THE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

Evening Encounter With JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA

An Institute of Economic Affairs/Ghana Political Parties Programme Collaboration

The Evening Encounters were organised with support from the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD). The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Ghana, was founded in October 1989 as an independent, public policy institute dedicated to the establishment and strengthening of a market economy and a democratic, free and open society. It considers improvements in the legal, social and political institutions as necessary conditions for sustainable economic growth and human development.

The IEA supports research and promotes and publishes studies on important economic, socio-political and legal issues in order to enhance the understanding of public policy.

Further information may be obtained from the Publication Officer:

The Institute of Economic Affairs P. O. Box OS 1936, Osu Accra, Ghana

Tel: +233 - 302244716 / 0307010714 Fax: +233 302 - 222313 Email: [email protected]

ISBN: 9988-584-87-3 ISSN: 0855-3238

©2012 Copyright by The Institute of Economic Affairs

Printed in Ghana. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be published, used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. PREFACE “Those who wish to govern must allow themselves to be subjected to probing questions by the people, to ensure that they understand their concerns and have the capacity to address them.”

The Institute of Economic Affair (IEA) seeks to promote the consolidation of democracy, good governance and a free and fair market economy in Ghana and West Africa. The IEA carries out its work through robust research, national and sub-regional advocacy, roundtable discussions and multi-stakeholder interactions on issues of economic and governance policy. Two decades on, the Institute's research and discussion forums have influenced important economic and governance policies - and further shaped public thinking on a range of policy issues. Since the year 2000, The IEA has organized Presidential Election Debates ahead of each of the nation's Presidential Elections. In each election year, these debates have provided presidential candidates a platform on which to debate the policies and programmes that they believe will best serve the national interest. The Presidential Election Debates are gradually instilling an issues-driven approach to Presidential campaigns. The Debates offer the electorate information on the policy direction of each Presidential candidate's manifesto, with which to make informed choices.

In 2008, The IEA created another platform to enhance the development of an issues-driven approach to national elections and promote accountable leadership in Ghana. This was through the Evening Encounter Series. In 2012, The IEA held another Encounter Series and it will remain a fixture in each election year. The Evening Encounters differ from Presidential Debates in that, while the Debates focus on the interaction between presidential candidates, the Encounters are based on the interaction between individual candidates and the electorate. Similar to the 2008 Encounter Series, the 2012 Encounters offered the four presidential candidates, whose political parties had representation in Parliament, a unique platform to provide the electorate with their visions and plans for governing the country. The Evening Encounters also provided representatives of key interest groups and a cross section of the electorate the opportunity to ask the respective candidates probing questions.

Overall, by providing a public forum where each of the candidates can present their policies, and be challenged by members of the public, both the Evening Encounters and the Debates serve to enhance the level of accountability demanded from Ghana's potential leaders. This is particularly important with respect to the candidate who subsequently goes on to win the election.

This publication provides a transcript of President John Dramani Mahama's presentation and responses at the Evening Encounter held on 18th October 2012. The IEA has similarly published transcripts of all the Debates and Evening Encounters of the other candidates separately. This publication focusing on President John Dramani Mahama recognizes that the commitments he made at the event constitute a contract that he made with the Ghanaian people in exchange for their support. As Ghana prepares for elections in 2016, it is hoped that the terms of this contract are not readily forgotten and that the public continues to understand the policy direction of this candidate. We hope that you find this publication useful. Thank you.

Jean Mensa Executive Director The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012)

File Name: IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA

EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012)

Moderator: Mr. Bernard Avle, Broadcaster

Main Speaker: H.E. President John Dramani Mahama, NDC Presidential Candidate

Other Speakers: Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church

Brigadier General Francis Agyemfra (Rtd), Visiting Senior Fellow at IEA

Madam Hannah Tetteh, Minister for Trade and Industry

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IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012)

Moderator (Bernard Avle): Kindly let's be up standing and receive the President of the Republic of Ghana and the candidate of the National Democratic Congress, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama.

You are welcome President Mahama, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, viewers and listeners all over the country. Good evening and welcome to a historic night at the Kofi Annan ICT Centre for tonight's IEA encounter with the sitting president and candidate of the National Democratic Congress.

Scripture says the horse is prepared for battle but safety is of the Lord. We want to start the program with an opening prayer. We are very privileged to have the Chairman of IEA's National Enforcement Body on the Code of Conduct for Political Parties who is also the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, the Most Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante to lead us in our opening prayer.

Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante: Almighty God and our heavenly father, we give You praise; we give You thanks for this day. A day You have set aside for us to have an evening encounter with your servant. We believe that apart from You, there is nothing we can do. Hence, we come before You in prayer asking that God, You will be with us, be with Your servant as he articulates to us his vision.

Give us an open mind and open hearts and ears to perceive to understand what You have for us. We pray that everything we do here tonight will redound to Your glory. We thank You for this nation Ghana, for the leaders You have given us. And Father, we pray that You would continue to be with us as we make the effort to ensure that we do exactly what You want us to do to rule this country in peace; You would be present with your people.

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And help us in all things to bring glory and honour to Your name. I commend his Excellency into Your hands, grant him grace, grant him your presence; the presence of mind to articulate. And Lord when You have done that; help us to give you praise and glory. Grant that people who will listen will be informed so that on the 7th of December when we go to vote we'll be making an informed choice of leadership. This is our humble prayer Father; hear us as we pray in the name of Jesus Christ Your son, Amen.

Moderator (Bernard Avle): Tonight's program is an initiative of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Accra Ghana. We are very privileged to have among us a Visiting Senior Fellow of the IEA in the person of Brigadier General Francis Agyemfra (Rtd) for a welcome statement.

Brigadier General Francis Agyemfra (Rtd): Your Excellency John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana, the First Lady, honourable ministers of state, honourable Members of Parliament, your excellencies, members of the diplomatic corps, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the Ghana Political Parties Program, it is my pleasure to welcome you all to this encounter with the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) His Excellency John Dramani Mahama who is also President of the Republic.

Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we are indeed very pleased that you've all honoured our invitation to be part of this democracy-enhancing event. We are particularly delighted to host President, John Dramani Mahama who has agreed to be here in person to address the nation and provide answers to the concerns of the people of Ghana.

Please allow me, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, to also acknowledge the fact that this Evening Encounter is historic. As it

IEA GHANA 4 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) is the first time a sitting president of Ghana is participating in this event. It is our sincere hope that this will set a precedent for future incumbents to follow. Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we have in our midst a cross section of representatives from various organizations such as the Ghana Mental Health Association, the Trades Union Congress, Ghana Registered Nurses Association, Ghana Medical Association, Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors of Ghana and Ghana Federation of the Disabled. Others are Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana, Network for Women's Rights, and Child's Right International among others.

The more exciting news is that we have the eight-year-old peace ambassador, Angela Mensah, who has some questions to pose to the President of the Republic. Distinguished guests, electorate represented here by these organizations, we'll be seeking answers to questions bordering on education, labour, health, infrastructure, women and children and disability among others.

We believe that they will during the discussion obtain answers to these questions. Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I believe you all agree with me that quite often in elections in this country, the visions and policy stands of presidential candidates are either unknown or unclear. In order to ensure an issue based campaign and election process, we at the Institute hold the view that the candidates must have well thought out detailed and very viable policy visions.

It is in light of this that IEA in collaboration with the Ghana Political Parties Program has been organizing the Evening Encounter series for the presidential candidates of the political parties represented in Parliament.

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The Evening Encounter series is an interactive program designed to enable the presidential aspirants outline their visions and strategies and answer questions from the electorate. Such a platform undoubtedly empowers the electorate in many ways. They especially give the electorate the chance to assess the presidential candidates and expand the opportunities for them to choose the most suitable candidate among the aspirants.

The Evening Encounter series is also a capacity building avenue for the electorate because it enables them take ownership of the electoral process and develop further skills of demanding accountability from the aspirants before they have access to the presidency. Your excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, as we listen to the promises that would be made here this evening, let us not forget that election 2012 will mark 20 years of uninterrupted constitutional rule in this great country.

The successful conduct of the election will however, depend on an aware electorate, an informed electorate, a vigilant electorate and a discerning electorate. In this regard I wish to urge that this year's elections should be guided by the credibility of the promises made by the presidential candidates as well as a thorough analysis of the various candidates' ability to deliver on promises made.

Your excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I once again warmly welcome you all to this evening's encounter and I have no doubt that we'll have a very fruitful deliberation. Thank you very much for your attention.

Moderator (Bernard Avle): Ladies and gentlemen this program is live on radio and television. It is live on Joy 99.7fm and on Multi TV as well as on myjoyonline's YouTube channel. Tonight's program will also be delayed on Ghana Television, Metro Television as well as GBC radio, Unique FM and on their affiliates across the country.

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From Right to Left: Dr. Charles Mensa, Board Chairman of IEA; Prof. Esi Sutherland Addy, Professor at Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana; President John Dramani Mahama; Mrs. Lordina Mahama; and Mr. John Henry Newman, Former Chief of Staff of Ghana, Office of the President

My name is Bernard Avle, I work at Citi FM. I'm your moderator for tonight. My role is simple; to get as many questions asked and answered as possible. Now, our elders say we know but we still ask. We know who he is but he must be properly introduced. And to do that we have a woman of substance, a role model for many, the Minister for Trade and Industry, a former MP and I must add a product of Wesley Girls High School: Madam Hannah Tetteh.

Madam Hannah Tetteh (Minister for Trade and Industry): Your excellencies, colleague honourable ministers of state, honourable Members of Parliament, and members of the Council of State – I didn't address Your Excellency because I'm introducing him. Members of civil society organizations, private sector, business associations, the diplomatic corps, all of you who are here with us this evening, it's a pleasure to be with you for this encounter

IEA GHANA 7 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) and it is my honour to introduce to you His Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana. His Excellency President Mahama was born on the 21st of November in 1958, indeed he's truly an independence child of Ghana, in Damango in the Northern Region of the country.

He attended primary school at the Achimota Primary School and he had his secondary school education at the Ghana Secondary School in Tamale where he received both his O'Level and A'Level certificates. Thereafter he attended the University of Ghana Legon where he studied history. And after he had completed his first degree he went ahead to do a post-graduate diploma in communication studies and then further went to Russia to the Institute of Social Studies in Moscow to do a post-graduate diploma in social psychology.

President Mahama started his working career in the Japanese Embassy as the Information and Cultural Officer. Thereafter he went to work with Plan International; an international NGO that works to alleviate child poverty and he was the Grants Manager. He entered Parliament in 1997 after he contested and successfully won the election to represent the Bole-Bamboi constituency. And indeed he represented the Bole-Bamboi constituency successively from 1997 to 2000, from 2001 to 2004, and from 2005 to 2008 until he became the vice-presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress.

In his capacity as Member of Parliament and his first term as a Member of Parliament, he also doubled initially as a Deputy- Minister of Communications and then as the substantive Minister of Communications. A lot of the regulatory reforms in the telecoms sector were introduced during his tenure as Minister of Communications. Indeed he presided over the expansion of the telecom sector and a lot of the things that we take for granted today.

