The former Minister of Defence, Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor, has described himself as the Mahathir Mohammed of Ghana, who would engineer the nation's rapid development unprecedented in the history of the country. He stated that when given the nod at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) December 22 congress as the flagbearer and later win the presidency of Ghana, his administration would ensure the development of the country in the following spheres: agriculture, education, health, economy, governance, energy and the judiciary. Dr Addo-Kufuor, a surgeon and physician, who was briefing the media in Accra, said he would build the nation on the successes of President J. A. Kufuor to the level as achieved by the former Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohammed, a physician credited with engineering Malaysia's rapid modernization and promoting "Asian values". Explaining his vision, he said the recent Gross Domestic Product had been attained mainly as a result of the sterling performance of the agriculture sector, yet food crop farmers were among the poorest in the country due to the lack of access to markets, credit and subsidy and promised to establish a Food Marketing Board equivalent to the Cocoa Marketing Board, to see to the needs of food crop farmers. He added that his government would support farmers with most of their needs to make the prices of food affordable, guarantee farmers fair prices for their produce and embark on massive infrastructure development to facilitate the conveyance of the produce to the market centres. Dr Addo-Kufuor, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Manhyia, said that besides building agro-processing industries to add value to the agricultural produce for preservation and export, the policy of his administration would include putting enough nutritious food on the table of the ordinary Ghanaian and reducing the rural-urban drift. On education, Dr Addo-Kufuor said although the new educational reforms were highly commendable, as they would help to address the weaknesses inherent in the system and be responsive to a current challenges, his administration would increase recognition of teachers. He pointed out that motivation packages would take various forms including books and continuous education for teachers, housing and transport facilities, adding that all these would be done in close collaboration with the district assemblies, religious bodies and traditional authorities. Dr Addo-Kufuor, who was recently honoured by the military high command for his meritorious service as Minister of Defence, identified lack of instructors for technical, agricultural and vocational institutions as a problem and that his government would, in the medium term, initiate exchange programmes with other countries for resource persons and provision of adequate equipment for the training of the youth between the ages of 15 and 19. According to him, for those who would drop out of school, the government would establish community-based apprenticeship and skills training centres and also invest in the training of the trainers of such apprentices as well as provide internationally competitive machinery and equipment. He described the National Insurance Health Scheme (NHIS), which replaced the cash-and-carry system; as one of the enduring legacies of President Kufuor's government and identified as major challenges the negative attitude of some registered members who were moving from one facility to another and sometimes fronted for other relatives, the massive brain drain of health personnel as well as the high cost of medicines as the negative attitude of some registered members who were moving from one facility to another and at times fronting relatives, massive brain drain in regard to health personnel as well as the high cost of medicines. Dr Addo-Kufuor, who is credited as someone at the forefront in the establishment of postgraduate studies at the 37 Military Hospital, said such facilities would be increased for young medical personnel for professional development, and that they would be provided with housing and transport facilities to entice them to stay. He said further that his administration would liaise with big-time pharmaceutical companies to collaborate with their local counterparts to produce cheap and genuine drugs to reduce the high cost of drugs, which was affecting the NHIS. Dr Addo-Kufuor, who had submitted all the contracts executed under his administration as Minister of Defence since 2001 till 2007 for forensic audit by the Auditor General's Department and the Institute of Surveyors for analysis, said he would ensure that government appointees did the same under his administration. Source: Daily Graphic