Akoto Joins Presidential Race

A fourty two year old information technology expert Ramone Akoto Osei is set to join the 2004 presidential election race.

He told JoyFM’s Super Morning Show host Komla Dumor that he aims to occupy the highest office in Ghana because he has a dream to make Ghana a far better country than it is now.

A former product of the Adisadel College Akoto Osei says he would build a strong economy and create many jobs by making the most of the advancement in information technology.

Explaining why he is contesting as an independent candidate instead of joining one of the established political parties and traditions, he said: For my plan to work, Ghana will need a 21st century government, A Transparent government that believes in education, innovation and accountability. This why I am considering to run as an Independent Presidential Candidate for Ghana to have it’s long overdue economic freedom.

He has already launched a website to run his campaign, www.supportakoto.com. On the site, he says: ''During the past decade, the birth of the global, information-based new economy has changed the world. As we move inexorably from the Industrial Age to the Information Age, the transition has been difficult for past and present governments in Ghana. This is why I running for the Presidency of the Republic of Ghana. I have the expertise and the character to move Ghana forward. ''

Akoto’s presidency he says would be aimed at achieving the following.

• Create 5 million Jobs in 3years. Guaranteed

• To make Ghana's education the best in the world by 2008.

• Prolong the lives of Ghanaians and wipe out poverty and corruption

• To create the most transparent government in the history of Ghana.

• To bring Ghana to the soccer world cup 2006.

Akoto points out that : ''the plan here is to strengthen the Ghanaian citizen, small businesses, government, schools, businessmen and women for job readiness. For Ghana to develop, the people of Ghana has to be developed. Education is a vital component of our economic innovation, and job creation. I am committed to sustaining and increasing the level of growth of the Ghanaian citizen. I believe that I can use technology as a key component of strategies to create high paying jobs, opportunities and community economic development.''

Akoto was elegantly dressed and waxed eloquent about what his plans but there were times too when he displayed a lack of understanding of the Ghanaian constitution.

He said for instance that he has been told it is possible for him to be both an MP and president when the constitution does not allow that.

Maybe his lack of understanding of the constitution at this moment can be explained by the fact that he has spent a greater part of his adult life in the United States working in various information technology fields.

He has stayed in the United States since he was eighteen years and studied computer science at the New York University where he studied up to the masters level.

He claims to have created software for MCI, IBM, TDK as well as working for Calvin Klein, Estee Lauder and Ralph Lauren as a client executive. While some callers into the program lauded his ideas, others said he should just forget about the presidency.

Election year in Ghana has always been lighted by good talking young men and independent candidates but none contested the presidential elections in 1996 and 2000.