Christian Aid Reminds the New Ghana President to Care for the Poor

The Christian Council of Ghana (CCG), a Christian Aid partner, recently celebrated the re-election of President John Kufour as the President of Ghana. His success follows his party - the National Patriotic Party (NPP) - winning a majority in the recent parliamentary elections.

Since the murder of a local traditional leader, the King of Dagbon, and forty of his followers in 2002, Ghana has experienced much more unrest, particularly ethnic conflicts. Till now, the issue still remained unsolved. However, Ghana can see a beacon of hope as the government, religious leaders and the media were all preaching peace and tolerance before the elections.

The elections took place with relatively little violence. CCG has also engaged in some peace-building negotiations between rival ethnic groups as well as voter education sessions in parallel with the election.

Janet Mohammed, Director of the northern office of the CCG, expressed her expectation to the incoming president, "I congratulate John Kufour on his victory. But I want to see him addressing the conflict and reducing poverty in the north. He needs to look at the nation as a whole as it was the nation who voted for him."

Emmanuel Kuyole, of ISODEC - an organisation supported by Christian Aid - echoed, "One of the biggest challenges for the new government is how they are going to address the issue of large-scale depravation in Ghana, massive unemployment and increasing privatisation."

The Ghana government was being appreciated for its success in the area of human rights and achieving economic growth by trade liberalisation. However, Christian Aid partners say small-scale farmers in the north need more help.

Emmanuel Kuyole anticipated that the coming four years will not be an easy ride for President Kufour, "The next four years will be a real battle for community organisations. With an outright majority in parliament, the government will easily be able to push its policies through."

Janet Mohammed also suggested a sensitive topic on President’s to-do list - to arrest the murderer of King Dagbon. She said, "There will never be peace in the north of Ghana until these people are brought to justice. It happened during Kufour’s rule and if he is serious about national unity he will make this a priority."