Nana Akufo-Addo - Ghanaian presidential candidate HARDtalk

option. Now it is time for HARDtalk. Ghana

has been hailed as a shining example to all of Africa - a model

of democracy, decent governance and responsible economic management in

a continent struggling to fulfil its potential. But if Ghana looks

like a success story to outsiders, how does it look to Ghanaians

themselves? Nana Akufo-Addo is the leader of the main opposition party

and candidate for president. I ask him if Ghana can use its resource

wealth and inward investment to Nana Akufo-Addo, welcome to

HARDtalk. Thank you for having me. This idea that Ghana is some kind

of role model, does it make you feel proud? Or does it make you

feel like we are misreading what is happening in Ghana? I think what it

does for all us is gives us a certain sense of responsibility.

The developments in Africa have a particular resonance for a

donations. -- Ghanaians. The whole African project was very much our

project. We are required to show ourselves as governing ourselves in

an intelligent and modern manner. I think that is what the whole

democratic movement of my country is about. You were the Leader of

the Opposition and candidate for president at the end of this year -

it puts you in a slightly awkward position, for example, when you had

President Barack Obama come to your country in 2009 and to be extremely

friendly to President John Atta Mills and say that, in his view,

democracy was going well in Ghana. That is not necessarily what you

want to hear, is it? I definitely would like to hear him touting our

democratic credentials. I think that is important for the nation,

not just one party or another. It is important for us. That has been

a major issue in our history since independence, or whether or not we

can have a stable democratic government. That matter has

involved virtually all sections of the DNA and population. -- donation.

Let me stop you there. You are confident of Dana's credentials.

You are the candidate who, in 2008, was so infuriated by the outcome of

the presidential elections that, for a while, you didn't accept the

Electoral Commission's verdict. You threatened to challenge it in the

courts. And no. What happened it is by the time the final verdict came

- and if you remember the last election was in three parts, there

was the first formal part, then the second round, and within the second

round there was the third election - it was when the whole process was

over that the announcement was made. We didn't hesitate. I believe the

Electoral Commission made his declaration in the morning. Within

2-3 hours of that I had accepted it and congratulate the winner.

did, I think it is fair to say you did question the Electoral

Commission for some time. Question - there were sufficient

irregularities that tainted the process. In the end, our decision

was that, no, democracy and stability, the unity of our nation,

it requires that we accept the results in good faith and work for

another day and that is what we did. The very day the announcement was

made, within hours of the announcement I had gone on the

radio and television to congratulate President John Atta

Mills on his victory, however narrowly it was. And here we are

four years later, it seems fighting another day will be a reality for

you. Had you feel when MPs in your party say things like this "any

ruling party macho man who steals a ballot box in the next election

will be crushed to death. Anyone who tries to rig the vote will be

killed". There is a lot of high- level political dialogue in Ghana.

I think everywhere in the world... No, excuse me, if I made - when you

speak to me about the way Ghana has established its democratic

credentials, surely we need to get rid of extraordinarily inflammatory

language like that? And that will progress over time. Ghanaian

democracy is a relatively new phenomenon. There are 400-500 years

of English democracy. That is not outback experience. We are getting

there. Why do you use as a mantra for your election campaign, which

you have already begun, wider use this phrase (INAUDIBLE). To be

clear to people who do not understand, you seem to be adopting

a very all or nothing approach, a fatalistic approach. Not at all. My

attitude towards the 2008 elections and the way in which my party and I

conducted ourselves would not have been the same. What we are trying

to imply it is that the examples we have seen of how elections have

been conducted under this administration leave quite a lot to

be desired. We have had 2.5 by elections. All of them had been

characterised by moments of violence or great tension. There

have been victims of this violence. Up until today the President of

outback country has not expressed any regret or remorse about these

events. It was necessary for us to alert the country... You why using

language about dying, or squashing... Largely because it is

important also to get across. Make that that is not the way to go in

our country which is trying to build a democracy - to go down the

road of violence. Inevitably, violence begets violence. We do not

want to go down that road. In 2008 our attitude towards politics and

the ruling party at the time had been an all-or-nothing approach -

maybe the events that occurred after the election would not have

gone as smoothly as they did. We invited Obama to come to our

country to praise us for the way we ruled. I believe that the end of

the day all of us sat down and reflected on what we needed to do -

we could make sure that the final result is a result that is in the

interest of the peace and stability and progress of our people. Let's

look at it another way. We go back to my opening question about

Ghana's perceived success within Africa. I think many people have

picked up on that theme, not just Barack Obama. The growth rates are

extraordinary - 13% last year, 9% this year. You are predicted to be

in the top ten global nations of growth in the next decade.

