12 intriguing quotations from Akufo-Addo’s acceptance speech

After members of the National Council of the New Patriotic Party endorsed him for another shot at the Presidency on December 7, President Nana Akufo-Addo rallied the top and base of his party to lace-up for the elections. 

Below are excerpts of his speech.

• “Here we are, at what should have been a crowded, happy, even riotous climax to our internal party elections, that would take us to the general elections in December. Instead of the loud, jam packed gatherings that we know, we have been reduced to the social distance correct roomful of one hundred (100) people.”

• “I must confess this is a rare experience for me in my long political career, and I am not talking of the acclamation by social distance. I refer to the fact that, any time I have run for any office, I have had to go through a long, often bruising battle, and this is only the second time that I have not been contested, once at the parliamentary level, and this, the second, at the presidential.

• “The leadership of the New Patriotic Party imposes a scared trust. Our forefathers, right from the beginning of formal politics in this country, made an unspoken pact with the people to treat them with respect, and, if given the opportunity to govern, to do so with honesty and dedication.”

• “Today, there are some among us in this country who would take for granted the idea of a democratic Ghana, and would make light of the rights and obligations that come with living in a democracy. If you are a leader of the NPP, if you are a member or supporter of the NPP, you would know that every inch of democratic space was fought for, and, sometimes, died for in this country. Our Fourth Republican Constitution is crafted on multi-party democracy; we did not get there by chance, it took a long and difficult battle; today, some take it for granted.”

• “The multiplicity of media outlets, and the freedom of the press; these did not become part of our governance landscape by happenstance, it took a long and difficult battle, waged, largely, by the political tradition to which we belong, to get our nation to where we are today.”

• “We know what we stand for: the rule of law, freedom of speech and of the press, individual freedoms, the determination

  to liberate the energies of the people for the growth of a property-owning democracy, to build an economy that will create wealth for all our people, and not just for the elite few.”

• “Whenever we have had the opportunity to govern, we have been guided by these long-held principles. That is who we are. We have been consistent. It is in our DNA, and we dare not, and would not stray from them.”

• “We have a good story to tell, and we should go out to tell it. On every sector of our lives, we should show the difference between the NPP way of tackling problems, and the way our opponents do it.”

• “We grow the economy, they shrink the economy. We create the properly regulated, enabling atmosphere for businesses to flourish, they allow chancers and speculators to lure citizens into putting their monies in dodgy enterprises. They bring our banks and financial services to near collapse, and we have to clean up, shore up and restore confidence. They plunge us into DUMSOR, we keep the lights on. They look on clueless, as hundreds of thousands of Ghana’s children exit school at JHS, we bring Free SHS and Free TVET to prepare our children better to face life. They resort to crude language when faced with difficult arguments, we raise the level of public discourse.”

• “We owe it to ourselves and to Ghana to win the elections in December decisively, to make sure that we keep the economy on track, and not in the hands of people who will run it into the ground again.”

• “We are told that those who were responsible for the worst economic performance of the last thirty (30) years have learnt their lessons, and seek another opportunity to correct their mistakes. Dare I ask – should the presidency be for experiments? Surely not! You, the Ghanaian people, deserve better, and you will get better on 7th December, with four (4) more years for Nana and the NPP to do more for you.”

• “We have to win the election to see our many projects through to conclusion. We dare not leave the many factories coming up, under our 1D1F scheme, to be truncated. We dare not leave the Free SHS to
  

  be “reviewed”. We dare not leave our roads to go unattended again, only to become part of a ‘Green Book’ propaganda. We dare not jeopardise the digitization schedule on which we have embarked.”