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When the NDC government went into opposition he was our ranking member on communications. He also was the party's Director of Communications and subsequently he was the ranking member on foreign affairs. He's also been a member of the Pan- African Parliament. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, with an experience that is varied and diverse as this, I'm sure you are in no doubt that President Mahama is a man of many skills, many experiences and many talents.

In January 2009 when the NDC won the presidential and parliamentary elections, he became Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana and continued in that office until the untimely demise of our late president, His Excellency President John Evans Atta Mills, who we all wish to rest in peace. He was given an overwhelming endorsement by the National Democratic Congress to be our presidential candidate and flag bearer for the 2012 elections and he's leading us into this election, we believe with the determination and vigour that will help us to succeed.

His Excellency President Mahama is indeed breaking new records in new grounds because he's the first sitting president to submit himself to this process. And I believe that the people of Ghana will indeed appreciate the decency, the commitment, the dedication he has to serve our nation; to subject himself to your questions and to let you understand why he's committed to working for you. Your excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen it's my pleasure to introduce His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama.

Moderator (Bernard Avle): As we remain standing we'll now receive the presentation by the candidate and sitting president, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama.

John Dramani Mahama: Mr. Chairperson, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends from the media, fellow Ghanaians, good

IEA GHANA 9 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) evening. It's a pleasure and honour for me to be here with you this evening.

I'd like first to thank The Institute of Economic Affairs for organizing these encounters. May I acknowledge the respect that the IEA exhibited after the passing of our late president Professor John Evans Atta Mills by suspending your original schedule for these encounters. This is a time of great possibilities for our country. In fact, the possibilities that lie before us for true and sustained progress are limitless.

As the clock ticks and draws nearer to our national election, it is crucial for us to depart from the destructive time wasting exercise of unfounded personal attacks, petty name calling and character assassination and rather move our energies towards the debate of real issues, concrete ways in which we can transform these numerous possibilities that exist into viable programs that can and will create a better Ghana for all of us.

By establishing these encounters, the IEA is doing just that. It is creating a forum within which we candidates can seriously discuss the issues facing our nations and present the solutions that fall not only within our visions but also within our capabilities. And I welcome this opportunity. Well, part of the function of government is absolutely to institute policy and to put forth programs. What I've discovered is sorely missing in many talks and speeches during this election cycle, that is, the basic link between the citizens of this country and the policies that are being promoted.

What is missing is the clear correlation between the good people of Ghana and the benefits of the programs that are promised. For more than two decades, I have been serving this great nation of ours in various capacities. As I have travelled throughout this great nation of ours through all the regions from the larger urban areas like Accra and Kumasi to the smaller villages like Tutupene and Ketekeli, I

IEA GHANA 10 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) have met a number of wonderful individuals. These are ordinary citizens whose only desire is to work and earn a living to be able to feed their families, to give their children hope that one day they would be able to surpass the limitations that were faced by their parents and their grandparents.

Interacting with these individuals, I have been told stories of resilience, optimism and commitment to their families and communities. What a resilient people we are, what a mighty people we are. These people are pushing ahead for a better Ghana. Interacting with these citizens has reinforced my optimism, it has reinforced a belief that was already strong; my belief that the future lies before us – all of us, and not just some of us; that future is bright. Let us examine the reality.

And I would like to capture them under four themes for the purpose of my conversation with you this evening; Building a strong and resilient economy, capable of creating and sustaining jobs, putting people first in health, education and social protection agenda, transparent and accountable government. We are consolidating a strong and resilient economy. Under the NDC government, Ghana's economic output which is more popularly known as gross domestic product (GDP) is currently about 70 billion cedis from a former value of 30 billion and 36 billion recorded in 2008 and 2009 respectively. These are among the latest or/and September 2012 projected figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service. This is a sign of an economy growing by leaps and bounds. The fact remains that Ghana has been rated amongst one of the fastest growing economies in the world. We have recorded the most sustained single digit inflation level in the history of Ghana. We have achieved one million metric tons of cocoa production in a single year. We have paid the highest percentage of FOB price to cocoa farmers in Ghana's history. We have improved cotton production in a single year tenfold.

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And through the SADA vehicle we have impacted the lives of the people of the Savanah by establishing a new shea butter processing factory at Buipe. In collaboration with the private sector an oil mill has been established in Tamale and a new rice processing plant is waiting to be commissioned in Nyankpala.

The Single Spine Salary Structure has seen an escalation of the public sector wage bill from 2 billion to over 5 billion. In less than four years into our Better Ghana Agenda the level of infrastructure development, access to social services and the quality of life for ordinary Ghanaians is unprecedented. Our country is now accredited to be among the very first in Africa, south of the Sahara, to be in transition to true middle income status.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me say emphatically here that this nation is making remarkable progress. She is not retrogressing as some will have us believe. Ladies and gentlemen, as you know we are in a dynamic period of our nation's history and there is much hope for a bright future. We are told by political philosophers and also theologians that to think positively of your circumstance is to evoke more remarkable good tidings and good prospects.

And I think positively about our country and our future. Our country is great and will be even greater. Our macro-economic goals in the next four years are an average GDP growth rate of not less than 8 percent per annum, a sustained single digit rate of inflation, low interest rates, an overall budget deficit of approximately 5 percent of GDP and gross international reserves that cover not less than four months of imports. Overall our economic policy and program will aim at the attainment of a per capita income of at least $2,300 by the year 2017. With the consolidation of the economic fundamentals of our country, we are at the threshold of transition from a lower middle income country to a middle income country.

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This phase was largely led by government; the next phase of transformation of this country must be led by the private sector with government's active support and participation. Indeed the private sector is the area of my utmost passion; together we shall create more employment opportunities for our youth. It is my firm belief that the Ghanaian private sector has what it takes to lead the next phase of our development and that process must not be obstructed by politics. We would establish monitoring mechanisms to ensure local content and give priority to Ghanaians in job opportunities and procurement practices.

The government's own procurement processes will be made to set an example of local content preference. We'll engage investors to set and monitor targets for achieving the increasing levels of Ghanaian participation. The Private Sector Advisory Council which I inaugurated in September will serve as the apex body to coordinate or strategize decisions affecting private sector development. As I earlier indicated, government will actively participate in the private sector led economic growth and employment creation intervention.

A critical part of expanding our economy is the expansion of infrastructure. A sound infrastructure base is crucial to the attainment of our goal to build a thriving private sector and a resilient economy for more jobs. Key among these is ready access to regular supply of power. This is why we promised to launch an Energy to Every Home Program under which universal access to electricity and energy will be our target by 2016. And let me give a definition of this; under this program all communities with a population above 500 are eligible to be connected to the national grid.

In four years we have taken Ghana's coverage of electricity from 54 percent to 72 percent. In the next four years which I know

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Ghanaians will grant us, we expect to take that coverage to above 90 percent. In-between now and 2016, we have two critical milestones to cross. As has been announced by the Volta River Authority, by the end of next month, we will end the current load management exercise that was put in place as a result of interruption in gas supply from the West African Gas Pipeline. By the end of 2013 Ghana's deficit in energy supply will be significantly minimized by the injection of more than 850 more megawatts into the transmission and thereby largely eliminate the need for load management.

These will be consolidated by increasing power generation from 2,443 megawatts to 5,000 megawatts by 2016 through an active partnership with the private sector and improvement in transmission equipment and in the longer term by 2020 to meet the demands of large consumers of energy like the iron industry to expand supply to 15,000 megawatts.

In addition, our focus on people-centred infrastructure will involve increases in social housing and improving sanitation and social facilities that promote secured settlements for improved people's welfare; continue the western and eastern corridor roads and modernize the central spine road. We shall construct a new deep sea port in the Western Region to expand Ghana's capacity for the increase in imports caused as a result of our rapidly expanding GDP, target the development of the country's potential mini hydro projects with capacities below 100 megawatts especially those located in the Northern savannah zone in partnership with SADA, develop and upgrade the port at Buipe to serve as an inland port for the five SADA regions and the Sahelian countries, commence the process for a new international airport for the nation's capital, upgrade the Tamale Airport into Ghana's second international airport, expand and modernize other airports including Kotoka at which expansion has begun already, and expand the Takoradi, Kumasi and Sunyani domestic airports to handle increasing

IEA GHANA 14 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) commercial activities and passenger load, establish aerodromes in all the other existing 10 regions of Ghana to allow access by air, accelerate the street naming and house numbering scheme.

We are also convinced of the transformational role of agriculture in our economy. We'll implement the medium term agriculture sector investment program which seeks to significantly modernize agriculture and also improve productivity to world standards. A lot of improvement has taken place in this regard already. Farmers are the beneficiaries of tractor services, of improved seeds, of subsidized fertilizer and that is showing in agricultural production. Indeed for those who have expressed doubts about our performance in agriculture, I wish to state that the food index, the food basket has been the main driver in our achieving single digit inflation. That could not be possible if our agricultural industry was suffering.

Ladies and gentlemen, the long cherished vision of our citizens for Ghana's very own national carrier will be realized under our next term of office. We believe that the aviation industry is a major source of employment and job creation for our people and must not be left only to foreign airlines. It is our intention to partner with the private sector to make this happen. I'm convinced and determined that together we can reach new heights of growth and development. Fellow Ghanaians all these initiatives on the economy and infrastructure are the foundation for the creation of sustainable jobs. The issue of jobs has become a global challenge and everywhere in the world, it is a significant challenge facing all nations from the United States to France to South Africa.

The attention of governments has been squarely focused on how to expand their job markets, to put people who have been laid off, back to work, and on how to absorb new entrants into the job market. Ladies and gentlemen, Ghana is no exception. Whilst the National Youth Employment Program and other job schemes have provided

IEA GHANA 15 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) us some transitory relief, we need to sustain the expansion of the economy in other to create permanent employment and sustainable jobs. And this, NDC guarantees. We have the track record of growing the economy.

Under the China Development Bank facility, we have reserved 100 million dollars as a business incubator fund for small and medium enterprises. In the next face of Ghana's transition, SME's will be one of the main drivers in terms of accelerating the growth of our economy and more importantly in terms of becoming avenues for job creation. Recently in my address at the United Nations General Assembly, I announced that we have developed the blueprint for a young entrepreneurs program. This program will guide and assist young graduates and other youth to set up business enterprises of their own in any sector of their choice.

They would be assisted to develop feasibility studies and business plans. They would be provided with start-up finance and capital. They would be provided with mentorship and technical support and eventually graduated from the program. This program will help them become employers providing jobs for others instead of employees seeking jobs from others. A linkage will be established with other funds such as the Venture Capital Fund and the Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF) to achieve this same purpose of creating young entrepreneurs.

Expansion of local content to cover all sectors will guarantee protection of jobs for Ghanaians. Investors who employ expatriates will be required to find or train appropriately skilled Ghanaians to fill the positions within a given time frame or pay an incremental penalty the longer they continue to use expatriates workers in those positions. Government will review the procurement laws to give added advantage to indigenous companies and suppliers of made in Ghana goods. Government will

IEA GHANA 16 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) use its position as the biggest spender in the economy to promote the indigenous private sector.

