The Founder and leader of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Mr. Dan Lartey Wednesday says an aspiring flag-bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Kwesi Botchwey failed the nation when he was the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning and does not therefore deserve to be a President of the country.

Mr Lartey called on members of the NDC and on all Ghanaians to ignore Dr. Botchwey's bid for flag-bearership of the NDC and future bid for the presidency.

Popularly noted for his domestication paradigm during the 2000 elections, Mr Lartey said, "as finance and economic planning minister in the PNDC-NDC era for about 15 years, Dr. Botchwey was largely responsible for the current economic woes of the country." He said Dr. Botchwey literally sold the Ghanaian economy to the suspicious multi-lateral organizations such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and others who are currently the perpetrators of the economic slavery of this country.

He said "Under Kwesi Botchwey, the Ghanaian economics run into more problems than ever. What was more serious, Botchwey abandoned his party and the entire nation for so-called personal reasons at a time he was needed to clean the mess he had created." Mr. Lartey said it is high time Ghanaians grow above political triviality and take a careful look at the present and the future in the light of the past before making political decisions.

He said "We cannot just sweep our recent past under the carpet and leave our future at the mercy of potential deserters who only bid it fit to desert the masses for parochial reasons when the going gets tough". He observed that the ruling government is only continuing in the fashion of the past government, saying that it is unfortunate for President John Agyekum Kufuor to be running around the globe begging for crumbs to better the Ghanaian economy.

Mr. Lartey said President Kufuor and his government should have learnt from the experience of the NDC government that running around for foreign investors is not and would never be the best solution to the economic problems of this country.

He said "I still stand by my domestication paradigm that we have what it takes as a nation and as a people to better our economic situation". He said "If we stop for once and took a look at the internal resources and the local private sector we would be making a good start." He lauded the Presidential Special Initiatives (PSI) as a good start, but was quick to point out that the various programs must be ran hand in hand with readily available resources if the PSI is to succeed.