General News of Sunday, 10 November 2019
Source: rainbowradioonline.com
A member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Kofi Korang has petitioned the party to honour former President John Agyekum Kufour while he is alive for his outstanding contribution to the party.
Popularly known as K.K, the NPP stalwart is arguing that under the leadership of former President Kufour, several social interventions were introduced and implemented for the benefit of Ghanaians.
“Among them were, at the time the NPP came into office in 2001 Ghana’s international ranking had sunk so low that it was classified as Heavily Indebted Poor Country [HIPC], national reserves stood at only 2.33 million, GDP was 4 billion which grew at lowly 3.7 per year. There was no National Health Insurance Scheme, no School Feeding Program, no Free School Busing for school pupils and the aged. No free school fees for pupils from K.G to J.H.S level.”
K.K is also of the view that under the former president, inflation stood at a high of 40.5% and interest rate was hitting the 50th mark just to mention a few.
“By the time Mr. Kuffour was leaving office in 2009, Ghana had graduated from IMF over side shape to borrow from the-Eurobond Market where its share value of 750 million Dollars was oversubscribed by more than three times. National Reserves had risen to 2.6 billion Dollars; GDP shot to over 44 billion dollars and was growing at 8.4%.”
His petition addressed to the national leadership of the party further argued that ” the National Health Insurance Scheme and free maternal care were running smoothly and efficiently. A pilot scheme to give at least one hot meal a day to school children from four years to fourteen years was progressing well. Of course inflation stood at 18% and interest rate haddropped to 23%. He was the first leader who willingly submitted himself to bepeer-reviewed by his colleague African Leaders.”
To him, “looking at these great achievements by an African Leader, who has not been hauled before any court for infraction under his tenure at home, in the international community he has not misconducted himself but serves as an inspiration to many young politicians.
It is in the light of the above that I call on the party to institute an event to honor him for how far he has brought the party and the country at large.”