Working with the Association of Ghana Industries, the Private Enterprise Foundation and the Ghana Employers Association, and other private sector business associations, we will use government's significant financial muscle to create industries and manufacturing concerns in areas in which Ghana has a comparative advantage. These will take the form of guarantees to support the private sector or public private partnerships in which government will reduce its participation over time and hand over those industries completely to the private sector. This has been piloted under the SADA initiative resulting in the setting up of three industries in collaboration with PBC and Avnash Industries Ltd.

Upstream, midstream, and downstream of the oil and gas industry, jobs are being produced for which we must be ready. In this regard, the Takoradi Polytechnic and Takoradi Technical Institute are being assisted to increase their capacity to train skilled human resources specifically for this sector. This will within a short period of time introduce thousands of sustainable jobs. With the current commercial exploitation of crude oil and gas and the other natural resources of which God has blessed us with, the foundation now exists for an integrated aluminium industry based on bauxite, a petro-chemical industry based on salt and natural gas, a fertilizer industry to give impetus to agro development, a salt based chemical industry for caustic soda, allied consumer products, and exports based on oil and gas and the much anticipated integrated iron and steel industry based on the iron ore deposits at Opon Manso in the Western Region.

Relatively cheap gas-fired energy for the Ghana Gas Company will also facilitate the full revival of the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO), – I know Dr. Charles Mensah will be happy – the textile

IEA GHANA 17 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) industries and the ventures in their value chain, the ceramic brick and tile manufacturers, the glass factory and the steel mills. To prevent what is referred to as the Dutch-disease which is a feature of hydro-carbon rich countries, we will continue to invest in modernized agriculture as I said earlier.

Other sectors that would be expected to increase employment as a direct result of our initiatives in the four years include the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies resulting from the creation of 46 new districts in addition to the earlier 60 districts created by the NPP administration. The rural enterprise will be also a job creation, the Northern Rural Growth Program is one of them, SADA's investments scheme is another, the Western Corridor Development Authority, the security services (that's the police, fire services, army), the Graduate Business Support Scheme, the Ghana Education Services because we need more teachers for the expansion in education, ICT and business process outsourcing.

An expanded infrastructure facilitates the contributions of all Ghanaians to national development. This also creates the opportunities for increasing numbers of Ghanaians to participate meaningfully in the economic growth of our country. Just imagine what we can achieve if we stand together as one people with one nation and one common destiny. The questions that I hear asked are, how do these impact on me and my family? This is the area in which NDC's track record of putting people first counts.

I would like to speak to the various people I have met during my recent travel through the nation and to all the people in our country, the citizens whose lives will be impacted by these policies and programs that are being presented. I come from a family that understood first-hand the power of education to change a person's life. My father's very first profession before he entered politics and later became a farmer was a teacher. He laid the ground work for a

IEA GHANA 18 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) number of individuals – not just his children to be able to attend school. I know and respect the importance of education; the value that it brings not only to the students but also to their families; indeed to their communities and to the entire nation.

So too did the architects who set down the foundation of this fourth republic of ours. The drafters of our 1992 Constitution, the ordinary people of this country who participated in that process, in their wisdom provided for the implementation of free universal basic education. It was with foresight that they gave a definite time period for the implementation of this provision. They specified that within 10 years after coming into force of this Constitution, there shall be free compulsory universal basic education. Allowances were also made in the case of secondary and tertiary education and they said that secondary education in it's different forms including technical and vocation education shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education.

Progressive introduction of free education, Subsection C of that same Article it comes from Article 25, also dealt with higher education and said higher education shall be made equally accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education. They had a reason why they did this. For FCUBE they said within 10 years, for secondary and for tertiary they said progressive introduction of free education.

No president who has sworn the oath to defend the Constitution Ghana as I have done and as previous presidents have done can stand unilaterally against the implementation of the provisions of that Constitution. We have committed to MDG2 which aims at attaining universal primary education by 2015. Ladies and gentlemen, citizens of Ghana, as I speak with you tonight 18.3

IEA GHANA 19 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) percent of children who should be in primary school are not in school, 53.9 percent of children who should be in junior high school are not in school. The existing infrastructure 8,557 junior high schools cannot absorb the P6 pupils coming from 14,360 primary schools.

As I've indicated, our Constitution guarantees free compulsory universal basic education. We currently pay ¢4.50 per child per year for basic education. The reality is that basic education is still free, not compulsory nor universal. Parents are still compelled to bear some cost at the basic level. As a social democratic party we believe that education is a right and that there must be equity in terms of access and quality education for all. Therefore by 2016, we intend to ensure that basic education is completely free for all, as the constitution mandates us to do.

Our commitment is to eliminate all identified schools under trees and replace them with classroom blocks with ancillary facilities, continue the school construction program to eliminate the shift system from the public school system. We shall review the capitation grant periodically to keep pace with cost levels at the basic level. We'll progressively expand coverage of the school feeding program to all public basic schools in rural and needy communities. We'll continue the free distribution of exercise books and school uniforms and ensure improvements in special needs education for children with special needs. We will also agree with GNAT, PTAs and all other stakeholders on a road map for enforcing the compulsory aspect of the FCUBE program. To cater for the increased demand for teachers when FCUBE is fully implemented, we will increase admissions to existing teacher training colleges and also establish at least ten new colleges of education in the medium term to be located in areas not well served currently to deal with the shortfall in the number of teachers at the basic level.

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A one year specialized skills training program for teachers interested in early childhood development will also be pursued because it's our belief that the foundation of education is the kindergarten and nursery level, and often when you get that wrong you get the rest of years in school wrong. We can reduce the burden on parents for students at the secondary level in a manner that does not compromise quality and does not squeeze resources that could be invested at the basic level to comply with the provisions of our Constitution.

When the NDC came into power there were as many 4,300 schools under trees. We've reduced that number by 1,700; and that's eliminating 40 percent of such schools. These add up to over 400,000 children who now attend schools in properly constructed classrooms. We've also distributed 43 million exercise books and 3 million school uniforms to children in deprived communities. With respect to the school feeding program, when we came into power in 2008, resources available could only provide feeding for about 400,000 children. Resources for these programs have been increased so that today the school feeding program is accommodating more than one million children in this country.

Whereas in 2008 the capitation grant provided ¢3.00 for each school going child, that grant was increased by us to ¢4.50. By building new classrooms, we have further been able to offer the necessary infrastructure so that they can eliminate the shift system especially in Accra and offer continuous daily instruction to all students. Also significant is the motivation of teachers through the single spine salary program. Teachers have seen their wages increase significantly thereby boosting morale and lessening the weight of their own personal burdens and enabling them to focus on their students.

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All throughout Ghana, we see so many uncompleted projects; good ideas that somehow got left behind in the race for the promise of something bigger and better. But these are not just projects; we must see them as people. This program should not be left uncompleted when it comes to basic education. No child in Ghana should be left behind. At the secondary and tertiary level our program is to improve access by building 200 new community secondary schools in districts that do not have them currently. To build 10 new colleges of education in areas with a high student to teacher ratio to produce more teachers for basic and secondary level, to expand facilities in established secondary schools to enable them take more students, to revamp, retool and expand all technical vocational and polytechnic schools, to build accommodation in schools to take in 20,000 teachers and their families.

President John Dramani Mahama Delivers His Speech

We have a prototype of this almost at completion at the Ho Poly that accommodates 20 teaching families. We intend to replicate this in secondary schools, polytechnics and all other institutions all over the country: To standardize fees at the secondary levels, to increase

IEA GHANA 22 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) subsidies and bursaries especially for deprive families; to work with GETFund, NCTE and the accreditation board to build the capacity of polytechnics in terms of faculty and infrastructure for them to become fully fledged technical universities; and to establish a new public university in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

A government under my administration will consolidate education at the basic level and continue to improve on the standards at all other levels that have enjoyed significant measures of improvement since 2009. We will do everything step by step to ensure that everybody enjoys quality education in the coming years. As you can see all these re-establish the focus to build capacities for accelerated development.

Quality health care; the NDC's 2012 manifesto acknowledges the fact that Ghana has a double disease burden, communicable and non-communicable. Over the last four years, we have pursued very successful initiatives to deal with the burden of these diseases, namely: establishing 10 new polytechnics, building 12 district hospitals, 19 health centres and 1,300 community health improvement planning and service compounds popularly known as the CHIPS compounds.

We have completed the first face of the rehabilitation of the Tamale Teaching Hospital and the refurbishment of regional hospitals at Cape-Coast and Ho. Sunyani is to be undertaken. In addition to the installation of 6 MRI machines in hospitals, there has been provision of 161 ambulances to facilitate rapid response to medical emergencies among others. These were highlighted as testimony to the foundation we are building to secure a better health for our people.

Ladies and gentlemen, over the past four years these improvements in medical equipment coupled with human resource development, relevant legislation and increased government financial

IEA GHANA 23 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) commitment have ensured a healthy nation as captured by the 2009 to 2012 annual report of the Ghana Health Service. Percentage of delivery supervised by health workers has increased from 2008, 41.7 to 52.2. Incidence of guinea worm in 2008 reduced from 501 to zero in 2010. Number of functional CHIPS compounds increased from 409 in 2008 to 1,675 in 2010. Within the next four years we will complete our long standing grand plan of providing a modern regional hospital in each of the ten regions of Ghana.

We shall commerce the construction of regional hospitals and again in the Eastern Region at Koforidua and in the Upper East Region at Bolgatanga, and push on and complete the regional hospital project in Wa in the Upper West Region. We are also committed to upgrading the Central and Volta Regional hospitals into teaching hospitals to serve as the medical schools of the University of Cape Coast and the University of Health and Allied Sciences.

In addition we will establish new district hospitals in districts without such facilities and more polytechnics in each of the ten regions as well as introduce new infectious diseases management centres. We shall also continue the construction of both the schools of biomedical sciences at the University of Ghana Legon and the University of Health and Allied Science at Ho. Existing midwifery and nurses training colleges will be expanded and new colleges established in underserved areas. It is our aim to improve patient to health worker ratio through the provision of these facilities with the ultimate aim of improving on the long waiting time in our health facilities.

I salute the efforts of persons living with HIV and AIDS and applaud the National AIDS Commission on the great job they are doing. Government is supporting the new five year national strategic plan with 150 million Ghana cedis whose goal is the virtual elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV and expansion of access to antiretroviral medication.

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Persons with disability have witnessed the creation of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities and its related regulations and programs which include the on-going ICT training for 5,000 people with disability and the use of 2 percent of the district assembly's common fund to address challenges facing persons with disability. Beneficiaries of the LEAP and their corresponding 71,000 households over the past four years have been integrated into the National Health Insurance Scheme. We shall continue to provide the needed social protection to all vulnerable groups including children, women and in some cases men.

We shall continue to empower females through increasing the proportion of female beneficiaries of the mathematics, science and technology scholarship schemes to not less than 40 percent of the total; passing the Spousal Bill; and establishing and sustaining micro-finance schemes for women. The government of the NDC has made progress on its commitment to appoint many more women to positions of authority in government. We supported and applauded the appointment by Parliament of the first female speaker. We appointed the first chairperson of the National Commission on Civic Education, a female, and the first substantive female Commissioner on Human Rights and Administrative Justice.

As well as appointing more women to ministerial and deputy ministerial and other government positions, we believe that women have an important role to play in the governance of our country and are even more committed to having many more women in positions of authority in the next NDC government. We are encouraged that several women are contesting the parliamentary elections this year and are optimistic that a good number of them will win their seats and create an expanded pool of female talents from which it would be possible to select appointees to ministerial and deputy ministerial positions.

