A NEW CPP FOR THE NEW GHANA?

The lowest point in the long and proud history of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), must surely be when it sunk to such depths, that it became a convenient vehicle for the realisation of the personal dreams of wealthy and ambitious individuals, with gargantuan egos.

Those dynamic individuals simply saw the party of Nkrumah, as the political equivalent of a business takeover target - into which they could reverse their personal private political organisations: and use as a vehicle for the realisation of their long-held ambition: to lead Nkrumah's Ghana and follow in the great man's footsteps.

That is all now in the past, thank goodness - with Nkrumah's own daughter, Ms. Samia Yaaba Nkrumah, as the CPP's chairperson and leader, around whom Nkrumaists can finally rally and unite.

Today, going forward into the future, if the talent-filled CPP wants to regain its position as Ghana's biggest political party, and vanguard of the masses, it must make itself relevant to the new Ghanaian of today.

The CPP must fashion people-centred policies, which will attract those in the various strata of today's Ghanaian society - many fed up with the selfishness, endless point-scoring and divisive politics of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC): responsible for generating most of the political tension that builds up from time to time, in Ghana.

The CPP must, for example, offer a partnership-of-hope that empowers those trapped in the new underclass of Ghanaian society - left behind and marginalised because the educational system failed them: but who nonetheless are ambitious and aspire to the good things in life, despite the odds being stacked against them.

The party of Nkrumah must also have policies that will command the loyalty of Ghana's teeming well-educated and non-tribalistic younger generation - many of whom are just starting out life as independent young adults: who invariably wished they lived in a well-run country, with a fair and efficient system in which things work, and is also a flexible enough system that enables the hard-working to leverage it, to achieve their goals.

Such young people want access to social programmes and initiatives that provide them with skills and the tools to become self-employed in the new green economy (as micro-entrepreneurs in community-based eco-tourism destinations, for rural youth, for example!), and access to affordable, well-designed and well-built housing nationwide, to rent.

Through the provision of tax breaks, when in power, surely, the New CPP could provide enough incentive to the private sector, to build and rent out this type of accommodation - as well as offer the skills-training required by micro-entrepreneurs in the ICT age and the burgeoning carbon economy, as well?

And above all, the party of Nkrumah must attract Ghana's fast-expanding middle class - who live in their beautiful little private castles up and down our country, and are doing their best working hard day and night, to enable them live the good life: despite being residents of a nation lumbered with such ineffectual and uninspiring political leadership.

If the New CPP offered to change Ghana's constitution when in power once again, and made it mandatory for half of the number of government ministers and members of Parliament to be reserved for women, and also pledged to abolish personal income tax, as an imaginative way of giving all Ghanaians a share of the national cake, and made Ghana the nation with the lowest corporate tax rates in the world, would Ghana's middle classes not come to see it as the party offering the best political platform for middle-class Ghana?

The New CPP must also slay the ghost of ineffectual state ownership of businesses, by promising to give the management and workers of all state-owned entities (SOE) a 25 percent stake in those restructured companies, and float a further 25 percent on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) to enable ordinary people own stakes in those state-owned companies, whiles retaining the remaining 50 percent shares.

That retention of a 50 percent holding in SOE's, will ensure that the state can continue to own a strategic stake in the overall Ghanaian economy. That will enable it to be in a position to influence it for the betterment of all Ghanaians - by pointing it in the direction of a green and sustainable future: whenever the need to do so arises.

That is the new CPP its newly-elected leadership must deliver for the new Ghana - if they want it to become Ghana's biggest political party once again. And they must not forget that a Dr. Edward Mahama-Professor Agyemang Badu Akosa presidential ticket, could deliver power for them in December 2012 - if they succeed in uniting the Nkrumaist political family.

And when finally in power once again, they must embark on the transformation of our nation into an African equivalent, of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia.

Above all, to show their commitment to the principles of good governance, they must publicly publish the assets of all CPP appointees - from a President Edward Mahama and Vice President Agyemang Badu Akosah, to the district chief executive of Ghana's smallest district (elected in local elections open to all Ghana's political parties - to ensure that they are responsive to the needs of people at the grassroots level!): and that of their spouses. That will be proof positive that there is indeed a New CPP for the new Ghana. A word to the wise...

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