Monday, March 02, 2015

CPP Calls For Justice On Ghana’s Darkest Day
By The Convention People’s Party – CPP

24th February approaches again and a new generation of Ghanaians step forward to mark Forty-nine years of the greatest treason in Ghana’s history, for it was on 24 February 1966 that a great vision for our nation was interrupted with the coup that toppled Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s CPP government. This was the day that robbed Ghanaians of an economic breakthrough that would have put us on par with countries like Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea and truncated a bright future for subsequent generations.

The anniversary comes at a particularly difficulty and worrying time for our nation with Dumsor continuing unabated, increasing unemployment, endemic corruption with impunity, unprecedented hardship and poverty.

It is against this background and with great concern about our nation and the plight of all Ghanaians that the Youth of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) will mark the occasion with a demonstration calling for Justice – Political Justice, Economic Justice and Social Justice for all Ghanaians.

The CPP does not believe that the problems confronting the nation is just about Dumsor but about a radical departure from the way our country is run to reconnect politics to the people it serves.

We believe that our society needs to be transformed, our economy rebuilt so as to create a platform of justice for all.

Both the 1966 coup and the 1979 coups were used by our opponents to give themselves every opportunity and every advantage in the political arena. CPP assets were seized and its leading figures driven into exile, all as part of a plan to destroy the CPP forever and in the process destroy its vision for the country.

Restoring that vision calls for restoration of CPP assets as part of building that Platform of Justice for all.

As the CPP marks the darkest day in the history of the nation, we draw strength from the relevance of that vision to re-capture the spirit and strategies that created the Akosombo Dam, the Tema harbor and township, free and compulsory education, hundreds of well-planned and integrated industries, revolutionized agriculture, a de-tribalized society and set the pace in development for the continent.

We must return to Self-reliance, self-sufficiency and a good Development Plan as we did under CPP Governance to transform the structure of the Ghanaian economy from one that is depended on the export of a few raw materials into an industrialized and prosperous society where the basic needs of its citizens are met.

Ghana needs an alternative framework for socio-economic transformation and diversification of our exports. We need a structural change in our economy, which adds value to our agricultural produce and our precious minerals, through processing, increasing our manufacturing capabilities, and developing our skills for improved labour productivity using existing technology.

This alternative framework will consolidate ownership of our natural resources, address the challenges facing the manufacturing sub-sector in Ghana in view of the important role manufacturing plays in the creation of decent jobs and poverty reduction. We need to support indigenous entrepreneurs through specific policies such as providing advisory services to local businesses, facilitating the establishment of industrial parks, and better access to credit. Government can ensure we encourage local manufacturers by securing purchases as soon as they start production. We should reward companies doing well and give them specific inducements.

Despite an average growth rate of about 5 percent over the last two decades, single digit inflation, lower middle-income status and relative macro-economic stability, these indicators have not improved conditions for our people. Many are without jobs, have no running water and certainly our power supply has collapsed.

We have been banned and betrayed, banished and bombed, exiled, incarcerated, ridiculed and our assets seized, yet we are still standing. The greater the challenge, the bigger our love for Ghana, and the stronger our determination to serve and to put Ghana to work.

This is why on the 24th February we will be out demonstrating for Justice – restoration of an alternative framework and restoration of CPP assets to pursue a truncated vision

Forward Ever! CPPGOVTNOW!

Nii Armah Akomfrah
CPP Director of Communication
www.convention peoplesparty.org

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