Ex.President Kufuor ruined Vision 2020

…Says Kofi Adams

STORY: CHARITY A. SACKITEY & BERNICE AHOTOR

The Deputy General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kofi Adams, has launched a scathing attack on the erstwhile NPP government, saying “Kufuor derailed Vision 2020”.

Speaking to the paper in an exclusive interview at the party’s headquarters in Accra, the NDC firebrand said the NPP under former President Kufuor distorted the development plan instituted by former President Rawlings, to bring untold hardships on Ghanaians.

Kofi Adams revealed that the programme was designed by the then government in consultation with the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a policy think tank, and therefore, could not be tagged as an ideology of one person (Mr. Rawlings).

“Vision 2020 was not drafted around one person, but the NPP at the time created the impression as if it was one man who drafted the entire programme,” Kofi Adams said.

Mr. Adams explained that before the NPP government assumed office in 2000, the value of equipment used by the Nsawam Cannery was approximately 4 million dollars, but dropped to just 2 million dollars before leaving office, stressing that some individuals saw it necessary to sell the equipment to suit their parochial interest.

The deputy NDC general secretary continued that due to the negligence of Mr. Kufuor the importation of rice into the country shot up from $100 million per anum to approximately $450million per annum before he left office in January, 2009.

Mr. Adams explained that before the NPP assumed power the HIPC initiative was already in existence but the NDC government then led by Mr. Rawlings did not introduce it because it did not fall in line with the Vision 2020 agenda of the NDC at the time.

“We did not introduce HIPC during the Rawlings led administration because we felt it would have shifted our focus from the Vision 2020 agenda, that is why it was not introduced until the NPP came to introduce it during their term of office,” Kofi Adams stressed.