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We have also drafted an Affirmative Action Bill which is now going through the consultation process and once this is completed it would be finalized for presentation to cabinet and to Parliament. The objective of this bill is to create the legal basis for positive intervention to assist women and other traditionally disadvantaged groups to overcome those disadvantages and achieve their full potential. We have also sent the Property Rights of Spouses Bill and the Interstate Succession Amendment Bill to Parliament for their consideration; in order to have legislation to assist our women to have the protection they deserve.

My tenure will continue to make the working conditions of medical doctors, nurses and other health workers a priority. We will ensure that they are duly motivated to provide the quality health delivery that we all want them to provide us. Our democracy needs to grow beyond the election cycle and my personal conviction is that once elections are held and a leader is chosen, partisan political posturing must give way to a coordinated national agenda. If we are to be truly one Ghana then we must begin to work together for the good of Ghana and all Ghanaians. Therefore as your president I wish to reiterate my earlier promise that I will hold regular consultation with leaders of other registered political parties at which meetings critical national issues will be discussed outside the partisan forums of Parliament and the polarized media.

I believe this is necessary to signal to our supporters that we have a shared vision for a better Ghana despite our disagreements on how to achieve this. Under my stewardship, the various arms of government will be empowered to perform their functions effectively and contribute their quota to national development. This is not rhetoric; as you are aware, the JOB 600 office complex for our MPs is near completion to provide decent office accommodation for our legislators. As a former MP myself, I know how the attainment of this singular feat will transform law making in this country. This and the allocation of 50 million Ghana cedis for

IEA GHANA 26 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) the construction of constituency duty post for all MPs and the establishment of a democracy fund will greatly enhance the contribution of the legislature in our quest to make Ghana a better place for us all.

Our decentralization efforts have been remarkable in moving development investment to the more remote communities in our country and promoting active participatory democracy in the remotest villages of our country. Under my leadership during the next term, we will address the burning issue of fair remuneration for members and leadership of the assemblies in tandem with more aggressive revenue mobilization efforts by the assemblies. All over the world a credible legal regime is a prerequisite for secure investment and economic advancement. We'll support continuous education for the judiciary to improve the delivery of justice and when it is completed the Court Complex named after the late President, John Evans Atta Mills will also improve the conditions under which justice is administered.

It is my fervent belief that these investments in the judicial arm of government will attract additional investment both local and foreign to further advance and change the course of the country's economy for the better. My brothers and sisters, if there is anything that detracts from the advancements of developing countries across the world it is corruption. Under my watch we'll give impetus to the fight against corruption through leadership by example. We'll take pragmatic steps including the enactment of legislation and enforcement of existing laws. A comprehensive review of the Criminal Offences Act will be undertaken to define corruption to encompass all corruption related offences and to cover all offences that fall under the scope of the United Nations convention against corruption and the African Union convention on preventing and combating corruption. Regulations under the public officer's liability act will be enacted in

IEA GHANA 27 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) order to give legal force to the guidelines on conflict of interest and code of conduct for public officers prepared by CHRAJ. The financial administration tribunal will be established and begin operation with the first year of the next NDC administration.

To guarantee transparency on how resources are used, our government ratified the extractive industry transparency initiative. The Petroleum Revenue Management Act was also passed under this government and it has provided an open and transparent system for disclosure and monitoring of petroleum revenues. The public interest and accountability committee is functioning effectively. The Accra Redevelopment Policy will be revised to provide a coherent and transparent policy on acquisition of public lands.

The next NDC government will immediately implement the Freedom of Information Act and I urge Parliament to pass it as speedily as possible. I will give assent to that act the very day that it is brought to my desk for approval. In connection with the fight against narcotics, we shall make NACOB a security agency and also seek to convert NACOB into an autonomous commission to empower them for more effective execution of their mandates.

We shall give no quarter when it comes to the fight against drugs. Our commitment is to further resource and strengthen the security agencies with the view to establishing a more stable and peaceful country. And I pledge that under my presidency, this election will be free, fair and transparent and that Ghana will continue to be the beacon of democracy in Africa. This pledge I make over and over again and let it resonate across our country and the world. Let me say that our desire for seeking re-election on December 7th is driven by our solid record in office and our commitment to build a prosperous and equitable society. Under the next NDC government, our economic performance will be deepened and diversified as the basis for the provision of the basic human needs of our people. We'll energize the entire country by creating a rapid expansion of

IEA GHANA 28 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) the energy sector. Our infrastructure development will be intensified to catalyse and accelerate the transformation of Ghana. Our governance will be more thoroughly decentralized to enable citizens to access resources and demand accountability for services. Our private sector and facilitation programs will complement those of the public sector in our quest for accelerated growth and job creation. Our industrial development, notably in the energy sector, will be the basis for pursing a value-added, diversified and productive economy. Our agriculture will be modernized to involve strong partnership between private agriculture investors and small holder peasant farmers in a manner that introduces capital, technology and expanded local and global market access.

Our educational assets will be rapidly expanded to provide equitable access for every child to enter and complete basic education and progress to secondary education. All of these will enable our economy to expand, creating the needed jobs that would propel prosperity. We aim to consolidate the 'people first' social contract long established with the people of Ghana through our 2008 manifesto and the pro people policy we've championed since assuming office.

This is a new Africa existing in a new era and with this must come a new style of leadership with new philosophies and new ideas on how to integrate the firm foundations and clear visions that were forged by our past leaders into a better society. This vision of a new Africa was what I articulated in my speech at the UN general assembly.

I grew up primarily in the North as a teacher, an educationist, a politician and a farmer. I attended high school in Tamale, lived and worked there for a while after graduating. I served my professional terms in public office with modesty. I represented my people in Parliament and I provided my stewardship at every level of human endeavour with humility and respect. As I look across the diverse representation in this room I see every Ghanaian here and the

IEA GHANA 29 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) millions watching at home with whom I can recognize parts of my own story. We are all a part of one another and we cannot afford to live with policies and promises that will divide us into those who have and those who have not.

On December 7th when you pick up that ballot paper you would face the clearest choice of any time in a generation. A choice between two distinctly different parts for Ghana, a choice between giving more and more to the haves in the hope that it would somehow someday trickle down to the have-nots; and also a choice that is based on equity and opportunity for all regardless of background, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of religious, political or private affiliation.

When I'm elected into office as President of Ghana and supported by a wide majority in Parliament I will work with my all my energy and soul to make sure that Ghana remains a country of equal opportunity, social justice and the pursuit of happiness by all irrespective of class and privilege. I would work tirelessly to restore Ghana to its pioneering role in Africa. And with your help we will deliver, but we must do it united as one; one people inextricably linked together by one future.

Take Ghana's destiny into our own hands. The decision as to what future will belongs to each of us. It belongs just as much to you as it does to anybody else. So exercise your right to give voice to that choice. Vote for John Dramani Mahama obviously – John Dramani Mahama and NDC's Better Ghana Agenda. I'll work to unite a divided country that is increasingly losing faith in the political elite and is beginning to question the significance of multi-party democracy that focuses less on lifting us as a people than lifting themselves up as individuals and celebrities.

God bless our homeland Ghana and make our nation great and strong.

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QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

Moderator (Bernard Avle): Ladies and gentlemen, we've come to an important juncture of the program where His Excellency will take questions from carefully selected individuals and groups. Each person has 30 seconds within which to ask one question and your Excellency, you have three minutes to manage or attempt an answer. We will encourage you not to make statements, but to ask questions because it is a privilege that not many people will get.

Being the moderator I will seize the opportunity to ask the first question. I know that you've spoken about education but your main opponent has made free education his mantra and he has also said that he will terminate basic education at SHS. I heard you say that you are prepared to debate him on education. How different is your approach to basic and secondary education from that of your main opponent, the NPP candidate?

John Dramani Mahama: That is exactly the point I was making. Our vision for education is in our Constitution. And so our work is cut out for us. As president you must comply with the Constitution. Within 10 years basic education must be free, compulsory and universal; that is a given. And so we all must work to achieve that. Senior high school must be made progressively free and accessible on an equal and equitable balance. And so that is the vision for this country. It's not a single person's vision. Nobody should attempt to steal the vision of the constitution drafters.

The point here is that of the 100 percent of children who start primary school, when they come out at P6, 93.7 percent of them complete primary school, 66 percent continue into JHS and

IEA GHANA 31 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) complete JHS. Now only 34 percent continue into senior high school and so there definitely is a problem with equity of access and quality. At the junior level let me tell you something, parents have supposedly free public schools to send their children but most parents will tell you that they pay more to send their children to quality private schools in order to guarantee that they can progress to the next level. And so we are saying that free is not just the issue, the issue is about quality.

At the secondary level, public schools are still preferred over private schools because we are paying fees and the schools are able to use the fees to keep the schools running. If you say you are going to take it away in the manner that is being suggested, I'm saying that we can take fees away in a certain manner that guarantees that quality is not affected. Free secondary high school must be implemented based on the proper roadmap and not just on the campaign promise of somebody who wants to get elected as president.

That should be the basis. There have been examples of it in Africa, and I could name countries and their reports that have appraised the implementation of free secondary schools in those countries that show that there are problems with them because they were made on whimsical promises of a politician.

Angela Mensah (Peace Ambassador): The Media, ladies and gentlemen, I am Angela Mensah, an eight- year-old peace ambassador. Your Excellency in your party's manifesto you have promised to build 200 more senior high schools but I want to know what would you do if voted as president to ensure that senior high school education becomes affordable for all?

Secondly, your Excellency, I am an eight-year-old class five pupil, a daughter of a taxi driver and an “Asana” seller in Dome preaching

IEA GHANA 32 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) peace everywhere. You are the president of the country and the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. What measures would you put in place to ensure that we have a transparent and violence free election?

John Dramani Mahama: As I said we will invest in building 200 more senior high schools in new districts that don't have them in order to cater to and expand access for children who currently do not have access to senior high school. In respect of affordability of the senior high school, the point I'm making is our priority in terms of extra investment will be to fully comply with the constitution at the basic level. Extra resources available will be used to reduce the burden that currently exists on parents. And I made this very clear that we will reduce the burden; one, by standardizing the fees.

I have an example of fees from various secondary schools: you have some schools paying AMA levy. Others pay worker motivation fees and all kinds of fees that secondary schools have introduced themselves. The directive is for the GES to standardize the fees. Fees must be the same in every secondary school in this country so that we take out unauthorized fees. Aside from that, we are already subsidising secondary school education. We pay full tuition because we pay all the teachers, and aside from that we give a government subsidy to the schools which are under the body of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools. I have said that we will increase that subsidy in order to reduce the amount that parents pay. In addition, we are going to expand the bursaries and scholarships that are available. Already we have the Cocoa Board scholarships. We have the Northern Feeding Grant which reduces the pressure on Northern parents. We also have the GETFund scholarship. So we are going to expand those scholarships, create a directory of scholarships so that we are able to capture families that find it difficult to pay and assist them to be able to put their children

IEA GHANA 33 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) through school. That is our policy for making secondary education affordable.

