<<Print>>I was just about to post a piece on this irresponsible story because I knew we will get here on reading it. Some are quick to question why I like to 'take on' my colleague journalists, but that is not the case. When I see and read stories that do not reflect the fact, and you even try behind the scenes to draw attention and you are rebuffed, while the larger audience is fed the falsehood, one cannot help but correct and state the facts.
I am at a loss where and when the President said what has been attributed to him in this story, because we are not told. And how a writer's imagination is attributed to someone else, is amazing. We had a recent experience with the 'dead goat' story. And to imagine that a reporter of the station was at that event in Botswana and followed the interaction and the context within which the story was used... yet back home, that was how the station twisted the story and linked it to workers.
And here again, JoyFM and myjoyonline claims the President said what? He asked workers to cut down on their expenditure? When and where? And even from the quote they published, there is no such correlation? Koku Bonuedie, Stephen Anti?
For the avoidance of doubt, below is a transcript of what President Mahama said during his remarks at the 47th Maulid on Saturday April 04, 2015 at the Aboabo Post Office Park in Kumasi. We live the judgment to you.
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My brothers and sisters,
Just yesterday the IMF approved a 3-year Extended Credit Facility for Ghana. This is good news for Ghana because it allows us to work together with our bilateral and multilateral partners to stabilize our economy and accelerate the growth of our economy. At the same time it allows us to deepen our social protection interventions to help cushion the poor and the vulnerable in our society.
But this means we have to work hard. This means a lot of hard work on our part because the success of this Extended Credit Facility will depend critically on us, not on the IMF, not on the World Bank or not on our development partners. It means that we must exercise fiscal discipline and we must live within our means.
Government is investing a lot of resources in development, in education, in healthcare, in provision of electricity, provision of water, reconstruction of roads, expansion of our ports, construction of railways, modernization of our airports and many other development projects.
But we must realise that government is like our own family. As the head of your family, you cannot provide all that your family needs at once. Alhassan needs a shoe, Fuseini needs a bicycle, your wife needs a new cloth, and your mother needs a refrigerator. You cannot provide all these at once and so what you have to do is to prioritize. You buy Alhassan the shoe today. You buy your wife a cloth next week, you buy your mother a refrigerator next month and little by little you continue to provide for your family.
We all have demands on government but we have to be moderate in these demands in order that we do not disrupt the budget and government expenditure. So I will ask all our communities to exercise tolerance. The fact that government has not yet provided a certain development that was requested does not mean that government will not provide it.
We are currently facing a challenge with power that has become popularly referred to as “dumsor”. I wish to assure you that government is working hard on this challenge and soon we will have some relieve from the power shortage we are currently facing by the grace of God.