Address was hollow and uninformed - JAM

Accra, Jan. 22 GNA - Professor John Evans Atta Mills, Presidential Candidate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), on Thursday slammed the State of the Nations Address by President John Agyekum Kufuor as "hollow and uninformed". Prof. Mills, who was speaking in an interview shortly after the one-and-half hour address by the Head of State in Parliament, said he was expecting President Kufuor to investigate the numerous allegations of corruption against his administration and give the NDC the acknowledgement it deserved. He said: "You do not expect the Minority to constitute itself into an investigation team to probe the corruption charges. We must give leads about corruption and we expect the government to investigate. "You Journalists always raise issues on corruption and I do not hope you were only concocting stories," Prof Mills said. He said corruption was a national canker as well as an issue that the President promised to tackle during his electioneering campaign. Prof. Mills expressed disappointment that President Kufuor did not capture the issue in his Address, especially at the time when the country had recorded massive donor investment flow that should be accounted for. He said whilst President Kufuor was referring to strives in the education sector he did not react to allegations of massive misappropriation of funds accruing from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund). Commenting on the President's acknowledgement about the high production level of cocoa, Prof. Mills said some credit should have gone to the NDC for its contribution. "He (President Kufuor) talked about the high cocoa production in three years, but you cannot grow and harvest cocoa in three years. Something must have happened." Professor Mills said it was wrong for the NPP to paint a glowing image about Ghana to create the impression that "NDC might have led Ghanaians into hell". Prof Mills said: "We admit we committed some blunders but President Kufuor should not let it appear now that we are living in heaven." Mr Dan Lartey, Leader of the Great Consolidated Peoples Party (GCPP), said President Kufuor succeeded in telling the electorate that he had done nothing and still wanted their mandate for another term of four years. He said: "President Kufuor had failed to turn the economy round and is rather going aborrowing when we have all the human and other resources to develop Ghana. " We have enough in Ghana we do not need donors," he said.