[ 2012-08-17 ]

Speech by ex-President Kufuor at the 2nd Liberty Lecture

DEVELOPMENT IN FREEDOM: EMPOWERING THE PEOPLE TO
DEVELOP THE NATION-- SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN
AGYEKUM KUFUOR – 2ND LIBERTY LECTURE

Madam Chairman, Fellow Ghanaians, Ladies and
Gentlemen.

I want to start by expressing my sincere
appreciation to the Danquah Institute for the kind
invitation to speak at this year's Liberty
Lecture, which commemorates the significance of
August 4 to our nation's history.

The inaugural Liberty Lecture was delivered by the
2012 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic
Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. I have known
him for decades, he served in my government as
Attorney General and as Minister of Foreign
Affairs and, come January 7, 2013, God-willing, he
will be the next President of the Republic of
Ghana.

This year's lecture has been delayed until after
August 4th of course by momentous events, the
death in office of the President of the Republic.
May the soul of John Evans Atta Mills rest in
perfect peace. In these past four weeks, we have
witnessed a nation coming together to pay respects
not just to the man but to the office of the
Presidency and the importance of that office in
our democracy. That expression of unity in support
of democracy is commendable and it speaks directly
to what I want to address today in this speech on
Development in Freedom and how we must empower the
people to develop the nation.

This topic, as you know is the NPP motto which it
has inherited from its traditions' founding father
who enunciated it from as far back as 1947 at the
launch of the UGCC, the first political party of
our nation in the historic town of Saltpond in the
Central Region of today.

Perhaps, a brief historical sketch will establish
clearly the driving vision with which the founding
fathers not only laid the lineage of our party but
also of virtual foundations of the modern
independent state of Ghana.

On the 4th of August 1947 a new era in the Gold
Coast began. In Saltpond, paramount chiefs,
clergymen, lawyers, entrepreneurs, teachers,
traders and men and women from all walks of life
in the Gold Coast, gathered to inaugurate the
United Gold Coast Convention, the first truly
nationalist party of our country.

Our forbearers joined together to lay the
groundwork for a free and brighter future for
their children, and to bring about an independent
and developed country free from foreign
domination, internal oppression and bad
governance.

There the man described as “the doyen” of Ghana
politics, Dr. JB Danquah, in seconding the motion
to launch the party stated: “We have come to take
a decision whether our country and people are any
longer to tolerate a system of government under
which those who are in control of government are
not under the control of those who are governed.”

He strongly exhorted the assembly of chiefs and
people in these terms: “We must have, here and
now, if we are to be well governed, a new kind of
freedom, a Gold Coast freedom, a Gold Coast
liberty.”

Then, in an implied rejection of the
foreign-imposed name of Gold Coast on our country,
he traced the historical and direct migration of
our ancestors from the ancient Ghana Empire some
900 years earlier to our current homeland.

This was in order to preserve their liberties from
the Arab onslaught from Northern Africa. Likewise,
he urged the chiefs and people to reject British
colonialism for its insecurity, injustice and
exploitation.

Three years of the launch, Danquah further defined
the abiding philosophy of the tradition as: “Our
duty is to liberate the energies of the people for
the growth of a property-owning democracy in this
land, with a right to life, and freedom and
justice as the principles to which the government
and laws of the land should be dedicated to in
order to specifically enrich the lives, property
and liberty of each and every citizen.”

The Danquah-Dombo-Busia political tradition was
born. We have been consistent and principled in
what we stand for: multi-party democracy,
democratic accountability, and respect for human
rights, individual rights and free enterprise.
Development in freedom is how we term the
preferred way of moving Ghana forward.

Alas for Ghana, power eluded the tradition till
1969 when the Busia regime had a brief stint of 27
months of power to showcase the efficacy of
democratic governance as compared with the
uncountable and high-handed radicalism that
subjugated the nation for more than 30 years of
its independent existence to date.

After years of military interventions and national
trauma, political upheavals and economic
stagnation, we were rewarded when the Fourth
Republican Constitution enshrined what our
tradition stood for and struggled for all these
years to bring about in Ghana.

Ladies and Gentlemen the topic of this lecture,
'Development in Freedom: Empowering the People to
Develop the Nation' captures the NPP's preferred
path to success. Nations are not built on their
natural resources, however valuable they are
nations are built by people and the freedom and
opportunities that those people have to express
themselves, responsibly, creatively,
entrepreneurially, socially and politically.
People create societies, by joining together and
working for the common good with the help of
democratic institutions that support their rights
and freedoms. It is the welfare and wellbeing of
the people of Ghana that should drive the vision,
programme and policies of government.

There are some that have argued that “command
economy” is the short-cut to development and which
must be foisted on the people, and that personal
freedoms and collective liberties can be
sacrificed in the process.