But like I said, the Constitution enjoins us to make it progressively free. And so what we must do is while these interventions are working, as resources become more available we will continue to take away the fees until finally no parent will pay fees at the senior high school level. That is our program.

There was a second part to the question: what steps are we taking to ensure that elections are transparent and violent free?

The first step is my personal pledge as your president that I would ensure that elections are transparent and violence free. And I would respect the verdict of the people of this country. Secondly you called my full title, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. I am working with the armed forces. I have asked them to give me a security plan for the elections. And they are doing this. They've held consultations with the Electoral Commission to ask what security the Electoral Commission needs to guarantee that people are able to cast their vote in a transparent and free manner void of intimidation.

And when that plan is presented we shall implement it to make sure that our elections are free and fair. But let me say there is always a certain residual fear when it comes to elections. We've done this five times successfully. We shall do it again a sixth time. Let nobody put fear in your minds that we won't be able to do this. We would do it a sixth time successfully and Ghana will continue to be the model of democracy in Africa.

Prince Asafo-Adjei (Trades Union Congress): Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen good evening. My name is Prince Asafo-Adjei. I'm representing Kwabena Nyarko of the TUC.

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Your Excellency as you rightly intimated, in recent years Ghana has achieved significant economic growth basically measured by GDP growth and macroeconomic stability. We've seen our economy grow by about 14 percent last year. We have achieved consistent low inflation in the last 25 months but these achievements have occurred within Ministry of Employment and rising youth joblessness. We also have difficulties in the functions of our labour market institutions; some are malfunctioning. If you take for instance the Labour Department, the National Labour Commission and then the other labour institutions, especially market information systems. So under your presidency the TUC wants to find out what programs and policies you have to support labour market institutions to promote industrial relations in the country and to ensure that in future economic growth and development translates into the creation of decent jobs in the right quantities?

John Dramani Mahama: Let me start by saying that when I spoke about job creation and jobs, I noted that the main driver that would create jobs, sustainable jobs in this economy is the growth of our economy. If we are able to keep the growth of our economy between 8 and 10 percent, what it means is that potentially we can double that economy every six to seven years. And if Ghana's economy went from the current 70 billion to 140 billion, that naturally will throw up hundreds of thousands of sustainable jobs. And so keeping the foot on the accelerator and making sure that we keep the growth rate at not less than 8 percent, between 8 and 10 percent means that we can expand the economy and expand available jobs so that more young people can acquire jobs.

One of the things that we intend to do is also in the next term of office – we've started doing, we are doing it with some international organizations, is to increase the capacity of the Statistical Services to track unemployment and also job creation. We should be able to

IEA GHANA 35 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) know every quarter, how many jobs have been created, we should be able know how many people are unemployed. These are statistics that are made available in other countries every day. And so we've started the process with the Statistical Services and in the next term of office we'll be able to get functional figures to know what the scale of the problem we are dealing with is. And whether we are making progress or we are not making progress.

Currently all figures about job creation are anecdotal. They are not based on real scientific survey. And so that is a problem. In our manifesto we recognise the labour department and the other labour institutions and we are going to invest in strengthening them; not only in terms of resourcing them but in terms of providing the kind of human resource capacity that is useful for engaging labour in terms of labour disputes and creating a congenial atmosphere for labour to be able to realize its full potential.

But let me say the face of unions and labour movements is changing. All over the world, labour unions are focusing more on how to create jobs and how to protect jobs. Before you were a significant labour leader based on how many strikes you've led, how many shutdowns you've caused to your organization; that has changed. Today labour leader is now mainly how you are able to help to expand the industry in which you are working to take on more workers and increase the number of members of your union and how to protect those jobs and make sure that those jobs do not get eroded.

And so we'll work with labour – we have a record of working with labour because we are a social democratic party and labour is our natural ally even though in this circumstance they have to be non- partisan. But we'll work with labour in order that we are able to create a congenial atmosphere for them to be able to survive.

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Moderator (Bernard Avle): Mr President just a quick follow up. Do you think the Single Spine Salary Structure has been worth it because we spent billions of Ghana cedis on it and as we speak there are nurses on strike? So even though you are migrating people onto it, some elements of labour are not happy with how it's being done. Do you think the time, money and effort spent on it have been worth it?

John Dramani Mahama: Very good question! As I gave you the figures, we have seen an exponential increase in our wage bill. That money is going into some people's pockets. It's going into the pockets of public sector workers. And so everybody has seen an exponential increase in their salaries. The quarrels are about, 'Why have you given this one market premium and you haven't given me?' It's not about the quantum that has been added and I know the tradition here is not to talk and show people's pay slips etc. because the spouse must not know exactly how much his partner is earning.

But I do wish that workers will be bold and courageous and come and say; 'look this is what I was earning before the Single Spine, this is what I'm earning now'. You know, there's been an exponential increase but the most important thing that we must think about is productivity. Our productivity in this country is low.

And so to whom much is given much is expected. Government has done its part – it was a very difficult policy to implement. As I speak, we have to take the remuneration on a monthly basis out first – we call it Item 1, that one you can't joke with it. Salaries must be in the banks before you take out Items 2 and 3 and the others for general services to the public. And so if the country is making that sacrifice in respect of trying to pay you well I think that the public sector workers must also reciprocate by increasing productivity and efficiency.

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Dr Steve Manteaw (Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas): Thank you very much. I represent the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas. Your Excellency I would say your presentation this evening has been very inspiring. Two issues got my attention; your gas development and utilization program and your position on corruption. This is because even before we take off with our gas there are already concerns. This afternoon the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas at a press conference called on you to institute a high panel probe into the activities of Ghana Gas Company. They are unhappy about management intransigence, questionable procurement through which Ghana must have been short changed, issues related to transfer pricing manipulation etc. They are also unhappy about the manner of the establishment of Ghana Gas Company as a limited liability company and yet financed hundred percent with public money. These arrangements they've made extricates the company from parliamentary oversight and for which reason is has been difficult to call Ghana Gas Company to order.

They are concerned because this is our oil money. They want Ghana Gas Company restructured as an affiliate of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation to tap into the latest expertise and experience as well as to enhance to the corporate profile and leverage of GNPC in the industry. My information is that these issues have come to your attention. Now the question; Will you consider setting up an enquiry into the affairs of Ghana National Gas Company as being demanded by my group? And will you be amenable to reconsider the nature of the establishment of Ghana Gas Company as being demanded by the group?

John Dramani Mahama: Indeed I appreciate the role of civil society in the work that we do and I do know that your coalition of civil society organizations is doing a great a job. Shortly after I was sworn in as president, a

IEA GHANA 38 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) document came to my attention that somebody brought to me and made all kinds of allegations, in respect of, I think some of the issues that you are talking about. I called for a briefing on it. I was given a briefing on it by the minister. I called for a larger meeting which I had about two weeks ago. I had the chairman of the board, the CEO, Ministry of Energy, GNPC a few of the stakeholders together and actually went through the issues that were discussed.

Following that, I asked the minister to get the author of the document; apparently they knew who had authored the document and so we wanted to meet him face to face to determine what the real issues were. Following that I asked the minister to engage an appropriate technical person to carry out an audit based on the allegations that had been made in that paper. My understanding is that that audit is on-going and when I get the report on it, it will inform me to be able to take further decisions that need to be taken.

We are happy to hear your views about restructuring Ghana Gas Company. I think that what we want is the best for Ghana. And if your views are the best for Ghana I don't have any hesitation implementing them. I was not part of the current structure that was established but I would have thought that enough consultation would have been held to come out with the current structure that exists. But if you still have concerns and it's an issue that we can deal with why not, I would be happy to do that.

Dr. Frank Serebour (Ghana Medical Association): My name is Dr. Frank Serebour the General-Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association. Indeed we are very excited to hear that you are willing to motivate workers to perform to their best ability. But for over a year now since our migration onto the single spine salary structure we still have issues outstanding with the National Labour Commission that we have not been able to resolve. We have actually personally, or should I say we have petitioned you personally to intervene in some of the issues but indeed Mr.

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President your silence is quite palpable. You have not answered our plea for over two months now. And so we are not sure of your commitment to motivate health workers to be able to give of their best. So we will like you to assure us that you are really committed to ensure that you are going to do your best to address our issues.

Indeed side by side to these issues is actually the policies of your government now and in the future to actually attract and retain health workers to the deprived areas of the country. It is sometimes very appalling and we not able to get head or tail as to exactly what is happening and so we will be happy to hear your policies; how are you going to actually attract and retain workers to the deprived areas of this country?

John Dramani Mahama: Let me start by saying that my attention has not been drawn to this petition you indicate you've referred to me since I became President. I received a few reports from the Ghana Medical Association at different times you know, reporting about some labour issue or some issue of concern when I was vice president. But they were more like informational letters. Since I became president I haven't had a petition addressed to me, at least my attention has not come to it. The petition that I got was to review the processes of medical attention for the President.

And you remember the one you did after the death of Professor Mills; I remember that one but since then I haven't seen any other one. But let me say that even if you've petitioned me – the thing for our attention is to try and make the labour mechanisms work without interference from the political establishment – that is what got us into this situation in the first place. If some group of people went on strike, and to satisfy them, the president gives them an increase. If another group went on strike, give them an increase. And so we've created a situation where one person was earning this another person earning that – they were doing the same jobs by job

IEA GHANA 40 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) description. So we came up with the SSSS and the SSSS is meant to try and equalize and pay people the same amount for work of equal value. That is the underlying principle behind the whole single spine structure.

Now if different organizations keep petitioning me as President and I call Fair Wages and ask them to 'give it to them, give it to them', we will end up destroying the structure that we are trying to establish. And that is why as president I must be careful in terms of interfering in wage negotiations and so I know Professor Mills had that policy and I also have that policy. If it's absolutely necessary, of course I'm the chief executive of this country; I'd look at it. But as far as negotiations are still possible and ongoing, I must allow the process to progress. We must build the capacity of the Fair Wages Commission to supervise and superintend labour remuneration in this country.

And I will do my best to be able to do that so that we create a situation where all of us are able to advance together. The problems about this kind of thing and why sometimes it becomes difficult is the amount of money we've already spent in terms of Single Spine in increasing salaries.

Now we've introduced something they call market premium – you are very aware of that and we've come out with guidelines for applying the market premium; different groups are agitating about different things – I'm not a labour expert so I don't understand the basis on which those agitations are. The ones who are labour experts will come and advise me from time to time. But the thing about that Singe Spine is, as soon as you touch one part, it affects another part. When you give doctors, suddenly nurses will appear. Or pharmacists will appear and say, 'hey why did you give doctors this?'

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That is the problem, everybody believes his profession is the ultimate and paramount. It's a murky area I'm not willing to get involved in. But if it becomes absolutely and ultimately necessary as a chief executive, I will look at some of those things and see what is fair.

Retaining health workers in deprived districts has been a major problem not only with health workers but with teachers and other professionals. And that is why we must try and create a situation where we have balanced development in this country that no matter where in this country you work, you have access to basic quality services. That is a challenge for us. Until we able to do that – who doesn't prefer to work in the urban sector, nobody wants to go and work in a little village and be deprived of electricity and water and other facilities. And that is why government is investing in that part of the country; in the rural areas. We are trying to provide housing so that when you go, there is a house there. You don't have to go look for some landlord who will ask you to pay three years rent advance.

