Boycott the by-election -Kofi Wayo

AS THE two major political players in the country, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) are putting their arsenals together to battle for the upcoming Offinso South by-election, scheduled for October 24, this year, the Leader and Founder of United Renaissance Party (URP), Mr. Charles Kofi Wayo, has asked the electorate to boycott the elections.

According to him, voting for any of the two political parties would not change the lifestyles of the electorate except that they would continue to live under total deprivation, poverty and untold hardship.

“You see, the NDC has been in power for 20 years, what have the people benefited? The NPP has also deceived them and they have also not benefited and that is why I say, they should boycott the elections or if possible vote for any independent candidate if there is any, because both NDC and NPP cannot solve their problems.”

He continued, “If I were them, I would boycott the elections because both parties are not acceptable.

We are wallowing in poverty. They have no strategy to solve the nation’s problems. If the people of Offinso South have the interest of the nation at heart, they should vote for an independent candidate. We need a man who would refuse the per diem and fight for the people,” he said.

Mr. Wayo, who asserted that the nation lacks moral temerity because they have no ethical concept, said assuming the two parties have what it takes to solve the problems of the nation, they would have solved the energy crisis by now.

“I told them that I can solve the energy crisis but they failed to let me handle it. They asked me to keep quiet and enjoy,” he trumpeted.

Speaking with this paper in an exclusive interview on a wide range of issues, the URP Leader said he feels very bad that MPs would not change their opulence lifestyles but rather enjoy going on foreign trips to the chagrin of the masses.

According to him, the upcoming by-election “is an exercise in futility because it would not change the constituents’ lifestyles. If the NPP and NDC were efficient and know what they are doing, the nation would not be begging every now and then.’

Mr. Wayo observed that the leaders of the nation do not understand the economic and energy policies and prevailed upon Government to turn everything into wealth to end the cycle of begging that has become the lot of the nation.

Asked about what the URP would do if given power, the chief critic of the incumbent Government said, “I will bring down corruption by 90%. Ghanaians are basically not corrupt, but the NPP made the system to corrupt them,” he claimed. According to him, the Government professes to be a listening Government, but behaves to the contrary, saying, “The Government is not tolerant because they do not care about the people. I have documents to prove that President Kufuor was warned but he failed to acknowledge it.”

He averred further that, “If the URP is in power, nobody would even think of corruption because the system would not provide the platform for that,” adding that currently, people are surviving” by what he termed, as ‘azaa.’

Mr. Wayo, who indicated that his URP would move into full gear any moment from now, urged the masses to vote for his party in the 2008 general elections. “I will run compassionate capitalism, not the book capitalism. I have principles; moral values and I will die for fighting for the people. The people are not prepared to make sacrifices any longer,” he contended. Mr. Wayo proposed that should he be given the mandate to rule this nation, apart from having better energy policies, he would set up a task force to do away with bureaucratic tendencies by degree holders.

To him, degree holders should be allowed to teach at various universities but not to serve in the energy sector because they lacked the requisite capacities to work.

Mr. Wayo, who indicted the President accusing him of traveling outside the country on ‘too many occasions without any results,’ said the nation needed a vigorous leadership to stop the ‘crap’ and urged the nation to look at the various levies in the country.