STATEMENT BY THE NATIONAL YOUTH ORGANIZER ON THE NATIONAL YOUTH DAY OF THE CPP, 21/02/2009 IN ACCRA.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen from the media, comrades and friends, I welcome you all on behalf of the Youth League of the Convention People’s Party to this all important press conference as part of the commemoration of the National Youth Day.
Mr. Chairman, it is important to note here that we are the only Party with a date set aside by our forbearers as a day for the youth of the Party to celebrate their contribution and for the recognition they enjoy within the rank and file of the CPP.
Let me remind all Ghanaians that, the only Party that was founded by the youth, led by the youth, run by the youth and kept by the youth is the Convention People’s Party, CPP. We can therefore comfortably say that the CPP is for the Youth and the Youth for CPP. To all those detractors who have attacked us and labeled this Party as the party of the old, we can in the least say they need to learn more of us and what we are made of by looking beyond the very venerable faces and names that have shaped and heavily influenced events in Ghana. Indeed, it was the youth forces of the UGCC constituting the Committee of Youth Organizations, in protest to the harassment of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who would form the Convention People’s Party at Saltpond on the 12th of June 1949 on the march to “Self Government Now!” For this act of focus and purposefulness, as the CPP celebrates 60 years of existence; we say kudos to all the young people who braved through the odds to establish the Party which eventually led the nation into independence.
One would have wished that we should have been celebrating this year as a Party in power after so many years in the wilderness. Unfortunately that is not the case. We are not in power today because we have failed in our collective responsibility to build a credible alternate and winsome CPP. In this sense, Nobody is entirely blameless neither is anyone entirely blamable. We are all involved. Osagyefo in bemoaning a similar situation the Party got plunged into by the 1966 infamous coup had this to say;
“I had for long the gravest doubts about many of those in leading positions in our party. They were of course serving personal interest; they had no loyalty to the state or understanding of the social purpose which we were attempting to achieve. The slate has been wiped clean now and at least we can begin to build again upon new foundations.
In a larger sense the ‘coup d’etat’ has made it plain that the CPP can no longer follow the path of the old line. It must develop a new and reformed revolutionary leadership which must come from the broad mass of the Party.” Equally on this occasion, I dare say we are aware of acts of treachery, disloyalty, self seeking and lack of understanding of the social structure we seek to build as well as a deliberate misrepresentation of our ideology in our current dispensation just for personal ends. Our poor performance since 1992 makes it clear that we cannot be proud of anything in recent times and we dare not continue the same way or style. The Party “must hence develop a new and reformed revolutionary leadership which must come from the broad mass of the Party” imbued with the same orientation.
This is a task daunting though but achievable. We must and we will. The CPP has many things that are so bright and positive. Unfortunately much of the media reportage is the negative developments that also exist in other political parties. It is our fervent hope that from today on, we shall get fair representation from our friends in the media. It is therefore incumbent to ensure that we are of good news worthy.
We believe in organization deciding everything. We have started the organization from the Polling Stations through the Electoral Areas to the Constituencies and the Regions which will surely deliver to us the mandate of the People of Ghana. Certainly we have been called into this big family of CPP to bring forth the very best in us for the advancement of the state. We shall live up to this onerous task and be recognized by future generations instead of condemning us.
We in the youth believe and vow never to remain in opposition for yet another 16 years. We therefore challenge the elders to lead and offer direction towards the goal of seeking first the political kingdom. Further, just as the CPP was born out of an uprising of the youth, so shall her reawakening come about by the conscious revolution aimed at making right the wrongs and purging the Party of self seekers. The Youth will chart this path. As far as we are concerned, we do not recognize nor encourage factional interests within our midst and we are not ready to be dragged into any factional groupings that have yielded no results whatsoever.
The time has come to speak plainly; the only Party in Ghana that offers solutions to the problems of the youth is and has always been the Convention People’s Party. The CPP is for the youth and the youth must be for the CPP. We have cherished values namely; Love of Country, Punctuality, Discipline and Obedience, Honesty and Morality, Fieldcraft, Love of Work, Reliability and Secrecy, Comradeship and Forbearance, Unaffectedness, Self Control, and Striving to Faultlessness, which prepare us for future tasks. We invite the Ghanaian youth to come and join forces with us.
We further call on the president of the Republic to as a matter of urgency see to the passage of a national youth policy which we have lacked since 1992. We also call for the establishment of:
1. A National Youth Day which will among other things seek to reward youth achievers in various fields of endeavor
2. Youth Activity Centers
3. A periodic State of the Youth Report.
4. A national youth movement like the young pioneer movement Let’s fight on! We’ve got nothing to lose. Victory is our ultimate goal. There is victory for us!
God be with you all.
James Kwabena Bomfeh Jnr
National Youth Organizer Convention Peoples' Party
+233 24 453 5472
