazoned in bright red and blue election posters for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), reminds everyone that Ghana's presidential elections are less than 18 months away.
Akufo-Addo's family home – with its exquisite ebony furniture, vivid tableaux by Ghanaian artists and intricate African sculptures – is an impressive structure on a generous plot in an area of Accra known as Nima Presidential.
The name, given by locals, distinguishes this street of elegant villas from the other Nima: an adjacent and sprawling working-class conurbation whose people are feeling the full effect of rising prices, wage freezes and power cuts.
It may also help Akufo-Addo, the scion of one of Ghana's leading political families, to keep it real. A few yards from his house, traders are eking out a living selling sachets of 'pure water' and scratch cards for cellphone credit.
These are exactly the people, he insists, who will benefit from his policies of free, universal secondary education and a determined state-led policy to industrialise Ghana.
This morning, the talk is of events in Nigeria. Akufo-Addo and his party see the victory of General Muhammadu Buhari and the main opposition party in credible elections in April as holding import- ant lessons for Ghana's upcoming presidential contest.
There are clear parallels. Both Akufo-Addo and Buhari ran for the presidency multiple times, with their ever-loyal supporters arguing they were cheated of victory, and both men are political veterans in their seventies.
They both say their countries are drifting, suffering from an economic and moral malaise, and their people are losing out to the high-flying economies of Asia.
Akufo-Addo's team is already dissecting Buhari's success. Nigerian opposition activists mobilised their supporters to register and protect their votes and then, together with civic activists, organised their own parallel vote count to guard against political interference in the vote count and results.
"I think there are some obvious things we're going to have to look at," Akufo-Addo tells The Africa Report. "That grassroots organisation associated with mobile technology is not very big around here."
Buhari's decision to declare his assets publicly ahead of the election reinforced his anti-corruption credentials. Would Akufo-Addo be willing to do the same?
"Personally, I would. I can't speak for the views of my col- leagues, but I think it is a debate that we're going to have long before the election. We should not be grandstanding.
"Let the parliament have a look at this to decide the is- sues of disclosure and confidentiality so that it isn't just an example that's set by one or two people but an obligation that covers all office holders," he explains.
In Nigeria, Attahiru Jega, the academic who chaired the electoral commission, insisted on a new electoral register and the use of biometric cards. In Ghana, the situation is muddier.
This year, the veteran chair of the electoral commission, Kwadwo Afari Gyan, hands over to a successor appointed by President John Mahama.
The biggest issue that the commission's new chair will face is whether to organise a new voters' register. Oppositionists and civic activists say the current one contains millions of extra names.
There are more than 14 million names on the list for a population of 25 million with a median age of about 18. Should the commission reject the calls for a new electoral register, Akufo-Addo and his party are planning to step up the pressure.
Economic conditions have deteriorated sharply in Ghana over the past two years.
The government's accord in April with the International Monetary Fund for a nearly $1bn loan is seen by many as a reversion to the bad old days, while complaints of grand corruption are legion.
The campaign trail will again test Akufo-Addo's pragmatism and stamina to the limit. Almost certainly it will be his final – and perhaps best starred – run for the presidency.
The opposition victory in Nigeria may have been a fillip to his campaign, but his team are already talking of the political fight of their lives. ●

