The NDC can’t be considered a total failure – Bernard Mornah

The General Secretary for the People’s National Convention, Bernard Mornah says giving someone grade F means that the person is a complete failure and as such, judging by some important indicators, the party in power, the NDC cannot be considered as a total failure.

Mr Mornah said this on Radio Gold’s Alhaji and Alhaji show on Saturday in relation to the recent ‘F’ grade awarded to the NDC by the opposition party, the NPP.

He noted that: “as the NDC won power in 2009 and were sworn in 2010, they did not have the kind of goodwill the NPP got when they were sworn into power in 2001.”

“I have always said that inflation has its own plus and minuses but it was the same inflation that used to be one of the very key tool that the NPP in the past always touted itself that we have brought inflation down, first to single digit and then it rose to 20.8 per cent and above.”

“All of a sudden, inflation started dropping and interest rate has also started dropping, so if you look at the economic indicators alone, it points out that one can certainly not give the ruling government the ‘F’ grade.”

“If you look at the agriculture sector, around 2007 and 2008, the country imported rice to the tune of $600 million. Today, there has been a decrease to almost $300 million, which means that we have started to augment the importation of rice by increasing domestic production of rice. That certainly is a plus to our Ghanaian farmers, meaning that we are staying some income for the importation of rice in our nation and I am hoping that in the next two years, we will be able to get out of the issue of importing staples like rice that we can produce.”

Mr Mornah said that he does not think grade F is acceptable and that the ruling party should be given grades that are acceptable and meet the challenges we have in the country.



Bismarck Nii Ogbamey Tetteh

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Is Goran Stevanović the one?

Does the ace performance of the two past South-eastern European Black Star managers advocate for the appointment of their fellow countryman in a growing trend of a Ghana-Serbian football relations?

In the mist of what is almost turning out to be a tradition of Ghana employing Serbian coaches in the past few years, one may be tempted to ask if they are really the right guys for the coaching job.

It started with Ratomir Dujkovic, who was the first Serbian Coach to walk into Ghana and took up the coaching job between 2004 -2006. He led the Black Stars side which was captained by ‘the tornedo’ Stephen Appiah to the African Cup of Nations in 2006 in Egypt. The team’s performance in that tournament was nothing to write home about.
But the Serbian redeemed his image by qualifying the nation for its first ever World Cup in Germany that same year. The Stars put up a marvellous performance and were the only African Country to qualify to the round 16th of the tournament.

Milovan Rajevac, the next Serbian Coach earned a lot of criticism from Ghanaians not because of the team’s performance but because of his ‘one top’ style of play and the fact that he could not speak the English language. Then again, he gained a lot of praises from Football lovers all over the world as he led Ghana to the final stage in the 2009 CHAN tournament, 2010 African Cup of Nations where we were the loosing finalist and then to the quarter final stage 2010 World Cup which was held in South Africa, where we were the only African country to reach that far.

The two Serbian coaches, Ratomir Dujkovic and Milovan Rajevac upon taking up the job, never made any promises but delivered fairly.

The newly appointed Serbian coach Goran Stevanovic, who was the former coach of Partizan Belgrade, has promised to win trophies with the help of the Ghanaian side. He has also made known his style of play to be attacking football.
“We must play attacking and attacking football while being cautious in defence and I am sure we will achieve the results... I am here to build champions …and I’m certain that all of us want to be champions…”

It has been 30 years since Ghana last won the African Cup of Nations. The Black Stars were third in 2008, second in 2010. “It is now time for trophies. It is time to be first again,” Stevanovic said during his first press conference with the Ghanaian media.

Ghana has been depending on these Serbian coaches for quite some time now but the question is ‘Is Goran Stevanovic truly the one?’.
It is our hope and pray that he is able to fulfil his promises and bring Ghana the trophies.

Bismarck Nii Ogbamey Tetteh

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