And so one of the policies we have in our agenda for the next four years is to build teachers housing on campuses. I said that we will take 20,000 teachers out of the house market and put them in accommodations in schools. We have the same agendas for health workers. We want to take 5,000 health workers out of the housing market and put them in accommodation in the places where they work. And that will help retain them; other incentives like assisting them to buy cars on hire purchase are things that we are willing and able to do.

Aside from that we have sent 250 children to Cuba for training and I was lampooned about this; about the choice of the students. The criteria was that we should take children from deprived communities and from areas where the patient to doctor ratio is

IEA GHANA 42 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) terrible so that when those children come back we will post them back to their own places of origin. Somebody says 'why are there not more Akan names, why are there more northern names, why are there more names of this ethnicity?' I mean we've reduced our politics to such.

But the criteria used were to take children from deprived communities. And so Upper West where one doctor is looking after almost 60,000 patients naturally had quite a good number. We took children from the “Zongos”. We took girls, Muslim girls to train as gynaecologists, because some Muslim women prefer to be examined by women not by men. And so there was good thinking that went into it.

When these 250 children that are training come back, we are going to post them back to their areas and we expect that they would work there to justify the investment that government has made.

Bishop Godson Akpalu (Ghana Mental Health Association): My name is Godson King Akpalu, president of the Ghana Mental Health Association. Two weeks ago BBC and Human Rights Watch gave a damaging report on the state of mental health care in Ghana in which they exposed gross human rights abuses in prayer camps and even in government psychiatric hospitals. This must be a great embarrassment to all of us. Thank God that you and you and your government have passed a modern mental health law which would address all of the concerns of this report.

On behalf of all mental health patients, practitioners and advocates I sincerely wish to congratulate you and your government on your bold step in the enactment of the mental health law after many years of fierce battle. With this I will humbly appeal to the audience to join me in according the president and the NDC government a big applause for the mental health bill.

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The law stipulates that it shall be implemented six month after its enactment. It was assented to on 31st May 2012, six months comes to 30th November, 2012. Your Excellency what steps will you take to establish the Mental Health Board in the next one month in order not to breach the law? And will you consider creating a mental health living to free the mental health fund to ensure full implementation of the law?

John Dramani Mahama: Let me thank you president of the Mental Health Association for a very good question. I actually have been an advocate for the passage of the Ghana Mental Health Act. I was a visitor at the Yale University where some of our young doctors and others were training and the subject matter they took up was in the mental health arena. And one of the main issues was the mental health bill. At that particular session I got more information about that particular bill and so I became an advocate for it. When I got back as vice- president, I found out where the bill was. We did as much as possible to push it, get it through to Parliament and eventually Parliament passed it. We are happy that the bill has been passed. The bill would go a long way to help us remove some of the negative stigma and reports that you are seeing in international studies about the state of our mental health if properly implemented.

My information is that the board is in the process of being established. Some suggested names in respect of the board have come to my attention and as you have said we'll try and push it as quickly as possible so that we have the board in place. I think that one of the major problems with provision of quality health for mental patients is lack of personnel. Very few doctors and nurses are willing to specialize in psychiatry and most people go for the gynaecology and paediatrics, but very few want to specialize in psychiatric nursing or psychiatric health. And so that is one of the

IEA GHANA 44 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) problems we have. We need to increase the number of health workers specializing in that area of medicine.

Another thing we need to do is to integrate mental health into our general health service. We shouldn't just have facilities that are considered like mental asylums like the Accra Psychiatric Hospital. When you talk about Pantang, a certain perception goes through your mind. Mental health is a broad spectrum; some are just not normal you know, schizophrenia, others are deeper. And if I have a problem with some minor schizophrenia I would be afraid to go to Accra Psychiatric Hospital. But if in every hospital we integrate it, mainstream it in our health service so whether you go to Tamale Hospital or Cape Coast Hospital or Kumasi Hospital there is a psychiatric doctor there, there are psychiatric nurses there; and so you can go and consult and receive treatment. Or they would refer you to Pantang or Ankaful or Accra Psychiatric Hospital. I don't think people are very happy to go to places like that.

So I'm with you, I'm an advocate for it and I will continue to work with you. If you think there are problems send me a paper and we'll look at how we can implement it to the benefit of our citizens.

Mohammed Adam Nashiru (Peasant Famers' Association of Ghana): Mr President, in your earlier submission you mentioned ways of modernizing agriculture and the medium term agriculture investment program merchants was mentioned. The Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program, the CAADP is one of the programs. Mr President one of the bigger barriers to the realization of these goals is the activities of the Fulani herdsmen. The Fulani herdsmen are now a mafia group. They indulge in killing, they rape our women, they set bush fires, they destroy our water bodies; worst of all they cut down our trees. Mr President all attempts to flush them out of our farming communities have failed including Operation Cowleg led by the

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Ghana Arm Forces. Mr President should you be given the nod, what are you going to be doing differently to stop these negative practices of the Fulani herdsmen and also to stop them from cutting down the last tree so that you and I will not die?

John Dramani Mahama: This has been a very sensitive issue and it's one that we deal with. It has engaged my attention for some time because even as a Member of Parliament, one of the major problems I was negotiating between our traditional authorities, our people and the Fulani herdsmen. The accusation normally is that some traditional rulers benefit from having the Fulani herdsmen around because of obvious reasons – I won't go into that. But it is some of the traditional rulers who invite the people there in the first place.

And so often when the town's people and the youth are against them, you will find the ruler trying to protect the herdsmen and that has been the problem. In the past when we did not live in a constitutional democracy, it was easy to implement Operation Cowleg and just round them up and have soldiers march them out of the country into another country. Today we can't do the same; there are all kinds of human rights issues, there are all kinds of ECOWAS protocols that you cannot just bundle them, march them up with military force and head them into Cote d'Ivoire or into Burkina Faso; but who also says Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire want them? That it is a problem we need to deal with.

I have been averting my mind to it for some time and what I hear is that in some of our neighbouring countries, including Burkina Faso and I'm trying to encourage the Minister of Agric to go take a look at that; they have passed a ranging law. You cannot leave stray animals outside and so if you want to keep cows you must keep them and produce food to feed them. If that is the case that might account for the reason why a lot more of the Fulani herdsmen have

IEA GHANA 46 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) drifted into Ghana because in Ghana we don't have a ranging law, animals are left to stray all over. And so we are going to get our Ministry of Agriculture and the other relevant stakeholders to go the neighbouring countries and see the law that they've implemented and how they've implemented it and we also will serve notice that we are going to implement a ranging law.

And from the implementation of that law, we will help those who genuinely want to raise cattle; show them how to raise the cattle without letting the cattle range free. We've already started it. We are trying to set up fodder banks in order that we that we are able to grow fodder to feed the cattle. And so there is some work going on already but I guess that we need to fast track it because this friction between our indigenous people and the herdsmen is becoming a bit of a problem. It's led to ethnic tension in some regions; Eastern Region and some other parts and it's not something that we can allow to continue.

Kenneth Quartey (Poultry Farmers Association): Your Excellency Mr President I am sure you are as aware as anyone of the many promises made to the poultry industry in manifesto after manifesto, budget after budget and speech after speech. The challenges the local poultry industry faces are well documented. At present the Nigerian government has taken action based on its conviction that the local farmer given a just and an enabling environment can produce.

The Nigerian agriculture sector is now the fastest job creating sector in that country. And it continues to grow and position itself at great advantage to exploit the ECOWAS market when we integrate the sub-regional market. I also remind you of your express desire when you were Vice-President to launch a poultry enhancement program similar to that of cotton. You may now get that opportunity.

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With these facts in mind; What are your plans to remedy the operational funding and market challenges that the poultry industry faces and how will you reconcile these plans with the enormous pressure you will face from the European community or union and its proponents to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement bilaterally by January 2014 if you should become president for the next four years?

John Dramani Mahama: Let me start with the issue of EPAs that you referred to; the Economic Partnership Agreement. Ghana's desire is to implement economic partnership agreements in consonance with ECOWAS. And so we have been working with ECOWAS to try to have a common position in terms of EPAs with the EU but if you look at the profile of the economies of West African countries, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire stand to lose the most if we don't conclude EPAs and some sanctions are imposed. We stand to lose the most. And so while we want to go with the rest of Africa we must also look at our own economic interest.

You cited the case of Nigeria; for a long time, its major export was oil, 90 percent. And so if Nigeria decided not to buy any product from the EU, the EU couldn't say because of that we won't buy Nigerian oil and so the effect on Nigeria's economy was not going to be the same as Ghana.

Our major export for a long time has and continues to be cocoa. The major consumer of cocoa in the world is the EU. And so you go ask President Kufuor when he wanted to raise duties and taxes on poultry – I was a Member of Parliament, we passed the legislation. That legislation was never implemented because when he went out the World Bank, IMF and EU said; 'hey my friend, you want to increase duties and levies on EU poultry, you watch it'. And so we had passed the bill but it was never implemented.

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It took the NDC government – you remember when there was food crisis, actually duties and levies on poultry and rice; all those things were removed and so it made you even less competitive. It is when we came into office that we put those levies and duties back and we got criticized for it by our political opponents and they said we are making the cost of imported food high. Of course we must give our local producers an opportunity to be able to produce and that is why as Vice-President I met with you several times and tried to see what the concerns and challenges that you have are.

One of the main concerns that you have is high cost of feed. And cost of feed is high because we are not producing enough maize and soya which are the principal elements in poultry feed. And that is why it's an integrated whole. To increase poultry production in this country you must increase maize and soya production. And so you can't do one without the other. And that is what Metasip is all about. Kwesi Ahwoi spends sleepless night in order that we can encourage more farmers to grow maize, to grow more soya so that we can use some of it to feed the poultry industry and then still have enough for our banku and kenkey and tuo zaafi and other staple meals that we make out of maize.

And so we will continue to work with you. We know that that is a sector that can throw up hundreds of thousands of jobs if we encourage the poultry industry. And we'll work with you to help make it. In the past government has asked the banks to extend loans to poultry farmers but they've defaulted and they've defaulted not exactly through their fault. It's because of the adverse conditions that you face. And so we are willing to work with you to expand the poultry industry because that is one area in which we can guarantee more jobs for our young people.

Moderator (Bernard Avle): Mr President just a quick follow up on funds. You've highlighted difficulties we face because of our relationship with EU and some

IEA GHANA 49 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) people think that because of donors we are not able to take autonomous decisions. When do you foresee Ghana weaning itself off support from DANIDA and all the donors? Is that possible in the next four years as far as you think?

John Dramani Mahama: Well, when I was talking about EU and all that, I was not talking in terms of donors. I was talking in terms of WTO. You know that if you put sanctions like Nigeria did; Nigeria banned importation of poultry from anywhere you know. The other countries can also put sanctions on you in retaliation for what you've done. But I'm saying that in the case of Nigeria their principal export is oil and everybody needs oil. So nobody is going to say we won't buy Nigerian oil because they are not buying our chicken. But I'm saying that your major export is cocoa and so if you took action and said you are banning all poultry into your country just based on a protection of your market and EU said look we are going to restrict the amount of cocoa in retaliation for what you've done; I mean what will happen to us?

