Opinions of Friday, 21 March 2008
Columnist: Lartey-Adjei, Festus K.
CPP will serve the interest of Ghanaians best, given the alternatives
The CPP under Dr. Nduom is guided by our great ancestor of ideas, charisma and the great African of the century Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. We are idealists who believe in the Blackmans ability and the opportunity that abounds today on our continent and country Ghana. Based on Kwame Nkrumah’s dream for a better Ghana we have promised ourselves to realise and achieve those dreams, for they are realisable and we think we can.
The CPP will create jobs and send Ghanaians to work; we will make our cities cleaner and secured to live in them; we will make it possible for our doctors to stay and work in Ghana as well as provide equipment for them to work with so that our quest for better healthcare for all can be realisable. Today, Ghanaians are dying in their hospital beds for simple illnesses. Education and Infrastructure is on our agenda as a high priority but we will instil into our national fabric a sense of discipline, a maintenance and renovation culture. We have introduced a party culture that rests on humility, respect, attentiveness and service to all Ghanaians irrespective of geography. The CPP in short will be an environmental party, a Labour party, Infrastructure and maintenance party where competence and manpower development in a society faced with constant technological renewal will be a priority.
Delivering this years Independence Day message, Dr Nduom described the CPP as a renewed winning party ready to reclaim its rightful place in Ghanaian politics. As he pledged on behalf of the CPP, he said; ''......I have promised Ghanaians a campaign of ideas, a government of inclusion, using the best people, a soft heart to create a just and caring society with a great sense of urgency to implement solutions so that our people benefit quickly". The CPP presidential candidate promised to put the Ghanaian at the centre of opportunities in the private and public sectors in Ghana.
He said it was his resolve to implement a consistent and aggressive governmental policy to support industries owned by Ghanaians throughout the country to provide sustainable jobs and living wages and salaries to the people. He gave the assurance that the CPP was resolved to ensure that at the end of this year's elections, Ghanaians remained one people, united in a peaceful country with one destiny. He said that "judging by the responses of the people to our campaign so far, I am on course to deliver positively on my promises". He said that Ghanaians needed a leader who would focus on solving problems and implementing ideas to free the people from poverty. "I believe I am that leader and wish Ghanaians a 51st year of independence that brings work they desire and happiness they deserve...." We are confident in our flag bearer and we are happy that among the other flag bearers, he is the only one touching on pertinent issues facing Ghanaians and promising to tackle them. Because we are socialists who believe in the welfare of every Ghanaian in a just society, we have no doubt in our minds that if the CPP is voted into power Ghanaians will see a change. I wish Ghanaians can trust and understand that it is possible to achieve this in our time. We wish to invite all caring sons and daughters home and abroad to join our crusade to first win the elections and then towards building a better Ghana.
The legacy of Dr. Nkrumah does not belong to any one group of people but to all who care about our beloved country. We can emancipate ourselves and stop serving in the white mans country. On May 5th, 1962 Kwame Nkrumah’s address had this to say about the urgency to develop our country in his seven year development program, and here are excerpts; "....Organization presupposes planning, and planning demands a program for its basis. The Government proposes to launch a Seven Year Development Plan in January, 1963. The Party therefore, has a pressing obligation to provide a program upon which this plan could be formulated. We must develop Ghana economically, socially, culturally, spiritually, educationally, technologically and otherwise, and produce it as a finished product of a fully integrated life, both exemplary and inspiring. This program, which we call a program of "Work and Happiness", has been drawn up in regard to all our circumstances and conditions, our hopes and aspirations, our advantages and our opportunities or lack of them. Indeed, the program is drawn up with an eye on reality and provides the building ground for our immediate scientific, technical, and industrial progress. We have embarked upon an intensive socialist reconstruction of our country. Ghana inherited a colonial economy and similar disabilities in most other directions. We cannot rest content until we have demolished this miserable structure and raised in its place an edifice of economic stability, thus creating for ourselves a veritable paradise of abundance and satisfaction. Despite the ideological bankruptcy and moral collapse of a civilization in despair, we must go forward with our preparations for planned economic growth to supplant the poverty, ignorance, disease, illiteracy and degradation left in their wake by discredited colonialism and decaying imperialism. In the program which I am today introducing to the country through this broadcast, the Party has put forward many proposals. I want all of you to get copies of this program, to read and discuss it and to send us any observations or suggestions you may have about it. It is my sincere hope that each one of you will take an interest in this national exercise and make the Party program for work and happiness a great success. Remember that it is at the moment merely a draft program and only your approval will finalize it. At the present moment, all over Africa, dark clouds of neo-colonialism are fast gathering. African States are becoming debtor-nations, and client States day in and day out owning to their adoption of unreal attitudes to world problems, saying 'no' when they should have said 'yes', and 'yes' when they have said 'no'. They are seeking economic shelter under colonialist wings, instead of accepting the truth- that their survival lies in the political unification of Africa. Countrymen, we must draw up a program of action and later plan details of this program for the benefit of the whole people. Such a program is the one that the party now brings to you the people of Ghana, in the hope that you will approve it critically and help to make it a success................" Kwame Nkrumah, Revolutionary Path, pages 185-187.
We in the CPP are honoured but humbled to be the ones to attempt to carry out this perpetual call, and like Nkrumah, we appeal to Ghanaians of all walks of life especially the youth to support the CPP in this all important quest, to bring to a finish the old mans dreams for a better Ghana, a dream which was shortened by betrayal and connivance with foreign agents. To the youth of Ghana I say; "arise and take back your country and you will not rely on whom you know to find jobs after school, and when you finish school and have jobs, buying an own house will be a matter of choice". We are not promising the moon and stars to Ghanaians but with humility and sincerity we will offer a leadership that is flexible, competent and available to listen to the people. Ghana and Ghanaians will be at the centre of everything we do and we will be solution oriented trusting in God to make our efforts bear fruits to mankind. We in the CPP welcome you; we will train and prepare your heart and minds for the assignment ahead, not for our sake only, but for posterity. Our aim is to make you learn to listen, respect and have the desire to serve Ghana in sincerity, humility and with zeal. The future of Ghana belongs to you and non else, and we are all best served if we stand up today altruistically. Let Kwame Nkrumah’s spirit and the love of Ghana guide you. Forward Ever--Long live the Ghanaian dream--Nkrumah Never Dies!
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