Accra, June 7, GNA - The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) on Thursday called for national non-partisanship debate and consultation on the energy crisis as the government has lost focus.

"To all intent and purposes the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government had lost its bearing on the energy situation, but is too proud to admit its failure, we need immediate broad base discussion on the energy crisis," Mr Robert Woode, a CPP acclaimed engineer stated in Accra.

Mr. Woode described as the Crusading Engineer was speaking on; "The Energy Crisis and Its Impact on the Economy," at a public forum organised by the Accra Polytechnic Tertiary Students Confederacy of the CPP (TESCHART).

The workshop attended by activists, students and leading CPP members was on the theme: "Ghana's Independence: A reality or Myth?

He called on the government to tell the people of Ghana the whole truth surrounding the energy crisis in order to make them understand, sacrifice and lend their support to manage the problem as a national crisis.

Mr. Woode said the energy crisis as currently pertained would take a longer period to be solved and there was the need to give the people information that would help them make long term plans to salvage their industries and also contribute to solving the crisis through energy conservation.

He reiterated the call for the cultivation of almond trees to produce oil to fuel generators to run the industries. He said the country had 16.3 million hectors of land area and Ghanaians could plant about five million hectares of almond tress which would generate 12.5 billion dollars revenue and also create jobs for the youth.

He expressed concern about the economic strategy of the government, which he said could not take the country out of its current predicament. He stated that the private sector that has been described as the "engine of growth" to lift the nation up, create wealth for the people and reduce poverty, "are not delivering".

"The private sector as it exists now has no capacity to fight poverty. At best one can describe it as an engine with broken pistons," he stressed.

Mr. Woode called for a private sector where the state would act as a "catalyst" to facilitate development and the creation of employment for the youth.

There should be a shift from an agricultural and industrial raw materials production to processed, engineering goods and exportable services based on a technology driven economic strategy with a database for potential uses.

Dr Edmund Delle, CPP Chairman called for a transformation of the people by promoting African personality as a concept that discouraged mediocrity and challenged intellectual competence. He said a future CPP government would promote a profit-oriented government owned businesses in areas the local private sector and foreign investors did not have the capacity to exploit. Other speakers included Dr Gamel Nasser Adam, Senior Lecturer University of Ghana, who spoke on "The New Educational Reform: A Solution to Ghana's Deteriorating Education? and Mr P. S. K. Jantuah a Central Committee member.

Scores of the students appealed to the leadership of the CPP to organise programmes that would attract the youth into the fold to make the party a vibrant force ready to annex political power in Elections 2008. 07 June 07