Judge govt by its record - Ghana's UK Envoy

Ghana's High Commission to the United Kingdom, H.E. Isaac Osei has re-assured the Ghanaian Diaspora that the Government would use instruments of legislation, popular will and its electoral promise for them to have the right to vote. Even though the minority would have their say in the ongoing parliamentary debate and subsequent vote on the Bill, the majority would have their way. That is the essence of democracy.

The High Commissioner was speaking at an end of year party organised by the New Patriotic Party, United Kingdom and Ireland branch at Tottenham in London. He said, much has been done and much would be done in the coming years by the Government in the areas of health, education, private sector and infrastructure .

Already, Mr. Osei explained, the Government has made it a duty to ensure that every child from Kindergarten to JSS 3 stays in school. 'From this year, every Ghanaian child in basic school will be entitled to a meal a day. This may not be much in an affluent society like London but added to the fact that the medium term expenditure for the year 2006 is high, it shows that the Government is totally committed to educating our young people.'

On the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHS) he admitted problems which were normal with transitions- especially from a cash and carry to a modern system of health delivery but notwithstanding even that, coverage registration for the new scheme has been encouraging. He explained the relationship between healthy people and economic development and said the success of the NHS was therefore critical.

Mr. Isaac Osei explained that all aspects of the economy were under positive policy consideration and cited the uniqueness of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs that has enjoyed budgetary and technical support and continues to help in micro-finance in many parts of the country. He was full of praise for women borrowers who paid back to enable others to enjoy the facility saying that the rate of recovery was beyond 70 percent compared to the poor rate for men.

Every government ought to be judged by its record in office. The NPP is proud of its record of achievements in economic management and development and so, according to the High Commissioner, should be judged by what has been done. ' It is the propagation of this gospel that will lead us to victory in 2008. There is complete freedom of speech in Ghana today-we will not murder or incarcerate people for speaking their minds.

We abolished the criminal libel law in order not to criminalise speech. More recently, everybody saw how internal democracy works within the NPP and how violence dominated the proceedings of another political party during the party congresses. Those who are not members of political parties have a clear choice' The Chairman of the NPP branch, Hayford Atta Krufi who introduced his new executives and the council of Elders said enough has been done by the party for it to succeed itself in 2008 and asked members to work harder towards that realisation.

An advisor to the President, Nii Ayite Boafo urged selflessness on the part of Ghanaians abroad and commended them for their contribution to economic development in the country through their remittances and skills.