Sit Up!
Kent Mensah | Posted: Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Is the NPP government's information machinery really weak or is the government/party simply suffering the inevitable barbs from the media of a country enjoying unlimited freedom of expression? Are senior members of the government talking too much without co-ordination and preparation? A leading member of the party, who himself is not media shy says the "information machinery"
must:A leading member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, has said the information machinery of the government is not doing much to propagate the achievements of the government.
Speaking in an interview with the ADM in Accra, Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe called on the information arm of the NPP administration to sit up, and to inform the public about the good policies of the Kufuor administration.
He said governments all over the world rely heavily on their information personnel to build confidence in the electorate. He said if that aspect of an administration is not performing well, it affects the stability of the government.
He charged the information machinery of the government to ensure that information given to the public is genuine and can be supported with evidence. Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe called on the ministries to collaborate so that they would not be saying different things about the same policy.
Recently, the Minister of Private Sector Development and PSI caused much grief to the administration when he announced that the government was planning to offer Ministers and MPs land and money to go into farming. He was contradicted by the Minister of Information and had to retract.
Dr. Tamakloe said the NPP administration had done a lot to improve the living conditions of the rural people by building schools, hospitals, and other social amenities but the public hardly hear of them.
"It takes a long time before good policies of the NPP administration come up. If you go to the rural areas there are physical things that prove that the administration is doing a lot. Government information machinery should focus more on those things for people to know and see projects that are ongoing," he said.
Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe said the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), is having a field day because the information machinery of the government has relaxed too much and that has given the NDC much room to operate. He said when the achievements of the NPP are brought to the fore, the opposition would be compelled to praise the Kufuor administration where it is due.
He called on the opposition to support the government by pointing at areas that the administration is lagging behind and "come out with possible solutions." Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe said the Kufuor administration has achieved a lot in the area of security, and Ghanaians should not allow "any individual or group of people" to take up power illegally.
"We have worked very hard towards this stability that we are enjoying and we deserve it. It is important that we do not allow anyone to derail us. Democracy has come to stay," he said. He warned, "the people of this country would fight anyone who would like to derail this peaceful system that we are enjoying."
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