…forming parties should be as easy as pounding fufu
Apparently frustrated by the guidelines on political party formation in Ghana, Mr Charles Kofi Wayo, leader and founder of the still-born United Republican Party, has gone to town on the Electoral Commission, describing its procedures for registering political parties as outdated and unfair.

“This is the twentieth century, and I believe we are civilized and educated enough to understand that laws and guidelines needed to regulate political parties need not be so cumbersome…look, Ghanaians know better how to choose their leaders without all these cumbersome processes…it is not the paperwork, it is the aspirations of the people that matter…Man, the processes are too cumbersome, like writing a theses of some sort…what is that…”

Wayo is therefore calling on the EC for the review of the electoral laws to suit modern trends in the political landscape. He cited the EC’s requirement regards the setting up of 130 offices nationwide, for instance, before one acquired the certificate of authorization as some of the requirements which is hindering the progress of his yet-to-be outdoored URP.

Speaking to The Statesman, Kofi Wayo intimated that “forming a party should be as easy as pounding fufu, because you don’t know who will save the country.” Asked whether this suggestion would not lead to too many political parties in the country, the businessman and politician postulated that five per cent voter constituency nation- wide could be a basis for setting that threshold needed to recognised as a party, if the nation is truly bent on giving power to the people instead of moneybags.

According to the URP founder, firing of erring party members is not anything he would compromise because he believes in discipline as key to enhancing loyalty and checking corruption among party leaders.

The slogan of the party: ‘Mercy for the poor’, according to him is based on the party’s philosophy to work in the interest of the majority of youth, women and children, who he say form the thrust of the target groups he intended to depend on to give Ghana some dignity.

Kofi Wayo, fondly called Chuck, maintained that the ruling NPP and the main opposition NDC parties are insensitive to the plight of the rural poor, boasting that he is “the only capable guy to salvage the nation”.

In his usual attack on the current government, he wondered why the NPP, in spite of its boasting about capacity and human resource, are unable to find a solution to the country’s pressing youth unemployment and poverty problems. On corruption, Kofi Wayo accused the NPP leadership of being inconsistent in the approach of fighting the pervasive menace of corruption, and suggested the firing of government officials instead of reshuffle.

Government officials, he told this paper, as long as they live on the tax payers’ money, must be accountable to the people adding.r.

“In my party, we shall investigate corruption in order to contain it…a total wipe out would be difficult”.

To achieve this goal, he said state institutions, under his administration, would be strengthened to apply “heavy punishment to culprits to serve as deterrence to other public officials…Again, public funds would not be expended to feed offenders in jail, but rather such offenders would made to undertake community service, an option which is more beneficial to the nation and communities rather than that in which criminals become parasites on the nation’s resources.

Recounting some of his contributions to the welfare of society, Kofi Wayo, who appeared hesitant initially, because he dose not control the nation’s purse, mentioned the Taifa water project, periodic donations to the Veteran Association of Ghana and several other acts of charity.