Ghana's history is full of these adventurers and
theorists, who only manage to divide the people
and stagnate the economy, retard the social
development process and destroy whatever
“safety-net” that exist for the disadvantaged of
society. We hope the lesson has now been learnt
that never again should we allow our freedom to be
sacrificed. We must insist on responsible
governance that protects our collective liberty,
our opportunities, and works to bring prosperity.

The truism of the foregoing is captured in the
currently broadly touted pragmatic idea of
Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) as the best way
to develop the society. I believe this is the
kernel of the vision as eloquently stated by the
late JB Danquah in 1950.

This truism pervades globally now as even the
formidable People's Republic of China, the once
citadel of communism shows by its adoption of
liberal economic principles. Similarly, the United
States of America, the bastion of capitalism,
evinces this maxim in its adoption of the stimulus
package to shore up the failing financial sector
since 2008.

The point is that pragmatism to grow economies to
sustain the quality of life of people has assumed
centre stage in governance mechanism and this
comes more readily to accountable and democratic
governance which enshrines the citizenry as the
sovereign authority to make and unmake governments
regularly under the rule of law.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the citizenry can exercise
their sovereignty responsibly only with due
preparation for wise assessment. This is how to
pick their representatives and make them
accountable. This is the substance of empowering
the people to help build a transformational
nation.

The Busia Administration, our tradition's first
opportunity to govern the country in the 2nd
Republic, beginning in 1969, had demonstrated what
the NPP believes in and what we set out to do for
the people whenever we are given the opportunity
to serve.

Prof. Busia, my mentor, committed his government
to providing jobs, security, a decent home, and a
basic standard of living for every Ghanaian. The
essentials of freedom of speech and expression;
equal opportunity and social justice; of movement
and association and of worship were heralded in
the 2nd Republic.

In his inaugural address, in 1969, long before
such ideas were popular around our continent,
Busia said: “We think the yardstick by which our
success or failure should be judged must be the
condition of the human being himself. We must
judge our progress by the quality of the
individual, by his knowledge, his skills, his
behaviour as a member of society, the standards of
living he is able to enjoy and by the degree of
co-operation, harmony and brotherliness in our
community life as a nation ... our goal is to
enable every man and woman in our country to live
a life of dignity in freedom'.

Since the restoration of constitutional rule with
the 1992 elections, a democratic and resource-rich
Ghana has made lot of progress. The world has
recognized our efforts and we have won a lot of
accolades and we should all be proud of what we
have achieved these past 20 years. All of us now
accept that political power is changed through
elections.

Our parties recognize election results and concede
power when they lose. Key reforms have been
delivered and sustained because of those changes
in power and leadership.

Unfortunately the expected drive to economic
lift-off on the solid platform that had been built
by the end of 2008 has not happened. It is that
drive that Ghana is crying out for now. The people
are desperate to feel the practical effects of the
statistically-touted improvement in the economy.

Last year our nation recorded economic growth of
14% and yet in the reality of our individual
economies, it has been a damp squib. If ever there
has been a vivid example of squandered
opportunities, this has been it. We ought to be
able to translate the many undoubted opportunities
of bourgeoning natural resources such as oil,
cocoa, minerals and international goodwill into
improving upon the quality of life of our people.
But this is not happening.

The cause can only be poor leadership, lacking the
acumen, focus, discipline and dexterity to husband
the natural and human resources for the needed
success. We need transformational leadership that
can deliver.

Unity is essential for our development. But unity
cannot be achieved by force, or at the expense of
freedom or by propaganda. Invariably such
arrangements turn out to be non- sustainable and
crumble at the least sign of pressure. The
component parts of the whole should be equal
shareholders and must feel they have a stake in
the success of the nation. That is the view of the
Danquah-Dombo-Busia people.

Ghanaians are united in their quest for greater
opportunities, peace, liberty and prosperity. The
competition between political parties is about the
best way to achieve these goals, the most
responsible way to use our national resources and
which leader and party have the most credible
proposition to move Ghana forward together.

The evidence shows that leadership has, by and
large, come from the NPP, and its antecedent
parties, the Progress Party, the United Party (UP)
and the UGCC. In Ghana's 55 years of independence,
our political tradition has had just ten and a
half (10.5) years in office, the NDC has had 12
years and CPP/PNP has had about 11 years, with the
military having had 21 years, even though some
would say the 11 years of the PNDC/military should
be added to the NDC years. It is during the
periods of our governments, the Progress Party and
New Patriotic Party, that the nation had some of
the strongest periods of growth and advancement in
our history, the most progressive social welfare
programmes in health and education and brought
about a golden age for the private sector.

Another opportunity beckons. The NPP stands ready
to act and to deliver freedom, development and
opportunities for prosperity for every Ghanaian.

