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| President John Dramani Mahama |
Nonetheless, he has asked Ghanaians not to panic, saying everything is being done to ensure their safety.
“We are preparing for any such eventuality, but we need the alertness of the public. If you see any strange person, any strange movement, you just need to report to the security services,” he said
Speaking on Sunrise FM in Koforidua yesterday as part of his ‘Accounting to the People’ tour of the Eastern Region, the President described the media reporting of the matter as “most unfortunate”.
“I think that we must deal with this without creating panic among our people,” he stressed.
Internal memo
The President could not fathom why an internal security alert memo should divulge detailed information on a possible attack.
Explaining, he said there was a signal from National Security to the regional security councils (REGSECs) and other security agencies to be on the alert against any possible terror threats.
Earlier, he said, the National Security had met and issued a statement urging the security agencies to be alert because of the attacks in other West African countries.
President Mahama said it was unfortunate that the one who sent the signals to the REGSECs failed to appreciate the importance of intelligence reports.
“In the signal that went to the REGSECs, whoever wrote it indicated the intelligence that National Security was dealing with and I think that was not necessary.
“You didn’t need to put the Intel in there. You just needed to send a directive asking for alertness and asking them to search more thoroughly vehicles and all that,” he said.
No one safe
President Mahama stated that the security threat was not restricted to Ghana alone.
“Indeed, no country is safe anywhere in the world and so we need to be alert and prepared for any such eventuality,” he said.
Security alert
The security alert confirmed that a possible terrorist attack on the country was real, following the confessions of a Malian terrorist who is being interrogated by the Ivorian security agencies as the brain behind the Grand Bassam attacks.
According to the report, the Malian stated that Ghana and Togo were the next targets after the attacks in Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire.
It said the choice of Ghana was to remove the perception that only Francophone countries were the target of terrorist attacks.
Economy
The economy, which was a major talking point of the President during his tour, was brought up during the interview.
He said any person who would say the economy was in crisis would only be out doing political propaganda.
The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) presidential candidate for the 2016 elections, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has persistently lashed out at the government for plunging the economy into crisis.
Last Wednesday, during the launch of the party’s fundraising campaign in Accra, he took on the Mahama administration again, insisting that the government had mismanaged the economy.
But the President appeared not ready to swallow any such attacks.
“The economy is more resilient today than it was in the past. It’s not an economy in crisis, absolutely not. If you see an economy in crisis, you will know that it is an economy in crisis. This economy is not in crisis; it is growing,” he said.
Evidence
He said available evidence showed clearly that the economy was resilient.
Quoting the latest World Bank report issued last Wednesday, he said it mentioned Ghana as having high expectations of growth.
“The report said the prospects of the Ghanaian economy are high, that investor confidence has risen and that Ghana is entering a new era of prosperity. It shows that Ghana has very good prospects going forward,” he said.
Indicators
Touching on the budget deficit to GDP ratio, President Mahama said from the 12 per cent his administration inherited, the figure had reduced to below 7.2 per cent.
The prospects for this year, he said, looked even brighter, he said, as the figure would reduce to 5.3 per cent.
He said that presupposed that inflation would come down.
“We are looking to bring inflation down to a single digit, then once inflation is coming down, interest rates will gradually follow, and so the prospects look very good,” he said.
President Mahama also referred to the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) report which indicated that from 2017 Ghana would record prosperity because of the solid foundation laid.
“We have eliminated a lot of the deficits that were created by huge subsidies on utility tariffs. We eliminated a lot of the subsidies that created huge deficits on the cost of petroleum products. Today, as I speak, the Tema Oil Refinery is running and producing petroleum products for Ghana.
“We have enough stock of LPG, our tanks and strategic reserves for petroleum products are all full and so we have ships standing offshore Ghana with petroleum products but there is no space to unload those products. We have done a good job in stabilising various sectors of the economy,” he said.
President Mahama also said Ghana was transporting diesel and petrol to Burkina Faso and Mali from the Bolga Depot.
“Our Bolga Depot was shut down for so many years; the pipeline from Buipe to Bolga was not operational. Today, we are pumping fuel from Buipe to Bolga and we are loading 40 trucks a day to Burkina Faso and Mali.
“If that is not economic progress, I don’t know what else anybody will call economic progress.” he said.
He admitted that Ghana had been through economic challenges but said the sacrifices the people had made were meant to ensure a better future for all.
Power
He said in spite of the power challenges that confronted the nation, the economy was set to grow.
“We have resolved the power crisis; we have been able to match demand with supply and so the electricity crisis that hit us is gradually becoming a thing of the past.
“Today, the FPSO is shut down but we’ve made contingency arrangements and we are firing most of the power plants using crude oil and providing enough electricity for our people because we’ve done the structural changes that will ensure that the utilities can continue to provide us with power,” he said
Fulani herdsmen
Answering a question on the raging issue about Fulani herdsmen, the President said a lot of them were brought in by traditional leaders and public officials.
He said the government would send in additional security to flush out the herdsmen.
Investor confidence
He said investor confidence in the economy kept growing.
“The last Association of Ghana Industries Investor Confidence Index shows that there is high confidence in the prospects of the Ghanaian economy and so we are doing something right,” he said
- Source graphic.com.gh
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