Why CPP Leadership Must Resign Now

Please permit me some space on Ghana?s most democratic medium - Ghanaweb - to join Mike Eghan in his call for the CPP leadership to be removed from office. Mike Eghan?s call is timely because if the CPP is to be rescued from an early death it has to be rescued now.

The current CPP leadership has failed the party. If Delle needs confirmation of their failure he should ask his general secretary who said recently; ?Currently the party had no positive public image, adding that since the inception of the fourth republic, the party?s fortunes had been dwindling and should engage the attention and effort of all?.?

If the CPP were a private business the shareholders would have fired the management by now. Successful organisations are built by visionary leaders with robust strategies- strategies that are flexible, dynamic and responsive to the changes in its environment. Unfortunately we have a leadership that is incapable of seeing the great shifts in our political landscape.

Every keen observer of Ghanaian politics knows that given the impact of the NDC on traditional CPP support bases, if the CPP is to grow, it has to be transformed into a modern all-inclusive party: a party that opens its doors to people from all walks of life, whether they are Nkrumahists or not, a party while inspired by Nkrumah?s patriotism is not handcuffed to the past.

Instead of transforming the party and moving to the center, Delles leadership is tied to the extreme left, and has devoted all its energies to uniting with the PNC, an effort that assures the party only an additional four seats. The wrong choice of priorities has undermined the party?s progress and stifled any effort at developing an alternative vision for the country.

When half of the country?s budget is donated by foreign institutions, when more than half of our JSS leavers cannot go onto SSS, when standards in public life are falling, when people are struggling to make ends meet, what Ghanaians want to hear from our party is a set of ideas to move the nation forward.

How can we as a nation ensure that every child, no matter where they are born, can be enabled to reach their full potential? How do we give every Ghanaian access to water, a decent home and the other basic necessities of life?

And what has been the contribution of Delles leadership to this debate in the past twelve months? Zero! Nothing! What we ever hear from Delles leadership is unity talks, imperialism and this ism and that ism. It is not just in policy formulation that Delle?s leadership has failed. Even against the goal that Delles? team has set itself ? that of uniting all Nkrumahists - they have not delivered. Last year Delle promised a congress in November at which a merger agreement will be presented and agreed, and the PNC will do the same. Both the NPP and NDC have since held their congresses and moved on, while Delle and Dowuona are still talking logos and mottos. What the leadership were supposed to have negotiated and agreed by now is the real issues that will bind the two parties; the principles and values that will underpin the union, focusing on the similarities not the differences, identifying synergies, not fighting over positions. Delle?s leadership has been keener to demonstrate their Nkrumahist credentials than to fashion a new road map for Ghana. The team is characterized by elitism, an unwillingness to reconnect with the grassroots - the CPP?s traditional support base, lack of organisational skills and an unwillingness to utilise the youth. A wrong diagnosis of the current political landscape has meant that they promote today?s CPP in response to yesterday?s problems and yesterdays opponents. Take a look at the party?s leaders and website and you get the impression that you need to be over a certain age to join, that the party is designed for the past, not the future.

More distressingly, Delle?s team has neither the desire nor the determination to fight to reclaim the ground that the party has lost to the NDC. For example, when the Tamale by-election was announced, the party leaders said the party had no money and they weren?t going to contest. It took a group within the party to ?beg? the leaders to let them stand. What sort of leadership is this? What sort of leadership throws in the towel without an effort? In any case, isn?t it the leadership?s role to fundraise for the party? Fact is, businesses and rich individuals are the main sources of funding for political parties. But they only give to parties with credible leadership capable of winning elections. No one is going to donate money to a party perceived to be run by hardliners or out-of-touch extremists.

Without the donations you cannot go round the country to support any recruitment effort or support the branches. So you become an Accra politician as our CPP leaders have. And even in Accra you cannot embark on any effective publicity campaigns because that requires money too.

Consequently, nobody knows much about today?s CPP. Under this leadership the party has lost its credibility. The electorate can hardly comprehend Nkrumahism and our leaders have done little to educate people on what it means. Their stock in trade seems to be memorial lectures, as if celebrating Nkrumah?s death ensures food on one?s table, decent jobs for the unemployed youth or affordable and accessible health care for all.

The few sporadic attempts by this leadership to rally Nkrumahists has been done in such a bungling manner that it has left people asking what does all this Nkrumahism mean. A more effective approach to attracting people from a broad political spectrum is to tell Ghanaians more specifically what Nkrumahism would look like in every policy area rather than shouting Nkrumahism everywhere. Spell out the detail, spare us the labels.

The leaders have failed to harness the talent within the party for the benefit of the country. A party that boasts of supporters like Dr Duffour- ex Governor of Bank of Ghana, Paa Kwesi Nduom, Dr Nii Noi Thompson, Dr Alhassan, Freddie Blay, Professor Akosa, Dr Antwi-Danso, just to mention a few, and also Kwaw Ansah - Ghana?s best film maker should not be leaving its communications to Kwesi Pratt nor choosing light weight and uncharismatic politicians as presidential candidates.

Additionally, by sticking to outdated doctrines they have failed to develop a platform around which the whole party can congregate. Without an inspiring agenda the party has lost its traditional supporters and acquired a bad public image as Dowuona puts it.

Ghana needs a new vision, a vision that is shaped by what we have learnt since our independence struggle; one that unites all of us and enables every citizen, Nkrumahists, Danquah Busiaists and all those without party affiliations to join hands for one purpose - to improve the quality of life of all our citizens.

Delle?s team has failed to do this. Infact they have failed to lead. If you can?t unite your party, how can you unite the country? They have dug themselves into a hole and are still digging, to bury the CPP. So we have to remove them from office and save our party.

Delle says that calling for their removal is a support for coup d?tats- this is completely rubbish. If they keep abreast with international politics they would know that currently in Britain the labour party parliamentarians are calling for the prime minister to announce the date for handing over to a new leader because he no longer enjoys their support. In 1990 Margaret Thatcher was forced to resign because she lost the support of her MPs. A leadership that has lost the support of its MPs has no moral right to exist.

Delle says that we need to wait until next year when his term ends. My questions is; whose interest is he serving? Only his. When your party has three seats in parliament, when you have virtually no grassroots structures, when people do not know what the party stands for, when you are competing in a landscape dominated by two strong parties, you want to start organising early. This starts with congress. New leaders need time to lay the necessary foundations for any grassroots work. Fundraising and designing a winning PR campaign all takes time.

I therefore support Mike Egan?s call for the CPP leadership to be removed from office by all means necessary. Rise up for the sake of Ghana and get rid of these non-performing old men, and create a party for the youth - a party for the future. Ghana desperately needs a revamped and reformed CPP.