The Africa Report: How serious is Ghana's economic crisis and who is responsible?
Nana Akufo-Addo: The government in power today has received more resources – from loans, increasing tax revenues, receipts from exports – than any other government in the 60-year period of our national existence. Indeed more than probably three or four of them put together. Yet here we are, wallowing in corruption.
No serious effort has been made to tackle the structural problems confronting our nation, whether in governance or the management of our economy. No one seems to have a clear idea of what's happened to all of this money.
The economy, four or five years ago, was considered the rising star of Africa. Ghana – everybody's favourite African country – was on the verge of take off but is now bankrupt and back in the hands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), begging for a billion dollars to sustain it over the next two or three years.
It's a very sorry tale: mismanagement and widespread corruption have brought us to where we are now. So, if really we're serious about going forward, we've got to be able to convince our population that we have the policies to do so.
And I'm very keen that we should have the wherewithal, the political will and the technical capability to deal with corruption and mismanagement in our country.
Do you support the government borrowing from the IMF?
It's a very sad development in our country.
We worked very hard to rid ourselves of IMF dependency. The sooner we find a way to govern ourselves intelligently and honestly, the better it will be.
It's a very sorry tale: mismanagement and widespread corruption have brought us to where we are now.
If we don't have the capacity to accept the dictates and the discipline of the [IMF] programme, it will just be another programme.
No one seems to know the terms of the IMF loan. Why has your party not demanded a full debate in parliament about it?
We're the opposition, and it's our prime responsibility to demand parliamentary scrutiny. But the full ramifications of the [IMF] deal have never been put before parliament. The oversight capability of our parliament is a problem because of the distribution of powers between the legislature and the executive.
Our parliament doesn't have any control over the exchequer. Money bills are all the function of the executive. No member of parliament has a right to bring a money bill without the authorisation of the minister of finance.
I believe our parliament should be like all parliaments: the final authority and the final control [over] the exchequer. These are very important constitutional reforms that will have to be made.
Are you committed to making those reforms if you win the election next year?
That is absolutely where my thinking is. There's a lot of input that is going to be made in Ghana if we're going to have a parliament that has genuine independent oversight capability.
What is your plan to tackle corruption?
We're looking for a system where the prosecutor and the investigator have a much more symbiotic relationship, perhaps to have a system of special prosecutors who work much more closely with the police.
That can come out of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). If there's any institutional rethinking that can be done, it will be to break CHRAJ into two distinct entities: its ombudsman and human rights surveillance capacity on one hand and its anti-corruption and investigative capacity on the other.
It may be that we need to do that and then give the anti-corruption wing of it the teeth to do not just investigation but also prosecution.
How do you respond to the criticism that your party is too conservative and restrained, and can't mobilise people on the streets?
The NPP is quite robust in mobilising public opinion. About a month ago probably the greatest demonstration in Ghanaian history took place right here [in Accra], followed by a massive rally. Another one is going to be mobilised.
We are very keen on making sure that the world, and especially the government, is made fully aware of the feelings of our people. Within the ambit of our constitution, we will continue to agitate.
There's part of the image of the NPP which is a good one, which is that we are within the rule of law. I don't think that it is an image that has prevented us from being able to articulate the concerns of the masses of people.
Your opponents say your party depends overwhelmingly on support from the Eastern and Ashanti Regions, that it is too reliant on the Akan vote. What's your response?
It's a propaganda weapon that serves them well, but it has nothing to do with reality. The idea that somehow or other we are confined to these two regions and we have no grassroots support – that's rubbish.
The country was 50-50 [in the 2008 and 2012 elections], so how do you then say that a party that is capable of winning 50% of the popular vote is in some way some small, narrow elitist party?
Historically, your party is on the right. But many of your policies for a proactive state have a leftist, even an Nkrumahist, tinge.
These are the policies that have developed Korea and Japan. My understanding is that the United States was the first country to have free secondary education. It's difficult to call America a country on the left. These are tools of development.
We're looking for the critical things to bring sustainable development. Education clearly has to be a high priority in all of this.
You couldn't build a modern economy with a mass of illiterate and ill-educated people. I don't see this as Nkrumahist or leftist. I'm not advocating state enterprises for Ghana. On the contrary, I think enterprise, if properly motivated, is the way forward for our country.
What is your modernisation strategy? Do you favour an industrial policy?
As far as I'm concerned, the three key things that allowed the economies of Asia to develop were modernising agriculture and having a clear industrial policy. And thirdly, rationalising the financial sector so that it can support growth in agriculture, growth in manufacturing and industry. That is the only way we can build a resilient and self-sufficient economy.
Which would you prioritise – democracy or development?
I don't accept that trade-off. I was a member of President John Kufuor's government. What he inherited in 2001 and where he left it in 2009 was a radical transformation of Ghana's economy. And this was with an open political system, separation of powers, respect for human rights, the whole pantheon of ideas and goals for a democratic system.
Because there was a purposeful attitude towards the development of the economy, the correct policies, maintaining fiscal and financial discipline and promoting private sector development, we had this rapid development of the economy. If we had continued from there, Ghana would have made the breakthrough and then we'd be on the other side of the equation.
In our balance of payments, 80% of our foreign receipts are from the export of raw materials: we can give ourselves a target that says in 10 years we're going to change that balance so it's 50% and that industrial and value-added exports will make up the other 50%. Another decade perhaps will take us to 70%/30%.
I don't believe that the Ghanaian people are interested in an authoritarian option. We've been through the one-party state. We've had military rule, 30 or 40 years of it, and we're very clear in our mind that is not the way we want to go.
The evidence shows that more countries have developed through the democratic state as opposed to the authoritarian state. You also recognise that most countries turn on their authoritarian states at some point. Singapore is one example and then South Korea.
Do you believe there is a capitalist class in Ghana or are they just business cronies of the government of the day?
The mainstay of the Ghanaian economy has been cocoa – the production and export of cocoa– and that has been a wholly indigenous enterprise based on small-scale peasant farmers. That has generated the wealth of our country such as it is. It's been the Ghanaian farmers.
Look at what is going on over the border – a tremendous expansion of agricultural productivity. It's not been done by foreign people. Today, the export value of products from Côte d'Ivoire – cashew, cotton, cocoa and coffee – is $12bn a year. We can do the same here in Ghana with our indigenous farmers.
Secondly, there's several enterprises that have proved to be genuinely productive. We're not talking about the briefcase businessmen who are living on 10% commissions. We're talking about employing people.
It's not a question of substituting people for other people when you get in power and taking the cake away. It is about creating a system whereby people who have the capacity will emerge to take over development of our country.

