Political Season Is Here Again!!!

« Prev

Comments (0)

Listen to Article

I wish to take this opportunity to greet our brothers and sisters and friends in the Diaspora. I want to remind you all that a new time of political season is coming soon. Many of the old time politicians are going to be vying for your support and that of your relatives at home. Some of them are taking ideas suggested to them over the years that they did not implement and making speeches to seek your votes. Example, the idea of using Diaspora funds to invest in state assets in Africa was initiated by a Kenyan friend, Fred Kwoba in 1994, and has been proposed to every single Ghana Ambassador in the US and every Finance Minister since 1994. None of them considered it seriously and made any viable attempt to implement it. Yet Ghana’s former Minister of Finance Osafo Maafo is reported to be giving a talk on the same topic of “The role of the Diaspora in a New Partnership to confront poverty in Africa” in Washington DC soon. Why didn’t they think of this earlier even when approached till they seek to run for the Presidency? Can they deliver even on other peoples ideas? In addition to that they need to reveal where they get their moneys from, knowing their actual salaries when in office were less than $1,000 per month. Some of the NPP Presidential candidates are reported dishing out gift in cash and have ordered or delivered scores of vehicles for their campaign. The time has come for you to ask them:

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR US LATELY?

and

WHERE DID YOU GET THE MONEY FROM?

The P/NDC could not effect developmental changes in 19 years in office. Ghana’s economy actually sank after the 19 years of P/NDC rule with a GNI per capita that was rated at $320, dropping from about $390 in 1950s (The World Bank report, 2005). The NPP cannot be trusted to deliver since they do not seem to have the right direction, discipline and strategies to do the job. They seem more interested in continuing the old pattern of high taxation and port duties of goods and vehicles as set by the previous administration. Taxes and money are collected, loans are received, grants are received, but the multi global travels and luxury lifestyle of the President and the Ministers and even the MPs seem their priority. Nobody seems interested to budget and account for the people’s money.

For some of us the waiting to see a Ghana developed under the guidance and leadership of their generation is over. We have had enough. We now choose at this time to take the responsibility with our own resources and talent of honest committed educated people, to return home and help initiate a new set of leadership for our country.

1. We need to utilize our billions of dollars in loans to build our infrastructures of water, electricity and telephone systems. Some of this we can raise ourselves through government bond financing and the Venture Capital Fund from the sale of SOEs referenced for more than a decade in this writer’s publications

2. We need to use the talent of our people to manage public projects, health care services, transportation and communication systems, and help support private ventures in manufacturing and agro-businesses, and hence create jobs for our people.

3. We need to have property ID and people ID systems, and account for the moneys in the public sector, and we can do it through computerization. This is easy to do.

4. We have to calculate what use we put the aid and loans we get, and make sure the projects get completed and the moneys accounted for, so our society can use that as a stepping stone to make our own development and create jobs.

5. We will and we can compete globally but we need to manufacture products for our use and export, and are we need to have stable electricity, phone services and water at reasonable cost as overseas. We can do it, after 50 years of independence and training our people.

5. We need to work together to make the electorate aware of this message that we have enough people of our own who can manage the nation. THE TIME IS NOW For change.

My brothers and sisters, we have to learn to trust ourselves, after half a century of political independence. We have to invest in our country if we ever want to return one day to live there.

A new Political Party has been initiated, and we have been able to gather signatures in all 138 districts and been given a provisional certificate to operate as a party.

We have budgeted we need only US$1.5 million to mount an effective campaign and win elections for the nation of Ghana to be on the right course again. Folks, we can do it! There are an estimated 3 million Ghanaians in the Diaspora and if only 5% can support us for change in Ghana, only $50 each, we will win! We know the other parties cannot deliver. We will deliver, just as some of us have delivered through years and decades in corporate or other management in America and elsewhere overseas.

We need your support! We need to work together!

PLEASE visit our website at www.natlparty.com

And let us have your contribution and your ideas also.