It is another new year, the beginning of the 47th of the birth of Ghana as an independent nation.

The Convention People’s Party – United Kingdom and Ireland Branch, extends greetings to all compatriots, wishing us all a happy and peaceful 2004, but above all a year of good health.

New year greetings are particularly relevant and needed this year because it is an election year for our young democracy, and also because the hardship on fellow citizens has never been greater, the burdens on their daily lives even more intolerable.

Close to thirty-eight years after the overthrow of the CPP Government the tide of goodwill that the CPP enjoys is unprecedented, a tide which is now turning into a swell of positive belief in the values and ideals of the CPP – unity of our nation under a democratic form of government, social and economic justice with a higher standard of living for all the people and not just a few, a society in which all citizens regardless of class, ethnicity, colour or creed shall have equal opportunity.

Ghana has indeed seen positive change, positive change for NPP Ministers, their families, friends and cronies, for no one can fail to see or notice that those who are close to the NPP Government are suddenly the ones with the ”biggest cars in town” , to quote a concerned and disappointed NPP voter.

The tide is surely turning towards the CPP, because many who believed that in supporting the NPP, Ghana will experience change and they will see a positive transformation of their lives now know that all that has changed is the driver of “Ghana – the vehicle”. President Kufour pursues the same failed policies of the NDC with greater hardship, and the drivers of the big shiny cars are now wearing NPP colours in lieu of NDC colours. What happened to our “Positive Change”?, What has happened to “Positive Change”? The NPP has failed miserably and cannot even deliver on its flagship rhetoric of “golden age of business”. Its HIPC policies has lead to the collapse of local businesses due to high taxes, with more regulation, control and red tape.

President Kufour’s assertion in his new year message that 2003 was a good year for Ghana must be seen for what it is – out of touch with the reality of greater hardship and deplorable poverty engulfing our nation. The NPP would seem to be focused on their paymasters – foreign multi-nationals to the exclusion of local entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship.

A majority of the population not born under a CPP government and grown on diets of anti-CPP propaganda is now asking questions and revisiting history, and for those who are still seeking answers we must and we will educate :

? When it comes to the Development of our beloved Ghana the CPP record is No 1.

? When it comes to the Health of our nation the CPP record is No 1

? When it comes to Education, the CPP record is No 1

? When it comes to Agriculture the CPP record is No 1

? When it comes to Jobs the CPP record is No 1

? When it comes to Industrialisation the CPP record is No 1

? When it comes to unity of all tribes and the nation the CPP record is No 1.

The NPP has lost the trust of Ghanaians and does not deserve a second term, and we would urge fellow compatriots to use the power of the thumb to register their protest against an incompetent, parochial and corrupt NPP government , and vote massively for the CPP in the forthcoming elections.

Ghana was let down by the NDC, and now woefully by the NPP, it is time to return to the CPP with a tried and tested record on building a socially just society, a nation of equal opportunity, a land of unity with all tribes living in harmony.

A Happy New Year to Ghana!!!

There is victory for the CPP this 2004 Forward Ever Backward Never.