Mr Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, has urged members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to remain calm, stay united and bet on President John Evans Atta Mills to lead them to a resounding victory in the 2012 general elections.
Addressing party members, assembly members and a cross section of the public at Jasikan and Kadjebi as part of the Ministry’s country-wide monitoring and evaluation tour last Monday, Mr Afriyie Ankrah asked them to bury all their differences and work for the success of the NDC party.
The tour is to find out how the Metropolitan/Municipal/ District Assemblies were utilising resources put at their disposal in furtherance of the decentralisation policy of the government.
He reminded the members that the party leadership had been aware of the way they all worked to get the NDC party into power, adding that “the forces and powers that brought Prof. Mills into power is beyond human understanding”.
The Deputy Minister asked the party faithful not to seize the slightest excuse and run onto the streets under the pretext of staging demonstration, adding that, within 18 months, President Mills had done everything he could to keep the economy on tract.
“ And when you demonstrate, do not expect the government to agree positively to your demands since you could have over-reacted,” he said.
Mr Afriyie Ankrah reminded the members that they should know that the government could not satisfy everybody in just less than two years of winning political power.
He agreed that the 1992 Constitution admitted demonstrations, “but you cannot hold the government to ransom because some few people have been organised to sing a particular song”.
“You should wait patiently for the government to study your grievances in order to come out with an answer which will be in the interest of the nation as a whole,” he cautioned.
On the ex-gratia payment of Assembly Members on completion of their term of office, the Deputy Minister said they should not expect it from the consolidated fund.
This is because Article 171 of the 1992 Constitution clearly spelt out those who can be paid out of the consolidated fund, he pointed out.
At Jasikan, the Deputy Minister ofLands and Forestry and Member of Parliament for Buem Constituency, Mr Ford Henry Kamel noted that the 2012 elections were going to be the turning point in the history of the country.
This is because the party that would win the elections would be sure to rule the country for a very long time, Mr Kamel said.
According to him by then, the country would be on the threshold of entering the middle income group with oil being produced thus raising the per capita earnings of the people in the country.
Because of this, there will be considerable affluence and the government that is in power will be able to satisfy most of the needs of the people so there will be no need to change it.
The MP for Buem therefore called for calm and unity in the camp of the NDC to be able to win those “critical elections” and be sure of a long hold on the governance of the country.
Earlier, Mr Afriyie Ankrah had taken time off his schedule and toured some of the completed and on-going projects in the two districts and commended the District Chief Executives for their efforts.
Mr Afriyie Ankrah noted that he had realised that the biggest challenge facing them were their roads to which they invest the greater part of their resources.
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