Minority will not tread on destructive opposition *Assuures Kyei Mensah-Bonsu

Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

THE Minority in Parliament yesterday reviewed the four-month administration of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and promised Ghanaians that it would play its opposition role responsibly.
“Unlike the NDC which made every issue partisan, we have decided not to tread this path of destructive politicking,” it said.
The Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, made the promise when he addressed a press conference at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) headquarters in Accra. The conference was to draw the attention of the public to the fallout of the four months rule of Professor John Evans Atta Mills in the areas of finance and economic planning, constitutionalism, law and order and issues relating to security and public safety.
“Our message to the NDC is that there is a government in waiting. The party has been tested and proven capable in governance and faithful to its promises to the good people of Ghana,” he said.
Referring to the 2009 budget, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the “Duffuor’s budget” was an attempt to achieve cost savings through measures such as reductions in purchases in crude oil for VRA, delayed payments on Ghana’s contribution to the West Africa Gas Pipeline, delayed payments of Ghana’s liability to SSNIT on social security contributions and savings from HIPC, among others.
He said these measures were all not realistic or attainable, adding that one could, therefore, not see how the purported reduction in the deficit could be realised.
The Minority Leader said that was why a call was made to the Finance Minister to consider the budget as an interim one so that he could spend more time to do his homework and come back to Parliament with a more realistic one.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said while the Minority thought that this friendly advice had been heeded to, they were shocked when they heard Dr Duffuor telling Ghanaians that the Bank of Ghana was responsible for the fast-depreciating cedi by spending over $1 billion to prop up the cedi.
He said it was surprising that that statement came from the Finance Minister during whose tenure as Governor at the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the government’s “cheques were bouncing left and right; 91-day treasury bills stood over 40 per cent; lending rates hovered around 50 per cent; inflation reached 41 per cent”.
Other sour economic indicators the Minority said occurred during Dr Duffuor’s governorship were the depreciation of the cedi by 50 per cent, the refusal of the BoG to give licenses for retail banking, except only to a few, including his own UniBank, explaining that with such a record as a governor, Dr Duffuor should not be throwing any stone at all.
Touching on the NDC’s Vision 2020, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said when the NPP assumed office, the vision was scrutinised and reviewed with the target date being brought forward to 2015.
He said with the discovery of oil in commercial quantities, it was the expectation that, with prudent management, the target could be brought forward.
The Minority Leader stated that for shifting the post backward to 2020, “we can only tell the NDC in plain language to sit up and be more up and doing for with the anticipated inflow from our oil reserves, this nation cannot wait until 2020”.
He also expressed concern about the creeping ethnocentrism in the Ghanaian body politic and called on the President to break his deafening silence on the issue.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu added that recent pronouncements by ex-President Jerry John Rawlings and Togbe Afede were not good for national cohesion.
“We will do everything possible to resist this creeping compartmentalisation and fragmentation of this country on tribal lines, and we call on all well-meaning Ghanaians to do everything in their power to keep Ghana united, in the belief that united we stand, divided we fall,” he said.
He accused Professor Mills of presiding over a four-month period of public insecurity and un-safety; the prevalence of personal attacks and life threat; the emergence of ethnocentric outbursts and tribal politics and the intrusions into the security systems and operatives.
“It is a period which has witnessed the gradual erosion of recognition and acknowledgement of our country as an oasis of peace, security, safety and stability and also as a country whose integrity and unity is seriously threatened by tribal-card players,” he said.
The Minority Leader added that if the NDC government could not fulfil its election promises and guarantee safety and security to Ghanaians, “we would like the NDC to know that the NPP is ready to take over from them to move the country forward”.
Asked how much the NPP would rate the NDC’s four-month rule, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu declined to award any marks, saying that the Minority would continue to dwell on issues and leave the judgement to be done by Ghanaians.