Features
A call on CPP to be a potential force in 2024 general election
A sister of mine, name withheld, told me that she recently dreamt about the party that would form the next government and take over the mantle of leadership of our dear country, Ghana, after the tenure of office of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2024. In that dream, she was directed by the Almighty God to try and get in touch with Comrade Kwesi Pratt, a leading member of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and Managing Editor of Insight Newspaper, to deliver a special message to him concerning the re-organisation of the party to take over the leadership of this country in 2024. She asked me to assist her to get the contact line of Mr. Pratt so that she could deliver the message to him personally. I did according to her wish and I am very sure that by now, she has been able to get in touch with Mr. Pratt to deliver her message.
MESSAGE TO COMRADE KWESI PRATT
Being so inquisitive, I impressed on her to interpret that dream to me in a more cohesive manner and to my astonishment, she told me that the good Lord had revealed to her that come 2014, the leadership of this country would be transferred to the CPP because Ghanaians were, indeed, tired and fed up with the current government and that of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and would like to try a third force which is the CPP.
I cannot agree more with my sister about her dream and vision, however, I strongly believe that for that prediction to materialise, much will depend on all the splinter groups of the Nkrumahist tradition to bury their entrenched positions and differences and rally their strength behind the CPP, the party formed by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of blessed memory and first President of Ghana to regain their fortunes and claim leadership of this country. That can be possible and there is no ambiguity about that vision. It is a fact that those who have been monitoring and following Kwesi Pratt critically about his comments and support for the CPP, believe that he has what it takes to help bring together well-meaning and genuine Nkrumahists who believe in the ideals and tradition of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to build a formidable CPP to capture power, come 2024.
CPP AS AN ALTERNATIVE PARTY IN GOVERNMENT
It is a fact that Ghanaians who have tried and tested both the administrations of the NPP, which is still in power, and that of the NDC, which handed power in 2016, are not seeing any improvement in their living conditions. Rather, what they are witnessing currently is economic stagnation, hence the deterioration in their living conditions. There have been no proactive measures to arrest the declining state of the economy and the sufferings among the people are, indeed, unbearable. Therefore, the only option and alternative left for Ghanaians is to try the CPP and see what they can also offer this nation. But in doing so, that entrenched positions by the so-called splinter groups which claim their roots from the Nkrumahist tradition must be dismantled to rope in true and genuine CPP members and supporters who because of the unstable nature of the party, have defected to other parties including the NPP and the NDC. It is important and significant for the dormant CPP to regain its original posture and to rub shoulders with the two main political parties in our dear country, Ghana.
This article will not be complete, effective and interesting if it fails to trace and sumarise the historical background of the emergence of the CPP from the Nkrumahist era up the present state where things seem not to be going well with the party because of apathy, individual differences and leadership crisis. It is also a fact that there are quite a number of Ghanaians who are not familiar with the CPP, therefore, they will need some bit of enlightenment about the party and what it stood for in the past.
SHORT HISTORY ABOUT THE CPP
This writer was not born when the CPP was formed but history has revealed that it was a socialist party based on ideas of former president Kwame Nkrumah of blessed memory. It was formed on June 12, 1949, by Nkrumah to campaign for independence of the Gold Coast. It was a governing party under Kwame Nkrumah of the autonomous British Colony of the Gold Coast from 1951 to 1957, and independent Ghana from 1957 to 1966. In 1964, the Constitution was changed to make the CPP the only legal party in Ghana, thus making the nation a one-party state. The party was banned after the 24th February 1966 coup d’etat by the National Liberation Council (NLC). It will interest readers to know that parties that followed the CPP tradition used various names to prosecute their own agenda. It was the first party to rule Ghana after the attainment of independence in 1957.
The CPP started as a vehicle of emancipation of the nation and whole of Africa, and was a party that embraced farmers, fishermen, the rural folks, the rich and the poor alike. In the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections, the party won one parliamentary seat, the Jomoro Constituency with the daughter of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Madam Samia Nkrumah as the member of parliament. The then presidential candidate Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, performed below expectation, managing to get 1,4 per cent of the total valid votes cast. The presidential candidate in the 2012 election was Dr. Michael Abu Sakara Foster with Mr. Ivor Greenstreet being the presidential candidate for the party in the 2020 election.
SHAMEFUL SPECTACLE WITHIN THE CPP
It is a shame that the CPP which used to be a party with a larger following is now wandering in the wilderness due to protracted differences, bickering and a host of other problems basically on matters of leadership of the party. The party has men and women of integrity to manage its affairs but the lack of coordination and unity seem to be tearing the party apart. Was it not a shame that the CPP has no representation in parliament ever since Samia Nkrumah’s mandate expired in 2016?
The turn of events in this country in which the cost of living has become unbearable for the average Ghanaians, demands that the CPP must get its act together, bring all those who professed in the ideals and vision of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah together and launch a positive campaign to win the needed support for the party come 2024 general election. Now is the time for the founding members of the party, some of whom are still alive to call a spade a spade and see how best they can unite the party under one umbrella which is the CPP to make a positive impact on the country’s democratic process. Ghanaians are yearning for a third force to save them from the harrowing experiences they are currently going through.
This country is not the preserve of any group or political party to govern, it belongs to each and every Ghanaian and Ghanaians deserve every right to choose the party of their choice to run the affairs of the nation. That is why a clarion call is being made to the CPP to organise itself well to battle for the leadership and show what the party can also offer to salvage the country from the downward trend.
To borrow from the lyrics of the greatest and popular Jamaican reggae and soul musician, Jimmy Cliff, “There is suffering in the land” and Ghanaians will need selfless, dedicated and visionary leaders to lift them out of their sorrowful state as well as the current economic hardship they find themselves in.
Ghanaians have tried and tested the two major political parties-NPP, NDC- and things, especially issues regarding the economy are not working in their favour, therefore, the only alternative left for them is to look elsewhere for their salvation. The CPP can be a potential force if it can unite and re-organise itself before the 2024 general election.
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By Charles Neequaye
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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