The founder and flagbearer of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, has urged Ghanaians to demand better governance from their leaders rather than being content with the state the nation finds itself.

The former first lady said there ought to be “visible progress and improvement in our lives”, warning that not pushing government to make things better in the country would indicate to officialdom that citizens were content with the status quo.

Mrs Rawlings said these at the party’s conference held at the Trade Fair Centre in Accra on Saturday April 30, where she was declared as the NDP’s candidate for the 2016 presidential election.

She told party faithful: “It is our patriotic duty as citizens of Ghana not to make room for government complacency at all. And we should not make room for government incompetence. We should not.

“Our country’s greatest unexploited resource is not our gold, it’s not our cocoa. Indeed it’s not even our oilfields because…we get very little from the oilfields compared to what we get from cocoa. Our greatest resource is the people of Ghana – our women, our men, the elderly. These people are the building blocks that Ghana stands on.

Our youth, our children – these are the future of the nation. Hope in Ghana’s future is dependent upon the opportunity that we create today, that harnesses the God-given talents of every citizen.

The wife of ex-President Jerry Rawlings said the NDP understood “the art of participatory democracy” for which the party had members from diverse ethnic groups, throwing an invitation to Ghanaians regardless of their tribal affiliation to join the party.

Mrs Rawlings broke away from the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) after falling out with its leadership following her failed bid to snatch the flagbearership of the party from late president Professor John Atta Mills for the 2012 presidential ballot.

However, Mrs Konadu failed to contest on the NDP’s ticket in 2012 after being disqualified by the Electoral Commission for her inability to fill out her nomination forms before the deadline set by the body.