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01.06.2004 General News

NPP Claims Unjustifiable — Owusu-Acheampong

01.06.2004 LISTEN
By Graphic

A National Vice-Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr J.H. Owusu-Acheampong, has described as unjustifiable claims by the Kufuor adminsitration that it inherited a battered economy in 2001.

He said the Rawlings regime came to meet an even more devastated economy that was registering a negative growth rate but was able, through sound policies and programmes, to raise it to three per cent more than what the New Patriotic Party Party (NPP) inherited .

Mr Owusu-Acheampong, who said this is an interview in Accra yesterday, pointed out that the erstwhile NDC government bequeathed a good economic environment to the Kufuor administration, which unfortunately messed it up, resulting in hardships and deprivation among the broad masses of the people.

The former Minister of State said in order to cover its failures and inadequacies, the administration had employed propaganda tactics designed to create the impression that the present economic hardships were the result of the bad policies initiated by the NDC administration.

According to Mr Owusu-Acheampong, the government continues to shift blame on the NDC for what he termed its misplaced priorities which had plunged the nation into a quagmire of massive poverty and umemployment, especially among the youth.

“ The NDC transformed the state of the country's infrastructural base by improving the telecommunications and road sectors, built more schools from the basic to the tertiary levels of education extended electricity to more communities across the country and boosted food production,” he said.

The former minister said the image of the country that had witnessed a depreciation dramatically improved through the ingenuity and diplomacy of former President Jerry John Rawlings.

“The visit to the country by former United States President Bill Clinton and Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, among others, was a clear indication of the acceptance and recognition of Ghana in the comity of the international community,” he said.

“The NDC had already prepared enough groundwork for the NPP to properly manage the country, but instead, it engaged in a vicious campaign to cover up its inefficiencies and inability to deliver its campaign promises,” he added.

Mr Owusu-Acheampong, therefore, called on activists of the NDC to arm themselves with real knowlegde to nullify the vile propaganda messages that NPP's functionaries had been disseminating among the electorate

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