In the words of Rev Martin Luther King, “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is what you are doing for others’. Dear delegates, our nation has witnessed leaders whose agenda reflects the negative side of Martin’s proposition and what you do for your nation is to vote for the right caliber of person for the party’s nomination. It is not about looks, money, time spent with the party, friendship, school mates, popularity but one with the requisite qualities, seasoned, tested, efficient and visionary. Honorable Patriots, you now hold the key to the future of our dear nation and it is your civic responsibility to do it right for your self, our country, our kids and the unborn. The contrary will be a disaster and you must remember that when the rain falls, it does not fall on one man’s house.
This 2008 elections is not about the removal of ex-President Rawlings which was the case in year 2000, where attention was not paid critically to our nomination for the presidency. In the end, the few friends of the leadership enjoyed and the nation suffered as we lacked direction and philosophy. I am not saying that the NPP has performed poorly; they have the potential to have done much better if the leadership had tapped the best resource available instead of his friends and party loyalist. Countrymen and women, this is prime time which calls for serious business, it is the moment of honor and truth, the hour for the ‘million dollar’ decision and it takes serious minded people who understand the intricacies of our nation’s problems to deal with this hugemonguos issue. You have the option to project mediocrity by collecting monies from aspirants and voting them into power to continue and perpetuate their plunder or vote your conscience for someone who you honestly believe can deliver our nation from its crises-ridden situation. You have come to the cross road of our future and you have to decide to either perform your civic responsibility by selecting the most capable or mortgage the future of our nation, the decision is yours because good intention are not enough at this time of our nation’s growth.
There has never been anytime in our lives so critical then today as you exercise your right to decide the future of our great nation. In the 1960’s, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia , south Korea and Taiwan were at the same comparable levels of wealth with Ghana but they have taken their economies to a new terrain producing everything including cars and machinery for developments. To date, no aspirant has talked about science and the need to create a manufacturing economy with the exception of Prof Boating. We cannot continue to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, it is times to reason and sacrifice our momentary satisfaction to select a tested person, one who has records and shown fortitude and zeal to work for our great nation. It is ironical that we seem not to even understand the potentials of Kumasi Magazine and the need to link it with our Universities and Polytechnics. China is what it is today because of their recognition of small scale industries and science. Ghana needs direction and we want it now.
You cannot mortgage the future of our nation by compromising our thoughts and putting a questionable person in the driver’s seat. If you shrink our responsibilities by nominating any irresponsible person could simultaneously endanger your future, our lives and our young democracy. There is one too many irregularities and abuses in our system today which inhibit progress which could be a recipe for disaster if caution is not taken to do the right thing. You must remember that there is a law on limitations in all human endeavors, therefore our inaction to establish a workable system could propel an action for irresponsible consequences in the foreseeable future .Our history is clear on this assumption and it takes reasonable people to be cautious because if the center can not hold things will fall apart reversing the clock of progress and the engine of growth which makes your decision today a very important one in determining the future of our great nation.
NPP as a party has the last chance to nominate a person who is really capable of leading our nation to sustain its power or risk the possibility of destroying themselves forever to be replaced by CPP, the new emerging party with promise and vision. Ghanaians can no longer afford mediocrity and lack of drive in our leadership. They do not have the patience and the luxury to sit on the fence for far too long whilst we manage and mismanage the economy with incompetent Sector Secretaries who have no agenda of their own nor understand the problems of the nation. This explains why we sleep in darkness when the Akosombo Dam dried up; we have no enforceable regulations; our sanitation system is a mess; law and order is questionable etc. can we imagine that we have Town and Country Planning Department, a body with staff who are paid to plan our cities but they go to work for few hours and leave for their personal jobs- in the end, our cities are in a complete mess taken 3 (three) hours or more to move from one part of Accra to the other and no body talks about it. Honorable Delegates, go to a planned city like Tema and see whether there are any serious traffic mess over there? Please, we can not stagnate in our journey towards progress so give us a nominee with vision and direction now.
Ghana the beautiful, the land that abounds a lot of human and material resources and yet finds herself wanting because of greed , selfishness and mismanagement (at all levels) can be redeemed, rebuild and reborn if we put our faith in our political system and elect the right person for the Executive job. We lack visionary leaders with ideas and fortitude to shepherd our dear nation to the promise land. We need a person who will not compromise with the status quo (old order); we need someone with original ideas and have a vision of the 21st century; we need a leader who will be a unifier to drive our democracy forward to the dream land.
Delegates of Busia, Danquah and Dombo tradition, the N.P.P. could potentially lose the 2008 election in view of the growing disillusionment among the elite Ghanaian population. This is not my personal suggestion but what I see as a possibility in view of the emerging trends. We saw strange results in Asawase and Suame in Kumasi where N.P.P. lost to N.D.C as well as Odododiodo in Accra. All indicators showed that some of the party faithful did turn up on the Election Day. Besides, Election are won with independent voters who decides based on their believes and information on the ground which underscores the lumining dangers ahead. If the recent dismal attendance of Alan’s visit to Cape Coast is food for thought, then it is imperative that the party executive stop the maneuvering and ensure that the most capable candidate is chosen for the job. You should remember that it takes more than party slogans to entice an average person in Ghana to wake earlier for the voting area.
In our current crises- ridden situation, a visionary leadership is the key to our long-aged problems. Ghana’s development has suffered very much because of the direction of many of our past leaders and their drive for their own personal agenda. A true visionary walks on challenging terrain and does not compromise to dangerous maneuvers but the truth. He is the one who perseveres at all times and circumstances seeing service as a spiritual and useful tool to humanity. They are always selfless, divinely inspired and connected to a higher wisdom and see courage in their path to success. Gandhi of India, a lawyer by profession, born into the middle class rejected his comfort to fight against injustices and prejudice. Some of us sometimes argue that Dr Kwame Nkrumah was able to achieve so much because he came to meet funds and that is fine. Can we figure out the loans and grants we have received to date? The difference is not the money but the philosophy, Dr Nkrumah knew where he wanted to take the country which explains why he could build nine (9) secondary schools in six months and over 50 (fifty)in total , in his desire to accelerate education in his 9 year rule. Ex-President Rawlings had 18 years and President Kufour has so far got 7 years and Dr Nkrumah had 9 years. The rest is up to us to judge.
Ghana, our dear nation is gradually dying as unit as our values continues to degenerate. We are currently engulfed with apathy, selfishness and politics clickism. Patriotism, truth and love for honesty have no meaning in our social lives. The new philosophy is “chop and let me chop’, and the now accepted ideology of each one for himself God for us all permeates through the rank and file. Delegates, we can not get far with this believe system so help us to change the course of direction of our country by nominating a tested and seasoned person.
Honorable Delegates, you have the mandate to decide the future of our nation and the course of our history. You should be proud about yourselves, your conscience and bravery to salvage our nation. If any aspirant attempts to bribe you, please collect it and use it to buy food for you family after all what is in your hand is part of the national wealth and you are a citizen. By refusing to accept it will allow them to black list you at a later date (reference friends of Kufour.). However, you have to understand that the future of our kids, our nation and the unborn is larger than our political parties which make it imperative for you to honor your civic responsibilities.
THEREFORE, GO IN PEACE AND VOTE BASED ON YOUR CONSCIENCE AND LIVE WITH IT. God helps us all.
Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.
