Sogakope (V/R), Sept 13, GNA - Professor Mike Ocquaye, one of the presidential aspirants of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has pledged to lead a crusade to change work ethics, which he said currently appeared to be at the worker's leisure, to that of purposefulness and responsibility.

He said this purposefulness, coupled with his strategies for an all-round growth, would propel the country towards middle-income status within four years of his presidency.

Prof Ocquaye made these remarks when he launched the Volta region version of his presidential campaign during which he outlined a 16-page action document at Sogakope in the south Tongu district on Wednesday. He said Ghana must imbibe the values of hard work, transparency, fairness, discipline and cost consciousness in its culture in order to attain the rapid development achieved by countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.

Outlining his programmes of action for close to two hours, Prof Ocquaye said if elected, he would transform agriculture from the present "menial, manual and unscientific" state into a modern industry with inbuilt systems to cater for marketing of produce. He said he would start a corn revolution, which would make the Ghanaian staple an all-year crop with attractive farm gate prices to be set by a Grains Development Board.

Dr Ocquaye said he would implement a similar programme for rice and cotton production.

He said he preferred creating a class of skilled people whose aggregate production throughout the country would surpass or match those of conveyor belts.

On education, Prof Ocquaye said he would promote part-time education, with open and community colleges in place. "In this connection, every district shall have adult night school college to serve as the focal point for continuing education," he stated. He said the study of science and mathematics would be promoted as the gateway to statistics, banking and insurance, engineering, industry, research and scientific agriculture, while access to ICT would also be increased.

Prof Ocquaye said his youth policy would target the rural youth for training and placement in self-employment, through revolutionary agricultural production, easy access to credit and the development of service industry.

He said his programme would vigorously tackle practices that belittled women since their social and economic uplifting was crucial for the all round development of the country.

Prof Ocquaye printed his accolades boldly on campaign fliers and posters, some of which read: "Team Leader", "Utility Player", "Lawyer", "Diplomat", "Pastor" and "NPP Founding Member".

He said the media would continue to enjoy its freedom but also pledged to promote polices that would drive that sector towards excellence, objectivity and "pursuit of the truth".

He said Party activists, especially those at grassroots, would be incorporated into a strong support base and that their views would be sought on major issues. 13 Sept 07