NPP - USA ATLANTA CHAPTER CHAIRMAN’S SPEECH

Mr. Chairman, The Honorable Members of Parliament present here, distinguished guests, comrades and fellow citizens: I am extremely happy to have this opportunity of meeting with you face to face here today – an opportunity, I wouldn’t have had, had it not been in the mighty name of the NPP.

It is our collective wish that today’s meeting would add value, energy and strength to the already existing force of our party. We have no doubt that the New Patriotic Party will emerge victorious in the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections. How is this going to be done? We have the power of resilience.

Mr. Chairman, in 2004 I visited Atlanta, Georgia from my New York base, and to my surprise I found our people’s difficulty of organizing themselves into a strong political force to win investments for our dear country. I decided to stay in Atlanta to organize them. Please be informed that the latest statistics on my desk shows that the Ghanaian community in the Atlanta Metro alone totals nearly 25000 (Twenty-five thousand). I started my campaign of unification through direct home visits and constant telephone communications. After two years of hard work, we have successfully grouped into a strong NPP branch in Atlanta with dedicated men and women readily prepared to serve our party and nation.

Mr. Chairman, based on this information, I strongly request the blessings of the headquarters in DC to join hands with us here in seeking for a Trades Mission and a Consular Office in Atlanta Georgia to help our people sail through in their business and private travels to and from the USA and Ghana. Communications with some important personalities in our side of the nation show that there is a whooping stock of more than 300 Georgians showing interest to visit Ghana on a daily basis. I honestly trust that if we are offered the chance, Atlanta can increase the Ghana Government income from foreign missions by at least $1million yearly, boost Ghana’s foreign direct investments (FDI) with a top up of at least $20 million annually, and encourage Ghanaians in diaspora investments (GDI) to at least $1 billion annually. All these show how strategic Atlanta is in this side of the planet.

At this juncture, Mr. Chairman, may I inform this meeting today that NPP–Atlanta Chapter will host the 2007 NPP (USA) Annual Congress at the well-known Georgia World Congress Center. The resilience imbued in the Atlanta Chapter will be translated into electioneering win strategy. How do we plan for this? 1. The Atlanta Chapter will pledge a huge sum of American dollars to support the NPP nominee for the presidential seat and the winnable parliamentary slots. 2. We will send our men and women trained in Diplomacy with Political Campaigns from top US schools to make a wide and decisive win for NPP. We shall not leave anything to chance this time round. NPP must sit on Ghana for the next 20 years at all cost regardless. 3. The channels of security and election results monitoring system in Ghana is still poor. We will contribute to a fair play and same day report of the whole country without tampering with the results. We will leave nothing to chance. Finally, the Atlanta Chapter will throw its weight behind the man or woman who will carry the mantle after His Excellency, President Kufuor in 2009. Therefore, it is important to inform our compatriots about our envisaged winnable man or woman as a presidential candidate. This will be a person who is able to: 1. Prioritize his or her duty. We know you can not do everything over a period of four (4) years, and hence needs to iron out your plan of action, and how feasible your plan is comprehensible.

2. Based on your priorities we will expect a three or four-prong strategic view to run the country. Then we want to know your party’s (NPP) long-term strategic plan (e.g. over 20 years) and how your own short-term plan resonates with that of the NPP to make Ghana, the beneficiary?

3. And last but not the least, how do you plan to cascade power to the youth? More often than not when politicians get to the top, they easily forget those who worked so hard to push them there. Partly because they get consumed by the enormous duties attached to their positions, or the pressure exerted on them by the opposition, or simply ignoring the grassroots’ demand and still expect them to accept the way the system works. To solidify NPP and to make it permanent in the hearts of our people, we expect allocation of between 30% – 40% of all programs to foot soldiers to realize their dreams. We can help in this line of strategic policy formulation. This is where Atlanta NPP performs well. We have a strategy of industrializing Ghana through small business development. Time will not allow us here to elaborate, but the presidential hopefuls in our mist can contact me on phone, email, or in my office to assist you plan for a winning game. To our distinguished guests, sympathizers, supporters, and well-wishers, who have taken time off to travel here today, I say: please make a committed decision to join NPP today while you are here. We need your ideas - no matter how little you may consider it. Please, note that: “intelligence is not found in one person’s head”. It takes a collective effort to succeed as a nation. Please come dialogue with us. “Ka-bi-ma-menka-bi.” Please join us, pay your dues, and attend all monthly meetings. We have a lot to do. We need county/ward representatives for recruiting members and relaying information to ward/county members.

We need executives to handle trade mission issues, negotiate, communicate with US congressmen and women to fund-raise and lobby for investments into Ghana. We also need personnel for the envisaged consular section to assist in advisement in tours, visits, and business in Ghana, etc. The planning is too much and I need dedicated men and women to handle some technical areas. [Our national chairman is here today to inform us about the membership drive fee, and other modalities].

There is also the need for the planning of the September 2007 NPP-USA Congress in Atlanta. I need highly committed and industrious planning committee to see to the success of the congress. I also need committed people for an interim executive committee to handle the party until September 2007 when a permanent 2-year committee can be elected to office to run the affairs of NPP-Atlanta Chapter. We need to raise at least $20,000 before August 2007. Above all these must be an indispensable committee of eminent NPP Grey Hairs, who would be in the constant networking, monitoring and consultations with the committees to cause effectiveness, accountability, and discipline.

In coming to the closure of my speech, Mr. Chairman, Honorable MPs, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen I thank you all once again for your time in listening to me. Let us all contribute to help our nation.

God Bless Ghana, God Bless our President, God Bless NPP. Thank you all. Konongo Fordjour, Chairman, NPP – Atlanta Chapter