The NPP views civil liberties and human rights as
fundamental to economic growth and intrinsic to
the objective of development. We believe in
empowering the individual to use his or her own
initiative to create enterprise and legitimate
wealth and to enjoy security of person and private
property. We believe we can use freedom and
opportunities as tools to promote the welfare and
wellbeing of everyone in our society. That is why
the party chose as its motto, 'Development in
Freedom'.

We believe that political, economic and social
freedoms are absolutely essential and inter-woven.
People are not free or at peace if they are
hungry, illiterate, ignorant, unhealthy, homeless
and in squalor. That is why my administration
focused on investment in human capital and, at the
same time, worked hard to empower the private
sector to generate real growth of the economy.

In January 2001, when I was sworn into office as
President of Ghana, the national economy was in a
bad shape. We had to take the very difficult
decision to sign up for the Highly Indebted Poor
Country (HIPC) initiative. It was not an easy
thing to do but we were guided by long term
considerations and did what we had to do for the
good of the country.

This led to increased inflows of domestic and
foreign investments, more businesses opened, more
banks opened, more Ghanaians gained employment,
and the telecoms sector boomed. The stronger
private sector economy enabled us to launch new
social services, including a Free and Compulsory
Universal Basic Education programme and the first
ever National Health Insurance Scheme.

We were able to make large investments in
infrastructure in the energy, transportation and
telecommunication sectors to drive the accelerated
growth of the economy. And, we achieved all this,
ladies and gentlemen, without a drop of oil, but
with just sound economic management, which also
under-pinned the redenomination of the cedi to
achieve parity with the US Dollar.

Our 2012 Presidential Candidate is also committed
to building a society of opportunities for every
Ghanaian and industrialising the economy. He was
the man who was the driving force behind the
introduction to Ghana of mobile phones in the
early 1990s, the instrument that has been
responsible for the biggest socio-economic
transformation of our country over the last two
decades.

As a corporate lawyer in the early 90s, he managed
to convince a group of foreign investors that
Africa, specifically Ghana, was ready to embrace
the mobile phone. That is how Millicom, operators
of Mobitel ended up in Ghana. This is
transformational leadership – the vision to see
where things need to go and the ability to get us
there.

Into this year's elections, the main challenge
facing the nation must be which of the contending
leaders with their parties offers the likeliest
efficient and effective government to tackle and
overcome the socio-economic problems afflicting
the people.

Our debate now should be about the quality of our
democracy; how to strengthen institutions of
governance, how to increase participatory
democracy at the grassroots level, and how to
ensure we get value for money on negotiations done
on behalf of Ghana, whether it is for loan
agreements, public procurements, allocation of oil
blocks, building contracts, or the payment of
judgment debts.

I have no doubt the NPP flagbearer, Nana Akufo
Addo, is the most rounded and experienced in the
field and also has the tried and tested team of
would-be minister and government officials. Most
of them worked with me in government and l vouch
for them.

Ladies and Gentlemen, some have tried to
bastardize the core philosophy of the NPP,:
“building a property-owning democracy”. Ladies and
gentlemen, I was in China last month, and even in
China, home-ownership is being promoted as more
and more Chinese people are being pulled from
poverty into the growing middle class.

China, since embracing the concept of capitalism,
has unleashed the energies of her billion people
and taken over 500 million out of poverty. There
are huge cities that have been transformed from
slums because of the determination of its
government.

The concept of a property-owning democracy is not
elitist. It is about spreading wealth. It is about
expanding and making more and more Ghanaians
stakeholders in the wealth of the nation and
giving every Ghanaian decent shelter.

The NPP promotes social mobility. Our belief is
that we must give more and more Ghanaians the
capacity and opportunities to capitalise on
economic opportunities both in Ghana and abroad.
We seek for the greatest wellbeing for the
greatest number of Ghanaians.

That is why we want each and every Ghanaian to
have education, so that they can develop their
God-given talents and enhance their chances of
making a decent living. When more people have
access to jobs, they generate income and then more
people can spend and more taxes can be earned and
governments can spend more in building
infrastructure, providing social services and
improving our security and standard of living.

That is what the New Patriotic Party is all about.
We put people at the centre of our development in
both our thinking and our deeds. When the
individual are the primary focus of the
leadership, then society will progress.

There is no doubt that the NPP has the most
formidable programme for moving Ghana forward.

This election is the verdict of Ghanaians on the
last four years; it is a referendum on the future
of this country; it is about the future of all
Ghanaians. It is about which of the candidates has
the best team and capacity, vision, programmes,
competence and commitment to deliver for our
nation and all of us individuals.

Look at the records; what has been achieved in the
past; look at the promises; look at the leadership
profiles and look at the value of the cedi and the
cost of living of our people and vote wisely.

In 2000 the slogan of the NPP was 'hwe w'asetena
mu, na to aba pa.' I believe that it was relevant
then and is relevant today in 2012. I appeal to
all Ghanaians to revisit the conditions of life
today to decide on their vote for this year's
elections.

Thank You.

Source - MyjoyOnline

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