Students of Doxa Open University (Doxa OU) have paid a courtesy call on former Ghana President John Agyekum Kufuor, to celebrate him for his enormous contribution towards Africa's democracy.
As part of activities to mark the International Day of Democracy, which is founded by UNESCO, Doxa OU students took advantage to meet with the former President in his residence at Dworwulu, a suburb of Accra.
As part of activities to mark the International Day of Democracy, which is founded by UNESCO, Doxa OU students took advantage to meet with the former President in his residence at Dworwulu, a suburb of Accra.
The students were privileged to have received a warm welcome by former President Kufuor and opportuned to ask of his views with regards to democracy and governance in Ghana.
Shortly after that encounter, some of the students expressed their utmost joy of realizing their dreams of meeting with the former head of state and learning a lot from his response to their queries.
Below are excerpts of questions asked by some Doxa OU
students and the response of former Ghana President John Agyekum Kufuor:
How do you
evaluate the orientation of Ghanaians in condemning every government policy?
“You may have people who are vociferous in the media
who spearhead this kind of condemnation of policies every government come up
with and then the ordinary Ghanaian follows suite simply because they heard it
from a section of the media. I’m not attacking the media entirely but there are
elements who want to take over the cycle of the community.
This is the more reason why there is the need for
education to help find our voices to express ourselves and to insist that we
have freedom of choice to be expressed in selecting our leaders and for removal
of leaders. And this is part of the reason for the implementation of the free
SHS policy which majority of Ghanaians are in support of.”
Your views on
the legalization of homosexuality in Ghana
"From my personal standpoint, I will not legalize
homosexuality in Ghana. You may perhaps have your religious reasons, but the
creator didn’t create men to go after men otherwise procreation will cease. So
personally, I’m not for legalizing homosexuality."
What do we
need to do to encourage patriotism in the country?
"Governance perhaps hasn’t been inclusive in us and so
we’ve suffered dictatorship and governments have come and gone without
accountability or transparency to people, and if that’s the case, that’s the
source of unpatriotism. But good governance is the way to correct this seeming
unpatriotism of the people. Good governance should be inclusive, transparent and
accountable government. This is why democracy is very important, for instance
the freedom for us to exercise our voting franchise."
Did you ever
wake up one day to regret serving Ghana due to destructive criticisms?
“No! I decided to go into this political career quite
young, so by the age of 27, I was the city manager of Kumasi and became a
member of parliament as well as deputy minister of foreign affairs at the age
of 30. I had long apprenticeship and in spite of the difficulties and
destructions, I decided this was the work I wanted to do. So, by the time I
became a president at age 62, I had had a very long experience and apprenticeship
and so if you insult me, it goes off my back like water goes off the back of a
truck. So, I have never regretted being president of Ghana.”
Your views
about the double track system:
“As I talked about the complexities of policies and
implementation and why government has decided the way to go to benefit as many
young people as possible is to introduce the double track system because we do
not have enough infrastructure already in place to cater for all the youngsters
enrolling in the senior high schools. So, from where I sit, it is a worthwhile
effort to cater for as many people as possible in senior high school. The good
thing about this effort is that government has come out to say it is not a
permanent solution. It is a transitional program government has embarked on so
that in 5 to 6 years to come, government would have put up adequate
infrastructure in place to cater for all SHS students. I believe the double
track system is the best approach for now.”
Have you come
across any disadvantages in Ghana’s democracy and if so, how do we get rid of
them?
“I don’t believe we have attained perfection, but the
most important thing is to spot the difficulties and work on them, so you keep
on improving. In my tenure of office, I wouldn’t say things were perfect, but
you always try to improve and correct your errors. I’ve said it many times that
I don’t know anywhere on earth that people have used poverty to transform
poverty. There must be government that will uphold the dignity of mankind and
work accordingly to better the lives of people in general.”
What one
particular policy would you advice the current government to implement?
“I talked of wealth creation and I believe this
government is moving in that direction. Policies are tough, no doubt, are the
micro-economy stability is being worked on, and that is to assure the partners
that their investments are secured and will yield benefit. That one must be
worked on because we need investors. When you do your micro-economic
arrangements well, you’ll find out many people will bring their investment, so
you build on other people’s money rather than relying on taxation of your
people. Over-taxation kills. There should be sensible taxation and more monies
must also come from investors to build the nation.”
Your views
about banks collapsing and what you would have done differently to save the
situation?
“I don’t like comparisons. We have learnt that some of
these banks are just mushrooms and they got licenses to operate until the
auditors went to expose them. The way forward is for us to ensure that no institution
becomes a bank without meeting the criteria of a bank. The capital base solid
and that loans are given on basis of well-studied business programs to ensure
that the rate of recurrence with the systems of the banks will protect the
people who transact with the banks.”
