Ghana's opposition Convention People's Party (CPP) has vowedto win this year's general elections, accusing President John Kufuor's rulingNew Patriotic Party of failing to live up to its promises. This comes after theparty released its manifesto Tuesday ahead of the elections, claiming that ithas plans to alleviate the suffering of the masses and bring hope to Ghanaians.The opposition party, which is the first political party to rule the nationdemocratically, said it put Ghana on a high pedestal that many Africancountries were proud of and emulated. But it criticized the ruling NPP and themain opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for failing to build upon ormaintain the country's infrastructure. Nii Moi Thompson is the chairman ofCPP's manifesto committee. He tells reporter Peter Clottey from Ghana's capitalAccra that it is about time Ghanaians reclaim the spirit that led to thecountry's independence.
"Webelieve that the time has come for us to reclaim the initiative and the spiritthat took us to independence. And this we do by situating the manifesto withinthe context of the party's ideology of Nkrumahism, and there are three elementsof Nkrumahism, that informed the manifesto. The first one isself-determination; that we need to take over our resources and our destiniesinto our own hands, just as we did in years leading to independence, anddevelop this country according to our aspirations and efforts, and not whatsomeone determines for us from a distant land," Thompson noted.
Hesaid the CPP would transform not only the country, but also its people.
"Thesecond is social justice where, again, we make sure that for example where youare born does not forever determine destiny. If you are born in the rural areaand poor, it doesn't mean that you remain poor. And then the third element ispan-Africanism. We cannot develop in isolation. We need to necessarily collaboratewith other Africans at home and abroad," he said.
Thompsonsaid previous governments have failed the nation because those parties lackclear definition of their philosophies to take the country forward.
"Wehave failed to meet our challenges in the past precisely because we didn't havesuch a clearly articulated ideology. Our mentality in this country remains verycolonial. We believe that we are incapable of doing anything, even running atelephone company. Only the white man can do that. Our national teams are beingcoached by fourth-rate French coaches. Our presidential palace is being builtby Indians. This is a retreat away from the independence ideals ofself-reliance and due spirit. We need to reclaim that ideal, and this isprecisely what the manifesto seeks to do," Thompson noted.
Hesaid there was need for the citizenry to find self worth again.
"Weneed to instill into the Ghanaian once again a spirit of self pride, selfrespect, self confidence and of course the culture of excellence," he said.
Thompsondenied the CPP party is not attractive to the country's youth.
"Actually one of the challenges that we arefacing now is getting out enough registration forms for the youth. Andeverywhere we go, there is oversubscription. In the course of preparing themanifesto, questions kept coming up, especially from the youth as to what theCPP actually stood for because they have heard so much negative propaganda fromour detractors. But as the result of that, included in this manifesto is a briefhistory of the CPP, dating back to its formation through the periods ofstruggles for independence, through independence, the subversion and the yearsafter the 1966 coup. And so the youths are now beginning to understand the realCPP story, that we did not squander the resources of the country. We actuallyused them to develop this country," Thompson pointed out.