Just a few hard words - Bagbin

Accra, Jan 4, GNA - Mr Alban Bagbin, Minority Leader, on Tuesday said President John Agyekum Kufuor's State of the Nation Address was "just a few hard words with some slippages."

He, however, said: "He was more reconciliatory but offered no detailed information."

The Minority Leader was speaking to the Ghana News Agency after President Kufuor had delivered his last address to the Third Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

He said the President Kufuor's Government recorded incidents of torture; detentions and other human rights abuses just like the previous regimes.

"So he should not take credit for any good governance feat. What happened in past are still happening today."

Mr Bagbin said the National Reconciliation Commission offered Ghanaians partisanship as well as the platform for some people to ventilate their woes.

He said reconciliation was a process that would take a lot of effort and sincerity and commitment to achieve and "not what we just had".

Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, Member for Kumbungu, said President Kufuor gave a true account of his Government but avoided certain details. "On Dagbon, he told the truth about the mistrust, suffering and Government's failure to bring the criminal to book."

He said the claim to macro-economic success should be translated into a better living condition for the ordinary person. "Macro-economic stability is a means to an end but we are seeing a situation where the poor and the disadvantaged are being marginalised and pushed further from mainstream."

Alhaji Mumuni, who was the running mate of the National Democratic Congress Presidential Candidate, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, said President Kufuor's Government did care for the poor.

"We heard nothing about disability and other social welfare programmes, they are driving the disadvantaged into social exclusion."

Alhaji Mumuni, who put his parliamentary seat on the line to seek the Vice Presidential Slot, is recovering from a motor accident. "I will miss Parliament but I know that there are a lot of good people here to carry on the task of nation building."