Group campaigns for Spio-Garbrah to be president

Accra, March 01, GNA - A group calling itself the DraftSpio2008 Movement on Wednesday opened a campaign to make a former a m minister in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, the next president of Ghana.

In a statement released in Accra the movement, which described itself as a non-partisan organisation dedicated to political renewal in Ghana, called on Ghanaians to redefine and refine the criteria for choosing political leaders for the country and consider the possibility of voting for Ghanaians from the Diaspora in the 2008 elections. It said in the same way the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) drafted Dr Kwame Nkrumah from the Diaspora 1945 and he later became President, Ghanaians should focus on the Diaspora for the next president of Ghana.


"Ghanaians should remain open-minded to the possibility that another Ghanaian who has lived and worked amongst us but is now in the Diaspora may be the answer to most of our problems," it said. The movement saw a person with such leadership qualities and experience in Dr Spio-Garbrah, one time Ghana's Ambassador to the USA and Minister of Communications and Minister of Education. It said the movement did not necessarily represent the views of Dr Spio-Garbrah nor speak on his behalf but it believed that he had the qualities, experience and courage to continue with Ghana's development from where Dr. Nkrumah was stopped.

"It is instructive to recall that since Dr. Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966, the only other Ghanaian who has had the courage and foresight to introduce a successor programme to continue with his Ghana Education Trust (GET) is Dr Spio-Garbrah by introducing the GETFund in 2000," the statement noted.


It noted that Dr. Spio-Garbrah had an added advantage over Dr. Nkrumah in that the latter returned to Ghana after 10 years in the Diaspora and yet made a the most significant impact on Ghana's political history but the former had worked in Ghana and continued to visit every year. The suggestion to focus on the Diaspora for the next political leadership of the country comes in the wake of an uproar over the passage of the Representation of the Peoples' Amendment Bill (ROPAB) into law to allow Ghanaian's in the Diaspora to vote in all elections.