President John Dramani Mahama says he is unfazed by the blistering attacks from sections of the Ghanaian media because the development helps to strengthen democracy.
He stated that he always woke up to political discussions in the media that could see many leaders fumbling and tumbling on their work but as someone who believed in the freedom of the media, he took them in his strides.
Speaking at a high-level meeting on post-2015 anti-poverty goals, which he co-hosted with the British Prime Minister, Mr David Cameron, at the Ford Foundation in New York City on Wednesday, Mr Mahama said a free open media was needed to fight corruption.
Themed, "Ending poverty- why strong accountable institutions matter," the meeting, which was on the sidelines of the 69th UN General Assembly, was attended by representatives of civil society groups from various parts of the world.
Ghana, Mr Mahama told the gathering, had perhaps the freest media in the world.
Transparency and accountability
President Mahama said Africa took issues about transparency and accountability very seriously.
"They are critical because resources are thin. If people steal public money it means denying various sectors, resources for development," he said.
It Is not for nothing that Ghana had come out with laws and established various institutions to fight corruption.
But, one of the main institutions - Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) - was confronted with the problem of inability to institute investigations on its own, a situation the President said was a disincentive to fighting corruption.
Consequently, he said, action was being initiated to amend the national Constitution to remove that restriction.
Cameron
Setting the stage for the discussions, Mr David Cameron was delighted to host the event with President Mahama, whom he described as " a man with extraordinary character to tackle poverty."
Mr Cameron stressed the need for political leaders to give special attention to poverty reduction to help ensure peace and development in their respective countries.
He questioned why some people should live on $1.25 a day saying, " this is what absolute poverty is."
"We need to get over this," Mr Cameron said.
Corruption
Stating that corruption and poverty were bedfellows, the Prime Minister said when corruption worsened in society, poverty equally become worse.
In his view, many countries with rich resources were poor because of corruption.
In a related development, President Mahama participated in the second Japan-Africa regional economic communities round table summit at the UN headquarters on Wednesday.
Mr Mahama also held a closed-door meeting with the President of C�te d'Ivoire, Mr Alassane Ouatarra. Details were not immediately known.
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