Accra, Nov 22, GNA -The Movement for Social Justice (MSJ), a pressure group at the University of Ghana, on Tuesday declared their support for Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, in his quest to contest the Presidential flagbearership of the Convention People’s Party (CPP). The Movement is convinced that Dr Nduom had the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of Ghanaians, which was job creation, and its unwavering and dispassionate support for him in his bid to become the president of Ghana. Addressing a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, Mr Emmanuel Osei, Coordinator, MSJ, said no political organization in Ghana had articulated, pursued and implemented a political philosophy or agenda that would result in the consistent improvement in the lives of the masses throughout the country. “The wish of every Ghanaian, especially the youth, is to see a new dawn of leadership that will reflect in their lives, leadership that will create jobs opportunities and solve problems instead of blaming previous administrations,” he said. He said Dr Nduom’s tremendous contributions to national development over the past years proved that with the right kind of leadership, the country could overcome what seemed like unfathomable problems. “We want to state explicitly that effective leadership is not about making fine speeches, being liked or professing at every opportunity to be a staunch Christian; leadership is defined by results not attributes,” he said. Mr Osei said the Movement supported the view by Dr Nduom that “change will only happen by government exercising its tremendous powers to promote the Ghanaian interest at all times.” He said Dr Nduom had contributed to the development of the country and mentioned Dr Nduom’s involvement in the development of various policies and programmes including the National Identification Authority, Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy, African Peer Review Mechanism and West African Gas Pipeline Project.
He said Dr Nduom also contributed to the Enterprise Development Programmes, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, which put in place the Single Spine Salary Structure and had his own enterprises that currently employed over 2,700 youths of the country.
Mr Osei explained that the Movement believed in social justice and also stood for the interests of the youth and it would advocate the equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth to ensure total development. He said the Movement would defend, uphold and create options for their leaders and hold them back to reflect upon Freedom and Justice, the creed on which the 1992 Constitution was written, as well as socio-economic development. “We live in a country where graduate unemployment is on the ascendancy, people live in slums as though they were refugees, high cost of living, perennial water shortages and congestion even at Ghana’s premier Universities are still major challenges that had attracted no urgent redress”, Mr Osei said. He said recent flooding in the cities, high level of poverty, schools under trees, horrendous roads, avoidable traffic, underprivileged medical center and increasing inequality gaps could all be blamed on the inactions of the government.
Mr Osei said it was “very disappointing how Ghana’s independence had become meaningless despite the fact that it had all the resources needed for tremendous development.”
He said it was unfortunate that both current and previous Governments had greatly disappointed the youth as they could not institute programmes to ensure their development.
Mr Osei also criticized the Governments for failing to improve on the living conditions of the people thereby leaving the masses to wallow in poverty. “There can be no gain saying that political power in this country has too long been the monopoly of the National Democratic Party and New Patriotic Party.”
He called on Ghanaians to elect an effective President who would translate the vision of the country into reality.