AKUFO-ADDO Reconciles Upper East NPP

The 2016 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has moved to reconcile constituency and regional executives, as well as several youth groups, sympathetic to the party, after seeming divisions emerged in the wake of the tragic death of the late Alhaji Adams Mahama, former Chairman in the Upper East Region.

It will be recalled that the murder of the late NPP Chairman triggered, in its wake, an avalanche of events which resulted, amongst others, in some regional executives of the party being classified as “persona non-grata” by some members belonging to NPP youth groups, who believed that these executives were against Adams Mahama.

However, after the Adua held for Adams Mahama at the Jubilee Park in Bolgatanga, on Sunday, June 7, 2015, Nana Akufo-Addo held discussions with NPP executives and the four major “youth bases” in Bolgatanga, a move described by party faithful as leading to the restoration of peace and brotherliness to the NPP in the Upper East Region

Together with members of his team, the NPP leader, first, met all 15 constituency chairpersons. He listened to their grievances and assured them of his continued support for the region in these difficult times. The chairpersons, in turn, pledged to continue with the plans laid down by the late Adams Mahama, which included annexing at least 8 out of 15 seats in Parliament from the region, and also ensuring that Nana Akufo-Addo’s share of votes in the 2016 presidential election increases significantly in the region.

At the same venue, and after meeting the constituency chairpersons, Nana Akufo-Addo met with 13 out of the 15 regional executives, including those who had gone into hiding after the death of Adams Mahama, after being accused by some irate party youth of working against the late Chairman.

In the meeting, Nana Akufo-Addo stated that his main priority was the guaranteeing of the security of all the regional executives, as well as ensuring togetherness amongst the executives prevailed. This, according to him, is the only way the Party can prosecute a successful campaign in memory of the late Chairman.

After his meeting with regional executives, Nana Akufo-Addo visited all the four pavilions of the main youth groups in Bolgatanga, namely, Holland Base, Atlantic Base, Zongo Youth Association and Dazoota Youth, with the same peace and reconciliation message.

