New Patriotic Party government lauded

Dr. Nii Noi Dowouna, General Secretary of the Conventions People's Party (CPP), on Thursday lauded government for initiating a national consensus on Ghana's next vision but said this must be genuine and sincere.

"It is an aspect of good governance and consensus building, but it must indeed be genuine and sincere.” “Moreover, if only it is what we have seen in the past when Development Plans were abandoned or they failed because of politicization, then I'm afraid that the call for consensus won't work and should be considered as one of those that have failed," Dr Dowouna said.

"However, I wonder what input NPP wants us to make, since the National Development Commission would present the document to the President next week, presupposing that it had already been completed," he said.

The CPP General Secretary told the Ghana News Agency in an interview during a day's workshop organised by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) for registered political parties to solicit their inputs in the process of building a national consensus for the next vision.

Representatives of all political parties with the exception of the United Ghana Movement (UGM) and the National Reform Party attended the workshop, which began with a video clip on the regional consultations that has been carried out on the vision.

The NPP government's vision sought to achieve a Gross Domestic Product per capita income of $1000 by 2010. The 1992 Constitution requires every new government to present a co-ordinated programme of economic and social development policies within the first two years in office to parliament and which meant that the government has only 25 days for the exercise.

Dr Dowouna said the CPP believed Ghana needs a common threshold on the concern for Ghana's development and thus attended the workshop with no pre-conceived intentions. He said, "it is equally important to reckon that every political party in government has its own aspirations and ideologies that it needed to pursue."