President John Dramani Mahama has expressed worry over what he calls the control of Ghana’s media by a cabal who are blocking his message of transformation.
According to him, a certain group of people have taken control of the Ghanaian media and are blocking his government’s message, a situation which in his view, makes it difficult for people to know the truth.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Iey38oWXcaQZTAhkLiJnrQ1ZQKkqUUSi”]“It is populism, a certain group has taken control of the media in Ghana and it makes it difficult for people to discern the truth. So as much as you are putting out the information, it is either being blocked or distorted,”he said.
He made this revelation during an interview with Ovation Magazine.
I’ve been assertive enough
The President also denied suggestions that he had failed to crack the whip on Ministers who have not conducted themselves well over the past years.
He believes he has been asssertive as far as issues relating to corruption is concerned.
“We have 300 FM stations in this country, we have seventy newspapers or so, we have all kinds of media. All kinds of media raise allegations against office holders.I cannot on the basis of every allegation that is raised take action. It means I will change my cabinet so many times if I acted on every single allegation.
“For every allegation that is made, I have said I will consider the accusation seriously, we will investigate and if those allegations are substantial that requires that I take action against a Minister, I will do so. And I have done that in several cases, I have changed Ministers,” he argued.
Economic challenges
Asked about his government’s measures to address various economic challenges, President Mahama said: “We have heard the complaints and it is the very reason that we are doing all that we are doing so that the people will live a better life. Honestly, if you do not build the infrastructure, unemployment will get worse because you need to build certain foundation upon which the economy can grow and create the jobs that you want”
“All the things we are doing is what will grow the economy. If an investor comes into this country and he cannot get a school to send his children to, no roads to move their goods, no good hospitals for their staff and so on, he may just go elsewhere. You need the social infrastructure to act as a kind of stimulus that would create jobs and put money in people’s pockets,” he added.
We‘re not incurring huge debts
The President further dismissed suggestions that the governing NDC is incurring huge debts.
According to him, Ghana’s debt profile has rather gradually reduced under the NDC administration.
“If you look at the facts, it is absolutely untrue that we are incurring debt because post HIPC, Ghana had a debt write off. But if you look at the period from 2006 until 2008, under the NPP government, they virtually doubled the debt again after it had been written off. We will release what the debt figures were from independence till now, we will show the structure to Ghanaians. Our debt profile is currently $24 billion and in total, that is dollar and cedi debt, GHc104 billion.
“But if you look carefully at the graph, our debt profile is declining and that is because we have now put in place a public debt management strategy.Before, any state-owned enterprise that borrowed money, it was added unto the public debt, but what we have done now is to create a Public Debt Management Strategy that says that state-owned enterprises must borrow off their own balance sheets,” he argued.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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