Accra, July 26, GNA - Rev. Samuel Kofi Ofori Ampofo, Flagbearer of the Ghana National Party (GNP), on Sunday told the Ghana News Agency that when GNP is voted into power, it would deepen the economic independence of Ghana and pursue policies that would eliminate the dependency syndrome.

He said a country where the majority of the people depend on the minority for their daily bread could not be described as an independent country.

"GNP is determined to move to get this country out of the cycle of poverty and dependency syndrome for good," he said.

Rev. Ampofo said after 51 years of political independence, the country still remained largely dependent on donors and the international community for the socio-economic survival of its citizens.

He said in present day Ghana, even those who manage to make ends meet are unable to save for the future because "every man who is able to make some money in this country has more mouths than his own family to feed due to wide spread poverty."

"The situation where one bread winner has to cater for his wife and children as well as his parents, in-laws, cousins, nephews and nieces among others with his meagre resources is a mark of a retrogressive rather than a progressive society and is unacceptable, no matter how we glorify it as a cultural practice," he said.

Rev Ampofo said after 51 years of independence, Ghana should have been a society where each nucleus family, comprising of father, mother and children, is able to take care of itself without depending on another family.

"This is the kind of Ghana that GNP proposes to create when voted into power, a Ghana that a man has only his wife and kids to cater for so that he can save the rest of his money for the future," he said.

Rev. Ampofo said GNP has a clearly defined vision and properly laid out development plan to move Ghana out of that cycle of retrogression. He described the goings on in the political arena as "political nonsense" which does not deliver the needs and aspirations of the majority of citizens and said that Ghanaians should be weary of the traditional political parties and their empty promises. He said in year 2000 when the NDC based its campaign on the number of roads it had constructed, the NPP questioned whether roads were food for the stomachs of hungry citizens.

"Today the NPP is also capitalizing on road construction as achievements for which it should be retained in power." "Unfortunately 70 per cent of our population is illiterate so they are not able to read in between the lines to know that NPP is no different from the NDC," he said

Rev. Ampofo said GNP is ready to work with the youth, no matter their political affiliations, to lead Ghana out of poverty, the dependency syndrome and into economic prosperity in the shortest possible time.

"My passion transcends the beliefs of just a political party; it is about making this country truly independent of donors and multilateral creditors and making the citizens truly free from the dependency syndrome," he said. 27 July 08