Fantastic staff if you are Danae. Why did you say recently "what

chance do we have as a nation if we churn out such appalling

statistics? It Ghana was a country it would have been shut down".

talking about the statistics of our educational system which is in a

serious crisis. The young men and women of out that contrary to what

going to school - by the time they enter secondary school, what we

call senior high-school, already 50% of them find themselves out on

the streets without any serious educational background, without any

serious skills. Largely because of the failure of the system to

accommodate and provide opportunity for them. That is a major issue for

the future of our country. Despite these statistics, on the surface

they sound excellent, but they are about the influence of oil on

outback national accounts. You are suggesting that this could be a

classic African story of amazing resource potential being squandered

by mismanagement? The potential is there. The potential is there.

that case, would you plead guilty to being party to that management

when you were at the senior minister from 2002... My period in

office saw a dramatic expansion of the Ghanaian authorities. It also

sought a ballooning deficit. You squandered money like no-one ever

before. You're left office with a deficit budget of 13-14%. I just

read the latest World Bank report... Those figures have been

challenged.... This is just because you don't like them.

necessarily. The World Bank is not the Bible, they also make mistakes.

(LAUGHTER). My point is that you don't have to take my word on the

deficit, look at inflation, when you left off as it was in double

digits, close to 20%. At least this government has cut back. When we

got into office it was around 30%. 6-7 years before it was around 40%.

Yes, the current government has started again. They have hard it

because they have the foundation we build. It was at 42% when we came

into office in the year 2001. Runaway inflation and appreciation

of the currency. All of those efforts were made to correct those

before we left. That is not to say that the work was completed, it is

a work in progress and it continues to be a work-in-progress. It seems

to me that what is important about the last few years in Ghana is that

the international community, thinking about the World Bank, the

IMF and the Chinese government as well, it all look at what is

happening in Ghana and they have given its approval by lending and

investing in a massive weight inside or country. It seems to me

that whatever you say about the current administration, the

international view is that his economic management is worth

investing in. We have oil. We never had it before. We now have oil in

commercial quantities. It is being developed by companies that know

what they are doing. The first oil was really the biggest

responsibility for this dramatic expansion of our national accounts.

Are you sure? Positive. It is going to be sued, because you have up to

700 million barrels in the ocean just off you're sure. We're talking

about death has its, economic management. Right now you are only

pumping about 70,000 barrels a day. You can't say everything that has

been achieved in the last four years is all about oil revenue.

revenues last year were over $400 million. There is gold, there is

go-go, there are other things. What I'm saying to you - if you look at

China for example, $3 billion in grants and credit lines plus

another $13 billion... Are very welcome, very welcomed... So you

have no problem with that? I think the Chinese interest in outback

country is a very healthy one and it is one that we are very

comfortable with and we have to be satisfied that we get value for

money in terms of these investments. There are serious questions about

whether the loans were structured in Parliament... Parliament has

insisted that much better negotiations could have taken place

over the money and how it was to be spent. What about the quality of

the infrastructure work that the Chinese offered? In Angola there

are many people talking about roads being washed away and hospital

subsiding because they were poorly built. This is part of the argument

that making sure we get value for money. That is why there has been

hesitation on our part. I think this is something we should make

very clear - we welcome the interest of everybody in the

development of the Ghanaian economy. How we handle that interest and how

it plays to the fate of the majority of our people, that is our

concern. I'm interest in the ways you have hedged some of your

approval in what the Chinese have done in your country. If you are

darn a's new president, will you allow them to build up a

significant stake in Europe oil and mineral industry's? If it appears

to us to be mutually beneficial, why not. That is a yes? Yes. We

will see how history plays itself out. People have to vote for you,

they would like to know how much you would like to let China by into

your economy. It will be sorted on a case-by-case basis. But they have

a controlling stake... We do not want anyone to have a controlling

stake, we do not want to be the poor want of any power, whether it

is left, right, Chinese, American or anyone else. We want our economy

to be in their hand of DNA and people. You look across your own

continent -- Ghanaian, and you fear that people have too much control

the economy. I think what we need to be clear about is that so long

as we continue to be a raw material producing country, changing the

destination of the export of those raw material does not necessarily

change the basic facts of our economies. It is the changing of

those basic facts that is the critical challenge for us. Seeing

China becoming the destination of preference for the export of

African role materials doesn't change the fact of the African

economy. It is the fundamental nature of the African economy that

we required to change if indeed we are going to bring prosperity to

We will move away from raw material producing economies. That is the

talent. To the extent, the investment of the Chinese, Japanese,

French, British, it plays into that fundamental objective. I welcome it.

