A Plea to the NPP Delegates to Elect a Competent Leader

........Prof. K. F. Boateng

The killer-problems of Ghana are well known to every Tom, Dick and Harry, but the solutions are evasive to all, except, the competent few endowed with charisma. It is therefore incumbent upon the New Patriotic Party (NPP) delegates to be very conscious, circumspect, and discerning when casting their votes to elect their party's presidential candidate for year 2008 Presidential elections. For, it is not anyone that is capable to lead a nation like Ghana where problems abound, where any minor issue is politicized into polarity, but effective solutions being scanty or scarce, owing to our inability to explore and exploit deeper into our unlimited human potentials.

Telling the truth, and being a man by swallowing ones pride to accept their defaults have always been the biggest challenges to Ghanaians, most of whom rather prefer lies. But I will call a spade the spade, however unsettling it is to some people. "If you lie about your key getting lost, you will end up sleeping outside in the biting winter cold". Ghanaians as a team, needs a lot to be done to get the nation firmly on its socio-economic feet. We need to be honest with ourselves and to others. We need to be proactive in our corporate endeavour to acquire better things to portray Ghana in a better image. We need people with the requisite foresight to lead in the battle of subduing all the evils that scar our minds, tarnish our reputation and then cast doubt over our credibility as rational beings. Having said that, less than four thousand people are entrusted with the power, as per our current democratic dispensation or governance, to let it make or break, in any of our tentative efforts to get the right person to lead the nation. These four thousand or so people are those that we call party delegates. This is also the reason why I have decided to address directly the delegates in case my message will fall on humble discerning ears.

In order not to repeat myself as to why Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng (K.F.B) is the right person to take over the presidency from His Excellency J.A. Kufuor in January 2009, I may refer the addressees or the audience to my recently published write-ups on Ghanaweb on same subject. This man has the required intelligence, dedication, honesty, farsightedness, selflessness and all that it takes, as one may say, the accoutrement, to wrestle Ghana out of her self-inflicted impoverishment. Kwabena is the best man to serve Ghana in the capacity of a President. He cares about Ghana and Ghanaians. The evidences are there for all to see, written on the walls of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, written conspicuously in the minds and hearts of those who care about the truth and facts. He is a determined person to ensure Ghana is seen in her best apparel. And unshaken determination backed by action is the key to success.

Who in Ghana never knows that tribalism is a near-chronic problematic issue gradually tearing the country apart? What have our leaders done about it? Not much in the right direction has been done to nip the touchy problem in the bud. Couldn't imposing one language or dialect on the people aside from the so-called English as a national language, coupled with the effective encouragement of inter marriages do the trick. Should this be started now, the categorization of Ghanaians into tribes and tribal enclaves with the attendant tribal animosity and nepotism will become history, only to tell in "Ananse" stories. I am sure Kwabena Frimpong has already the solution to this, being a think-tank.

President Kufuor and the ex-President J.J. Rawlings have both tried to encourage farming, the backbone of most economies, to be vibrant in Ghana. Free spraying of cocoa farms and Farmers' public holiday have been instituted. These are right steps in the right direction. But more needs to be done. Being a farmer myself, I may wish to ask, what is Farmers' holiday to a subsistence farmer living either in the urban area or in the remote area of Ghana? This holiday has not any positive impact on their welfare. But if the holiday, rather being enjoyed by the urban public servants though, meant for farmers had translated into subsidising agricultural inputs, it would be much better and would have had direct benefit for the farmers, regardless where one is found. While farming is subsidized in the Whiteman's land, they compel us to remove such subsidies for the Ghanaian farmer hence, making our produce more expensive in terms of cost, less attractive, and unable to compete with the quality but less expensive foreign produce. This competition then stifles the Ghanaian chance of ever being self sufficient in food production with the disastrous cultivation of the Ghanaian taste for foreign foods at the demise of our own agricultural economy. Kwabena has already an effective solution to this. If he is capable of mending delicate human hearts, he will be able to mend our agriculture. There are issues raised here on agriculture which I will treat in detail under a separate topic.

The NPP delegates, I plead with you not to sell your conscience for pittance, only to regret later after the irreversible harm has been done. Don't choose the wrong person based on who has been longer in the party, played what role, offered what figure of money, only to be castigated by posterity. But choose who is able to lift Ghana out of her disgrace and poverty. Vote for someone who can bring about the needed food safety, assurance of personal security, protection of lives and properties, the prevention of crime, creation of jobs and the provision of the necessities of life. The right person who has the tested self confidence and determination to deliver in the spelt out areas is nobody other than our only Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng. Kwabena is simply the best!

Oh Father God, I have let known your wish to your obstinate children. As they have been given the free will to do whatever they like until the judgment day, where posterity and You will decide whether they listened to the message or not, and based on that judge them accordingly, I hope I am done.

I wish all the various political party delegates, the electorates and every Ghanaian the world-over, a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year with K.F.B being eventually elected the NPP Flag bearer and the President of Ghana.

Rockson Adofo, London
email: rcksnadofo@yahoo.co.uk