By unanimous acclaim, in the four separate meetings held by Nana Akufo-Addo with the youth groups, they all agreed to work with the regional executives and help them prosecute a successful campaign in honour of their hero, Chairman Adams.

All in all it was a wonderful act of leadership by Akufo-Addo in reconciling a very pained and angered region.

The party in the region was most grateful to its presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, and pledged to deepen the process of peace and reconciliation to continue with the work of winning 2016.

ABOUT NANA the GHANA PRESIDENT in waiting;

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is one of Ghana’s foremost politicians. His political career has spanned some 40 years and
in recent times, his contributions to human rights, democracy and the rule of law are unmatched on Ghana’s political landscape.

Ghana’s most popular politician today, he is widely respected as a statesman, a patriot, a visionary and his passion for Ghana’s development is widely acknowledged, even by his opponents.

Born 29 March 1944 in Swalaba, Accra, Nana was raised in Ga Maami - the heart of Accra - and in Nima. His father’s Accra residence, Betty House at Korle Wokon, became the de facto headquarters of the country’s first political party, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), after it was founded at Saltpond in 1957.

Politics can be said to be a genetic blueprint of Nana Addo’s family. Three of the founding fathers of Ghana, fondly called the Big Six, were Nana’s blood relations - J.B. Danquah (grand-uncle), William Ofori-Atta (uncle) and Edward Akufo-Addo (his father). His father later became the third Chief Justice of Ghana and then served as ceremonial President of the Republic from 1969-72.

POLITICAL CAREER

Nana Addo was elected three times as Member of Parliament for the Abuakwa South constituency in the Eastern Region of Ghana in 1996, 2000 and 2004. Between 2001 and 2007, he served Ghana with distinction as Cabinet minister, first as Attorney General and Minister for Justice, and then as Foreign Minister, a position he held for five years.

Having blazed a path in the fight against the obnoxious criminal libel law in Ghana, Nana Addo had the satisfaction as Attorney General of steering the repeal of this legislation, which had hitherto been used to intimidate the media and criminalise free speech. The repeal has enabled the Ghanaian media to become one of the freest and most vibrant in Africa.

As Foreign Minister, Nana served as Chairman of the Ecowas Mediation and Security Council in 2003 and was fully involved in the successful Ecowas peace efforts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau.

In August 2006, when Ghana was elected by her peers to take the non-permanent West African seat on the UN Security Council for 2006-2007, it was Nana Addo who chaired the meeting that adopted Resolution 1701 - the decision that halted Israel’s massive incursions into Lebanon.

Nana was elected Flagbearer of the NPP in 2007. Having won the first round of the General Election of 2008, he lost the run-off by a margin of 40,586 votes – 0.46% of the total – the smallest ever in African political history. In 2010, Nana Addo was chosen by the biggest Electoral College in Africa and Ghana’s history - 84,000 out of 110,000 voters - to lead the NPP into the General Election of 2012.

The NPP challenged the validity of the declaration of the results of the 2012 General Elections in which the NPP garnered 47.74% of the votes. In August 2013, the Supreme Court declared the results were valid, voting 5:4 against the petitioners.

Nana Addo’s acceptance of this verdict cemented his reputation as a statesman with pedigree and he was lauded locally and internationally for preserving Ghana’s peace and maintaining Ghana’s status as the beacon of democracy in Africa.

POSITION ON ISSUES

Nana Addo is passionate about the economic transformation of Ghana. He believes Ghana has the natural resources and human resources with which it can accelerate its development. He also believes the youth of Ghana have to be provided with opportunities to enable them contribute their quota to Ghana’s development.

PERSONAL DATA

Nana was educated at the University of Ghana - BSc Economics 1967, called to the English Bar - Middle Temple in 1971 and to the Ghanaian Bar in 1975. He is married to Rebecca and has five daughters and four grandchildren.