General News of Saturday, 14 January 2012

Source: GNA

CPP to provide decisive leadership for Ghana- Bright Akwetey

Accra, Jan 14, GNA – Mr Bright O. Akwetey, a lawyer and aspiring flagbearer of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) at the weekend stated that Ghana deserves decisive leadership to propel the country and Africa “forward dramatically”.

“The bane of Ghana and Africa over the year’s hinges directly on lack of decisive leaders…The rest of the world would not wait for the country and continent on its gradual approach to issues and decision.

“We need leaders with the ability both mental, physical and moral aptitude to take bold and timely decisions….We cannot compete in the global market place with the go slow attitude,” Mr Akwetey told the Ghana News Agency in Accra at the weekend.

He said the kind of leadership Ghana needs is the selfless and nation-minded kind that the Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah exhibited, stressing it was a radical determination to salvage the destiny of the country.

Mr Akwetey who would be launching his campaign for the CPP flagbearership contest on January 17 at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra noted that the CPP and Ghana cannot continue to do things the same old way; “electing people who hardly make it count”.

“Change is crucial. The new CPP and Ghana requires a dynamic, pragmatic and transformational leader to catapult it from the nadirs of political derision to its original status as the trailblazer of Africa.”

On current development within the CPP, Mr Akwetey explained that the troubles of the party had been the frequency of flirtatious shifts engaged in by the very people who constitute the core of its frontline leadership but who have so easily fallen to the tantalising baits of its political opponents.

“Watching the CPP, once the touchstone of political power in Ghana and institutional machinery that laid the foundation for prosecution of the progressive agenda of our nation sinks to such depths of virtual dormancy, has provoked me to act in liberation of the priceless heritage,” Mr Akwetey stated.

Mr Akwetey, an ardent Nkrumaist was a Young Pioneer; born on March 13, 1949 and was called to the Bar in 1977 after graduating from the University of Ghana with a Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) in 1975.

He began his legal career with the Attorney General’s (A-G) Department where due to the predominance of economic crimes, which he observed was costing the nation untold sums of money, he found himself saddled with the prosecution of such crimes at the Criminal Law Division.

That decision was based on the dual missions of cleaning up and helping recover money for the nation. He led high powered teams of investigators and crime officers to conduct investigations into various economic crimes and successfully prosecuted landmark criminal cases.

It was a decade of “real” patriotic practice (from 1982 to 1992) which culminated in the recovery of billions of cedis for the country. Following his performance at the Attorney General’s Department, the Barrister was sent on secondment to the Republic of The Gambia as Senior Counsel for State Commissions of Enquiry.

He was recalled from the Gambia and retired from the A-G Department and civil practice in October 1999.

He chaired the Legal Committee of Ga-Dangme Council; from 1999 to 2007 and served as Chairman of the Legal Committee, Shadow Minister for Justice and Attorney General within the CPP.

Mr Akwetey served on the Board of the West Africa International Magazine in 2008, and the leading Sub- regional magazine conferred on him the Dr Kwame Nkrumah Leadership Award for his “martyric” pursuit of the Nkrumiast cause.