"Better Life for Ghanaians Under NCPP Government'"

The Deputy National Organizer of the Convention People's Party (CPP), Mr. Asare Nyiaku Bediako has stated that should the CPP and the National Reform Party (NRP), win the 2004 elections, the lives of many Ghanaians are going to be bettered.

According to him, the key areas the party would seek to address would be education, reduce the unemployment rate amongst the youth, abolish the cash and carry system since the party believes in the ideology that each and every individual should have access to free medical care because, according to him, people could only make well informed choices when they have healthy bodies.

He further explained that the creating of jobs to the unemployed youth should not be centred only on private sector participation since at the end of the day a section of society tends to benefit from it.

Asare made these revelations when Chronicle called on him to comment on some issues confronting the party and lessons learnt so far from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which drew the curiosity of many Ghanaians.

According to him, all the rumblings made by some individuals in the NDC party before it delegates congress, should be seen as a new chapter for the party to swim deep into the democratization process, adding that the party all this while had been under autocratic rule.

He remarked that with Obed Asamoah now as chairman, he hoped the party would begin to think and act maturely, adding that all political parties in the country would be guided by the happenings in the NDC in order not to repeat some of their past mistakes.

Asked to comment on why the CPP had merged with the NRP to form the National Convention People's Party (NCPP), Asare explained that both parties saw the need to merge because they shared common manifestoes, have the same constitutional beliefs and had Nkrumahist background which, according to him, could help them form a formidable force to emerge victorious in the 2004 elections.

He lamented that the only setbacks the two parties are having is for them to hold their individual congresses to approve what was discussed at the joint inter-party committee for both parties to organize one delegates congress sometime this year or early next year.

Elaborating on why the Great Consolidated People's Party (GCPP), and the People's National Convention (PNC) failed to join in the alliance, the deputy national organizer had this to say: "We were all together since we shared Nkrumahist ideologies but later these parties pulled out without any tangible reasons but I believe there are strong opposing forces working against us to make sure there is no unification but we are prepared to accept them into the party should they change their minds later".

Continuing, Asare reiterated that he believed there were some individuals in these parties who only think of their bellies and had gone all the way to accept monies from some influential people to make sure that the Nkrumahist parties to not merge.

Commenting on some short-comings in the NPP administration, he was quick to add that the NPP, since time immemorial, had a record of following the principles of the British system of governance which would not benefit the nation.

"The NPP government believes in capitalism where jobs are created by private individuals and when these jobs are not created, the youth would continue to roam the streets without jobs," he added.

He was also of the view that the present government had become too much entangled with the policies of the World Bank and in the process, failed to initiate programmes on their own initiative.

"Ghanaians need more than that because the bulk of the people are suffering as a result of some laid down conditions by these international bodies," he noted.