Accra, Sept. 25, GNA - Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, former Chief Executive Officer of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, on Tuesday picked up nomination forms to contest the presidential primaries of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He paid the required GH=A2500 (five million cedis) for the forms as part of the initial processes for the primaries which scheduled to come off at the Party's special national delegates' congress scheduled for December 22 this year.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, a renowned heart surgeon, arrived at the NPP headquarters with hundreds of supporters, backed by brass band music, who chanted his achievements in a carnival procession through some principal streets.

Also at the Party headquarters to pick up the nomination forms were Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, former Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing; Mr Felix Kwasi Owusu-Adjapong, former Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Mr Mohammed Musah, a former Regional Youth Organiser of the Party.

A euphoric Prof. Frimpong-Boateng told the Ghana News Agency that the basic objective of good leadership in a biological population was to ensure the continued survival of the population. "This involves meeting the basic necessities for survival so that the population does not die out. These basic needs are food, shelter, clothing, health and defence."

He said it follows therefore that any population that was not able to feed, house, clothe, heal and defend itself had very little chance of long term survival.

Prof Frimpong-Boateng noted that beyond these basic needs, there was the need for leadership to engage in strategic thinking and planning to prepare the population for future challenges.

He said he wants to be president in order to address challenges resulting from problems associated with increase in the population size and complexity of the society.

He said in modern, affluent and complex societies, institutions, which made the population survive and thrive, needed the proper leadership for their effective maintenance.

Thus schools, hospitals, markets, industries, law enforcement agencies, political authority and many others more or less assumed the status of basic necessities, the collapse of which would lead to the breakdown of the whole society, he held.

"I am therefore into politics to fix it all. I have done it before and I have the capacity to mend the nation. There is, therefore, no denying the fact that the quality of leadership that I will offer would directly influence the success of the country.

"An important function of leadership is to inspire those being led to greater achievements so as to gain competitive advantage over similar populations.

"There is a crisis in leadership. One of the most universal cravings of our time is a hunger for compelling and creative leadership."

He emphasised that the problem of the absence of creative and visionary leadership, however, seemed to be acute in Third World countries, especially in Africa.

"I stand for prompt, vigorous action and I challenge the delegates to cast their votes for Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng as the flag bearer of the NPP for Elections 2008. This is the time to elect a winnable candidate for the party.

"Prof Kwabena Frimpng-Boateng would inspire a new vision and enthusiasm in the Ghanaian. Kwame Nkrumah's dynamism contributed to the political emancipation of the African continent. J.B. Danquah's unflinching belief in democracy and the rule of law laid the foundation for a political system, which had survived decades in the opposition. "The wisdom and dexterity of King Osei Tutu I culminated in the establishment of the Asante Kingdom from a collection of feuding clans. "Martin Luther King Jr. journeyed in a vision to the mountain top and gave a vivid description of the Promised Land to his segregated nation and challenged America to do better."

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng then asked: "Where are their successors? Why have we not had any true leaders in the world in a generation? Why are there no potential leaders, be they prime ministers or presidents who inspire and motivate or even excite us to greater heights? "Where, for God's sake, have all the leaders gone? They appear to be an endangered species, caught in a whirl of events and circumstances.

"The quality of life of the society depends on the quality of the leaders. As a person cannot function without a brain, so a society cannot function without leaders."

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said it was obvious that there had been crisis with leadership for many years now. The current political and economic problems besetting the country stemmed from the leadership crisis being experienced by the country over the past decades. He said the need for the setting up of a National Reconciliation Commission was ample evidence that things had not gone well with the nation.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng explained that the signs of a leadership crisis were alarming and persuasive.

"There is a widespread loss of faith in our major institutions such as the judiciary and law enforcement agencies generally; there is an alarming breakdown of traditional values and discipline; corruption is more or less institutionalised and no serious attempts are being made to fight it; there is total disregard for environmental sanitation; our pride as a people capable of playing our role on the international scene has been totally eroded," he said.