To the extent that it tends to dilute or the euro way from that, I

will be object. What we need to see established in our relations is...

I got that point. But I have been reading some of your campaign

speeches. You consistently accuse the other administration of

overseeing corruption. It is fair to say that corruption has been a

problem in your country for a long time. It goes back beyond the mils

administration. But I look at the current government and what it has

done, for example signing out the extractive industry transparency

agreement. Introducing proposals for transparency in the auditing of

contracts. It seems they are making a real effort. What are we left

with? In the management of a petroleum revenues, our original

position was that we should create a special Petroleum account outside

the Consolidated Fund is so that we cannot look and track these

revenues in an open and transparent manner. If you put the money

directly into the Budget, the difficulty exists of finding out

exactly how it plays out. That was a position that the government did

not subscribe to. That we should create a special account which

would enable the trekking to take place. Do you believe that as is

the case in Nigeria, there is a danger that the discovery of major

whale near a country could become a curse rather than a blessing?

has to be a concern for all of us. The only way we can address it is

with the current -- institutional arrangements that we make. It has

to be a constant source of anxiety and worry. If we don't put in the

proper mechanisms, the proper institutional arrangements, it

could be a source for us off concerns. It should enable us to

focus on the transformation of our economy. Why should the Ghanaian

people believe you are any more committed to a transparent oil

industry or transparency generally then the current administration?

Your record as a justice minister does not suggest that your values

were different. They are very different. We are talking about

people. People who were at the very forefront of the struggle for

democracy in Ghana. We want an open system of government. Accountable

government. That has been at the very strongest driving force behind

the political careers of many of us who are in the opposition. Making

sure that our country can become one-party government, authoritarian.

Open democratic government. The second is a record in government.

Many of the measures that were put in place to ensure transparency...

The procurement law. All of these were legislation that were began by

me when I was Attorney General. It was creating the framework that

would enable people. The first time the whistle-blowers that was tested

in Ghana... They ended up in jail. But the greatest indictment of your

government is the way in which he squandered money and left this huge

hall in the budget deficit. That was a profound problem. I don't

accept that proposition. I will tell you what the Ghanaian people

seem to think, they want to know where exactly is the money going to

come from the next time when you were in power for the extravagant

promises you have made? You have offered free secondary schooling. I

promise you say you will deliver. Absolutely. How much will it cost?

That it is being done. You can't make a promise like that without

knowing. You don't know how much it is going to be. I would sell the

Ghanaian people before I tell you. I would prefer to make that

statement to the people of Ghana. So you to know the cost? We do. We

know have we are going to finance it. Well, how are you going to? You

have to get teachers and new schools. All of it has been

adequately costed. We believe the new revenues will help, a more

efficient management of what we have now, gross of the Ghanaian

economy. These are the three sources which are going to enable

us to fulfil that promise. The promise has been solemnly made and

is going to be kept. Not because it is a campaign promise. Because it

is a necessity for the future of our country. To educate all our

young people. Not to acquiesce in a situation whereby only segments of

the community that have some money are able to educate themselves. It

is a major issue of human development. If we do not make the

effort... To achieve that, the development paradigms that we want

to achieve is going to be very difficult for us. Let me quote to

you the words of a Ghanaian who used to work for Microsoft in the

US. He set up a privatised University. He said Africa has

reached an inflection point. He says, we can bring change in one

generation. The key is how we train a new generation of leaders. That

will make all the difference. Do you agree? I do. In that case, you

are a veteran politician. Your father was president. You have

served in two administrations from 2000 to 2000 to wait. You have a

background. You were educated in the UK. Doesn't Ghana need a new

generation to fulfil this promise? The people of Ghana will make that

decision. Whether or not a new generation... Were to looking for

is if the people resonate. If people are articulating the views

and aspirations of ordinary people. Do you think you can connect with

ordinary Guardian's? Absolutely. The evidence is out there. It isn't

yet. Be lost the last election. Everyone was out of touch with the

realities of the lives of ordinary Ghanaians. I have no difficulty in

the certainty that indeed, one connects and will continue to

connect. Away at talking about the matters of concern to ordinary

people. Access to education and jobs, how the economy is impacting

on their lives. Defeat will be possible for us to continue the

economy we have been operating so far. These are critical questions.