The situation in Nigeria and Ghana are different and that is why when you were talking about Nigeria I was just trying to draw your attention to the similarity. As for weaning ourselves off donor support, we have a program already to donors to transition out of donor support. And it's an agreement that we have signed and we believe that over the next several years, Ghana will decrease – well they've been looking at about five-year-window – I didn't want to mention the figure that is why I said over the next several years. The intention is to reduce the amount of donor support in relation to our own internally generated revenues. But the transition window is about a five-year-window. We could negotiate a slightly longer window depending on how things develop. I am optimistic that at the rate at which we are growing; if we keep at it and we keep between 8 and 10 percent consistently, every year in the next five to six years, we can do without any donor support.

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Seth Twum-Akwaboah (Association Ghana Industries): His Excellency, let me first of all acknowledge very positively your strong statement on private sector development. I think you have very laudable ideas and I will also like to acknowledge the development of the private sector strategy phase two and the industry policy for Ghana. However, there are some challenges. Today our markets are flooded with large volumes of imported products to the extent that our factories in the area of textiles, aluminium and even flour mills are at very serious threat of total collapse so we need to quickly look at it. And part of the reason is unfair trade practices in your first term of office, what would you do, because even after the establishment of the tariffs advisory board we still have serious challenges with unfair trade practices? So what will you do to solve this problem and make Ghanaian companies more competitive to manage the onslaught of these imports into our country?

John Dramani Mahama: That is a major problem that lower middle income countries and developing countries are facing in terms of increasing world competition as a result of the liberalized trade regime that we are implementing. We have decided or we have the intention of dealing with products that are dumped. Now investigating and establishing that there is a dumping process going on is a bit complicated. But as and when our attention is drawn to unfair competition in terms of dumping, in terms of copyright infringements we are able to take action.

And one of our major problems is with enforcement. If we go into the markets just now and start seizing wax prints that are copyrighted; people take our copyright symbols from here send them to China, produce the same wax prints and bring them back onto our market. When we send people into the markets to start seizing these – the best place to seize them is at the borders, that's

IEA GHANA 51 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) true. But there is ingenuity; they are able to slip in and then when you want to seize it they say you are taking peoples livelihoods away from them.

It's a slightly complicated process but we'll continue to work with you to identify cases in which these trade practices are unfair and then we will enforce them together with you.

Recently in enforcing the issue about foreign traders in our retail markets where the laws says they should not operate in the market – the Ministry of Trade and GUTA set up a task force and so if AGI wants to work together with the Ministry of Trade in respect of identifying commodities that are brought in under unfair circumstances and dealing with them, we are willing to do so. But I do think that we have a means in which we can support and help AGI.

As I said in my speech, government is the biggest spender in this economy. We need to review the procurement law to ensure that when made in Ghana goods are available, government agencies procure made in Ghana goods. That is simple, I mean if we give the leverage to our local industry in terms of procuring their goods that is a sizeable market enough. You know, but we need to restructure the procurement law in other to be able to do so. Often the argument will be that, 'oh the made in Ghana goods are more expensive so they went for the cheaper option'. But the thing is when you go for that cheaper option you ship a job abroad. If you take the Ghanaian one even though it might be to some extent more expensive than the foreign one you are keeping jobs at home. And it makes sense to keep jobs at home. If I'm going to buy a laptop computer, I buy it from one of the companies that are assembling them here in Ghana rather than buy it whole from outside because there are young people here employed to assemble those computers.

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Until we all get these in our minds and it's not only the president, I can't go superintending it and the minister, the directors and the chief directors and the bureaucrats in the ministries must learn to give preference to Ghanaian industries and Ghanaians products.

Nana Oye Lithur (Human Rights Advocacy Centres): Most at risk populations in Ghana continue to suffer human rights abuses despite the fact that their rights are guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution. I'm speaking about commercial sex workers, persons who live with HIV, men who have sex with men and injecting drug users. They are heavily stigmatized and discriminated against and these affect their ability to access HIV preventive services.

Mr President they also have higher rates of HIV infection. And I know HIV is very dear to your heart. Apart from that, the service providers are unable to provide services for these groups because some of their activities are criminalized. My question to you Mr. President is that if you are voted into power in December, what interventions will you make to ensure that these individuals who have human rights and who are equal with everybody else in Ghana are able to realize their right to dignity, their right to privacy, their right to equal opportunity and employment and also their right to health and their right to be free from stigma and abuse? What will your three top interventions be?

John Dramani Mahama: Often when it comes to issues of stigma and discrimination they are very complex. They are born out of people's prejudices acquired as a result of their upbringing. They are not easy to dislodge, it takes a lot of education and awareness to be able to let people see that these people are the same as you. Indeed they are your brothers, they are your sisters, they are your cousins, they are your relatives. What has changed? Because they are injecting drugs, that's when they need your sympathy more and your help or because they are

IEA GHANA 53 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) commercial sex workers? That's when they need your sympathy and your help more.

And so we need to create awareness among our people that these are our people. They haven't changed because of what they are into. Your son will remain your son even if he becomes a drug user and your duty is to try and give him the support he needs to be able to help himself.

Unfortunately, when it comes to stigma and discrimination it needs a lot of awareness creation. It needs a lot of education and my hope is that you would be able to get a lot of the opinion leaders, traditional rulers, and religious leaders on your side, or on our side to be able to assist in creating this awareness. I remember when we launched the HIV strategy – at the time I was Minister of Communication, that's when we set up the Ghana AIDS Commission for the first time. And we came up with a very big communications program together with John Hopkins University – we saw that prevalent rates were going up and we needed to encourage people to stop having unprotected sex. We needed to get them to use condoms and so I remember we came up with some adverts, “if it's not on it's not in”.

The religious and the traditional community were up in arms, they would have grilled me over hot coals if they had the opportunity, but gradually education – we told them: “look your churches are going to be empty, your people are going die, you will be traditional rulers without subjects because they are having unprotected sex”. And it's only then that eventually people came on board. We couldn't advertise condoms before on television, it had never happened. Today condoms are advertised. Condoms could be found only in pharmacy shops. We took them out of pharmacy shops. They have to go to the counter and ask the sales clerk behind the counter 'can I have a condom'. And most people were not willing to do that.

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Today, we put them in the Shell Marts. After you pick your items and you go to the clerk you slip it in there quickly. A lot of people are familiar with the practice; I can see. We did a survey when we decided to put the condoms in the Shell Marts we had to see where it would be most convenient to put it so that people are able to buy it without any inhibition. We thought of creating a special shelf where you could just go pick it and put it in your bag. And there were various suggestions, and then eventually the suggestion that won was: 'put it by the cash till so that when they finish their purchases and they just purchase one they can just slip it in and pay for it'.

I'm talking about awareness like you said. Unfortunately with some of these things there is criminalization and that is a major obstacle. I know people like you and others have been brave and raise issues about legalizing prostitution and you should see the uproar that has occurred. There are things that are based on years of prejudice and on years of conditioning, and it's not going to be easy to just change them against the will of the vast majority of the people. And so we need to continue to work with you to let people understand what is involved in these things and then see how we can make things better for these categories of people.

Mrs. Marian Atta Boahene (Ark Foundation): Mr President, the progress of a country is measured by the way it treats its vulnerable. Women and children's issues are still treated as peripheral and marginal issues in governance. Many good laws have been passed in Ghana such as the Children's Act, Domestic Violence Act and the Human Trafficking Act but the implementation and the very institutions to implement them are weak in many respects. MOWAC is still not well resourced to handle both women and children's issues effectively. The Department of Social Welfare is an orphan among the departments and the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the police has several challenges.

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Mr President, when you are given the mandate what will your government do to better resource and strengthen such institutions and ensure that the laws they are mandated to work with are better implemented?

John Dramani Mahama: I think you hit the nail right on the head. And there are two problems there: one, enforcement and then two, under-resourcing of the agencies that are supposed to deal with these issues. With regards to under-resourcing, it is a general problem presented by the budget. As I told you Item One takes 45 percent of all the revenues, the remaining 55 percent has to be shared to healthcare, to education, to agriculture, to tourism, to MOWAC, to Ghana Police, to the Armed Forces, to the Fire Service. That is what happens. As we expand the power we can finance government institutions better. And so that is one issue that we need to look at, MOWAC needs to be strengthened. DOVVSU needs to be strengthened.

We have the best laws in most areas of our criminal code and legal jurisdiction but the problem is enforcement. We have laws against child labour you know, but people don't enforce it. People who are supposed to enforce it don't enforce it. And so we will continue to work and strengthen these institutions and see how we can better protect these vulnerable people.

But aside from that, we also have a lack of human resources in a lot of those agencies to be able to spin out the appropriate programs and be able to implement those programs in order that we are able to protect this category of people. One of the things I've been thinking about is to harmonize all our social protection measures. We currently have them scattered under different ministerial jurisdictions and so if we can bring them together under one jurisdiction then it would make it better able to outline the policies, implement the programs and monitor and evaluate the progress that

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A section of the Audience at the Evening Encounter with H.E John Dramani Mahama we are making instead of the current system where every ministry has a little of everything and nobody you know has a clear picture of what the whole gamut of the problems is.

Samuel Zan Akologo (National Catholic Secretariat): I took note of your agenda for education and in particular your commitment to smooth and transparent elections. Your Excellency as you are aware faith-based organizations especially churches, have pioneered formal education in this country long before our political independence. There is public testimony to the relative superior performance of mission schools in this country which evidence is the preference of most parents to enrol their children in these schools.

Faith-based organizations have now received firm assurance from the honourable Minister of Education, Ambassador Lee Ocran that

IEA GHANA 57 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) the partnership framework document to guide the relationship between government and faith-based organizations in education, service delivery, management and governance would be approved this year. We are gladdened by this progress.

Your Excellency, what is your future government going to do to ensure that this partnership framework is effectively authenticated and sustained to enhance quality education? In a related matter just to ask you may we know also from you if your government is committed to implementing the Presidential Transition Act, Act 845 which our late President gave his ascent to, and you then as Vice- President joined civil society to celebrate its passage and assent? Will this be done for the 2013 political transition process?

John Dramani Mahama: I think that faith-based organizations and government are partners when it comes to education and so we should not have any antipathy with each other. I think that our collective collaboration would be useful in providing quality education for our children and indeed the faith-based organizations have a track record for providing quality education. There are a lot of people who would rather at the secondary level, send their children to schools that are managed by faith-based organizations. And so I think that it's something that shouldn't pose a problem. I'm happy you have spoken to the minister.

There was an initial report by the former minister, Spio Gabrah, on this issue. That is what has developed and eventually metamorphosised into the partnership framework. I'm happy the minister has assured you that it would implemented this year. I have absolutely no aversion to it and I think that it's a partnership that can inure to the benefit of our education sector.

I met with the IEA recently. They paid a courtesy call on me and they encouraged me to join this presidential encounter. At that visit,

IEA GHANA 58 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) their secondary object was to remind me about the Presidential Transition Act and encourage me to implement it. And I assure them that we would implement it for this 2013 transition.

