Accra, Sept. 20, GNA- Poverty in Ghana in relation to the enormous wealth of the country is a very painful phenomena, Dr Al Hassan Abubakar, the outgoing National Chairman of the Convention People's Party (CPP) said at the party's second National Delegates Congress in Accra on Saturday.

"This is one of the main contradictions of our present path of economic development, which has been associated with very wide and growing inequalities in power, wealth, income and social opportunities with regard to educational, health and related facilities", he said. Dr Abubarkar who was addressing the 1,800 delegates, supporters and a cross section of party sympathisers at the Congress, said while we may have tiny minority swimming in wealth, the vast majority of Ghanaians still languish in inhuman misery with open malnutrition and massive unemployment.

The CPP Chairman painted a gloomy picture of the economy saying a daily expression of the Ghanaian crisis can be seen in the ever-increasing swarm of dehumanised beggars in the cities, the endless stream of youth who throng the streets struggling to make a living by selling anything from toilet rolls and apples to all manner of electrical gadgets.

Dr Abubarkar said the crisis confronting the nation is complex and called for an urgent state intervention and planning.

He said Ghana is in a desperate hurry to develop because of the human tragedy of underdevelopment manifested by her rapidly escalating crisis... and we need to resolve these basic issues with some urgent policy actions.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which according to Dr Abubarkar, "should shoulder a bulk of the responsibilities for leading us to the present crisis have now asked us to put our hands on our heads and proclaimed loudly to the whole world that we are not only highly indebted but that we are also very poor country".

He said the tragic aspect of this situation is that our government does not seem to appreciate the humiliation associated with the dishonour of this policy... Everywhere in Ghana, the government is shamelessly glorifying this poverty by erecting huge billboards announcing what we are told are the benefits accruing from this national bankruptcy.

"We must first of all identify the true priorities of the majority of Ghanaian people in terms of food, water, functional shelter, health care, education and transport. Luxury cars for members of government, frivolous official travels, elaborate presidential motorcades and ostentatious lifestyles of government functionaries are not among these priorities."

Dr Abubarkar also suggested the production and usage of locally made goods, and the elimination of major contradiction between producing what is not consumed and consuming what is not produced locally. "These dictate an effective national self-reliance through a robust national industrialization programme that matches the manufacturing of basic needs items with local resources", he said

The CPP Chairman said the party's economic programme represents a clear alternative to all the programmes we have been fumbling with from the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) to Structural Adjustment. He said CPP will advocate for a complete shift from the dependence on the IMF and World Bank.

The CPP believes that it requires a formidable party with a clear ideological orientation and vision, discipline among the membership of the party to resuscitate the country's economy. The Ruling New Patriotic Party, National Democratic Congress, EGLE, National Reform Party, and the United Kingdom Branches of the CPP sent solidarity messages with the party.