Daniel Osei-Tuffour (Excellent Leadership Award): Your Excellency, the magnitude of graduate unemployment in our beloved country is outrageous. There is this school of thought to which the EXLA group is of no exception that graduates must endeavour frantically to be entrepreneurial. You have already touched on it briefly but I will still want to know: What pragmatic measures or policies do you seek to espouse in order to at least encourage, augment the effort of graduates and the youth in general who predilect towards entrepreneurship engagement?

Secondly your Excellency, employers do normally say that graduates are unemployable and this is due to the fact that the curriculum, that is the academic schedule is not structured very well to actually capture the entrepreneurial and the employability skills that students who are trained up from the tertiary institutions need. I would like to know and the EXLA group will also like to know what measures you are going to put in place to at least revise the academic schedule.

John Dramani Mahama: Graduate unemployment is a matter that dogs all governments and I devoted part of this presentation to job creation and I'm happy that you noted that one of the innovations that we are bringing up is the Young Entrepreneurs Program, where we are going to identify young graduates and other youth who interested in becoming entrepreneurs and then we are going to help them to put their business plans together; make sure that those business plans are bankable and then we'll provide the finance and credit for it. We'll give them mentorship and technical supervision through the process of setting up the enterprise so that when eventually they stand on their feet, we can graduate them from the program and then

IEA GHANA 59 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) they can become fully fledged business people employing their own peers, colleagues or other Ghanaians. So that's a program that we are committed to and we are going to implement.

And so entrepreneurship is one area we think that we can channel that. Aside from that, the development of the small and medium enterprise sector is going to be one of the major focuses for us in the next term. And so I told you that as part of the CDB facility we had reserved 100 million dollars. You know, for SMEs, we are going to incubate SMEs and expand them to be able to increase the number of people that they take but like I said, ultimately, the main supplier of jobs in this country is going to be the growth of the economy. And so we are going to keep accelerating the economy so that it throws up hundreds of thousands of sustainable jobs.

But you raised a very interesting issue. We noticed that there is a misfit between the training and skills we are giving our graduates in and in which areas, and where the jobs are beginning to come from. The jobs are beginning to come from the technical middle level area rather than the top level management, marketing and other areas. So while we are producing thousands of marketing, administration graduates, humanities and so on and so forth, jobs are being thrown up at the technical level for technicians and other such skilled people; engineers and others. And we are not producing enough of them. And so we are trying to resolve that distortion by creating the scholarship that gives bursaries to students who are willing to go into those technical areas – science, technology, mathematics – and that's why we are doing the master's program.

So far we've disbursed more than 5,000 scholarships and next year we are going to disburse 10,000 scholarships. We are going to increase the amount of bursary that is available to increase the number of people in this particular area. What this shows is that there must be a linkage industry and faculty to ensure that faculty is producing what industry needs.

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In the past, industry had been helpful but now because of completion nobody wants to do that. I remember when we were in school some of our colleagues when we graduated were taken as UAC trainees straight from the university and they were trained by UAC. For those of you are too young you won't remember United African Company. But they were trained by – I think, UAC is Unilever or something; it's part of the Unilever Group. I don't know if Unilever still does it. They used to come to the schools to look for the first class and second upper graduates and then they would take them. It doesn't matter what course they did, they could do classics or history or any subject. They would take them and go and train them and put them into their establishment. That is something businesses can still do. For businesses that do that it is possible for us to assist them in terms of tax rebates and other things like that. So we'll consider all those incentives.

Yaw Ofori Debrah (Ghana Federation for the Disabled): The disabled in the country have two closely related issues for you to address for them. In the first place the 2010 population census indicates that the number of persons with disability in the country has grown from 10 percent to 20 percent which translate into almost 5million people with disabilities in the country. And Mr. President, there is a segment of our population who cannot hear or speak and for that matter they are cut off from the country. For that matter as you address the nation, they are isolated.

Mr President the deaf in the country cannot communicate to their families, they cannot communicate to the people within their community. They cannot access many of the service providers in the country including hospitals. This is because Ghana has failed to develop sign language as part of our rich heritage. As a social democrat do you have an appreciation for this situation and if you do, what action and I mean specific action do you intended to employ to address this issue and within which specific time limit do you want to do that?

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And closely related to this is inclusive education. As we've already said, the population has grown and for that matter many of the residential schools for persons with disability especially the children are not able to respond to their educational needs. But inclusive education allows persons with disability to have their education within their own communities. This is the phenomenon that is flowing across the globe. Will your administration if given the nod address or adopt this policy so that persons with disability across all the nooks and crannies of this country can access education?

John Dramani Mahama: In my delivery when I was speaking about where we need to invest additionally in terms of education, I mentioned special needs. Special needs investment is low; we need to increase it so that children with special needs in terms of learning will be able to also have access to quality education. That is one of the issues I raised and we have a commitment to that. We've made some progress in Ghana. In the past, there is no way this function would be telecasted simultaneously with sign language translation. And I noticed that for most TV stations, they now have somebody doing the translation in sign language. But as I'm speaking there is somebody translating so that those who cannot hear can also follow what is going on.

That is some progress that we've made. But we should continue to build on that progress. We cannot just leave it there and think that that kind of tokenism that we have done to our brothers who have some disability is enough. These are brothers and sisters, they have special challenges – we passed the disability bill. We have said that building permits that are issued should incorporate accessibility for persons with disability and as vice-president I said it a few months ago that building permits should not be issued for public buildings that do not show that they've incorporated access for persons with disability.

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As vice-president then, I'm repeating it as president, building permits for public buildings must not be issued if they do not provide access for persons with disability. At the time I didn't have the ability to fire but I guess that with an enhanced firing ability, probably they would listen to me better this time. So that's something.

Also, he spoke about inclusive education. I was honoured to attend university with a very fantastic colleague, he's blind. He's now the chief director in one of the ministries and it did not serve as a barrier. We studied together, went to lectures together, he took his notes in braille and he did his exams in braille and he's a very highly qualified lawyer.

Disability should not be inability, I think that what we can do, disabled people or the physically challenged can do. And so we need to do our best to make sure that they are included. I mean depending on where you are, you might not have access to special needs education and that's how come at least in every decision we must make sure that we have a special needs department that makes sure that it provides for the needs of this category of our population.

Moderator (Bernard Avle): One of your main opponents says that he will declare his assets as a sign of his commitment to anti-corruption and he's thrown the challenge. So in your closing remarks would you take on the challenge to also declare your assets?

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CLOSING REMARKS

John Dramani Mahama: I would start with the issue of assets declaration. It's mandatory, it's constitutional and so everybody must declare their assets upon the assumption of office and when you are exiting office. I think what he was talking about was voluntarily publishing his assets declaration, that's what he was talking about. It came up in the Constitutional Review Commission, the whole regime of assets declaration, and I think that there are some provisions in there that are waiting to be implemented and I'm sure that when they are implemented they will give a universal direction to everybody as to how you must carry out your assets declaration. I am willing to go by any law that is in force.

I want to thank you who took time to be here and to thank Ghanaians who have not been able to be here but have been watching intently in their homes. I want to say that I am humbled by the confidence and appreciation and respect that I've experienced since the passing away of my late mentor and comrade Prof. John Evans Atta Mills.

Many people across this country from traditional leaders, opinion leaders, ordinary people, have shown me such love and respect that I want to say thank you to them. They've been very encouraging in driving me forward and carrying the responsibilities that have been put on my shoulders. I want to say that I'll be worthy of that respect. It's been a cardinal theory for me that all human beings were created equal and deserve the same respect whether you are president or you are the ordinary shoe maker on the street. I will continue to have that character of being accessible, approachable, of being a person who stands for the wishes of all Ghanaians and not just a few.

I believe that every Ghanaians must be given equal access to economic opportunity. We must not discriminate against people

IEA GHANA 64 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) because of their political affiliations. Businesses must not collapse because political power has changed hands. I'll be a president for all and I will be a president who holds high the flag of Ghana and continues to make our country proud.

I thank you all this evening for listening to me.

Moderator (Bernard Avle): Thank you very much. Just to say that this presentation will be on the president's website johnmahama.org and also on his Facebook page. Ladies and gentlemen, we want to close now and please be seated for 30 seconds. Someone mentioned that we should also say a big thank you to the first lady for her support. Mrs Lordina Mahama, thank you very much for your support.

We'll take our closing remarks from Brigadier General Francis Agyemfra (Rtd), a Visiting Senior Fellow at IEA.

Brigadier General Francis Agyemfra (Rtd): First lady Lordina Mahama, honourable members of the Council of State, honourable ministers of state, honourable Members of Parliament, Excellency, members of the diplomatic corps, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, all protocols observed.

Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, this is the end of the encounter with the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress. And I believe you all agree with me that the evening has been a great success. I will like to invite all of you to join me in expressing our sincere appreciation and profound gratitude to His Excellency John Dramani Mahama who is also the president of the republic.

We thank Your Excellency for accepting our invitation to be here in person to address the nation on your vision, plans and strategies on

IEA GHANA 65 IEA JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA EVENING ENCOUNTER (2012) how you intend to govern the country if given the nod on the 7th of December 2012. And for allowing yourself, a sitting president to be subjected to probing questions by representatives of the electorate. As I pointed out in my welcome address, this is the first time a sitting president is participating in this event. You've made history and IEA is very grateful to you.

Your Excellency, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, as I pointed earlier, this is the end of the IEA 2012 encounter series. And while this encounter brings to a close the Evening Encounter series, it also marks the commencement of the IEA 2012 Presidential and Vice- Presidential debate. I wish to use this platform to announce that there will be two presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate.

The first presidential debate would be held in Tamale on the 30th of October, 2012 in about two weeks from now. And we hope to see Your Excellency in Tamale. This would be followed by the vice- presidential debate on the 6th of November in Takoradi. Finally, the second presidential debate would be held in Accra on the 20th of November, 2012.

On this note, Your Excellency, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I wish on behalf of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) to thank all of you for coming to grace this occasion with your presence. I wish also to thank the stakeholders for the probing questions they put to the NDC flag bearer. Our special thanks go to our eight-year- old peace ambassador who has consistently demonstrated her commitment to peace by attending the evening encounters and demanding – and this is most important – from the presidential candidates assurances of their commitment to peaceful elections come December 7th, 2012. Angela we are most grateful to you.

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Additionally, I wish to render our heartfelt thanks to the media houses and all those who have worked hard behind the scenes to make this encounter a reality. To viewers and particularly the audience gathered here, please accept our most grateful thanks.

Thank you and good night.

Moderator (Bernard Avle): Ladies and gentlemen let's be upstanding whilst the President, the First Lady and some officials exchange pleasantries and leave. After that the rest of us can follow. So we'll take our closing prayer from Reverend Professor Asante.

Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante: Let us pray. Dear Lord, we are grateful to You for this evening. You are the Alpha and Omega indeed. We started with You, we've ended with You. You have seen us through our deliberations, representations and the fielding of the questions. Everything has gone on successfully and we are grateful. As we depart and go our separate ways to our homes, protect us and Lord throughout the campaigning protect Your servants, flag bearers, and grant that our democracy will continue to speak to others. This we ask in the name of Jesus our Lord. Unto the Lord's gracious keeping, mercy and protection I commend all of you. The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift the light of His countenance upon you and give you everlasting peace. Amen!

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