Let’s wean ourselves off foreign aids, empty slogans – CPP

The Convention People's Party (CPP) has urged Ghanaians to move away from the misconception of foreign aids.

The party asserts that actions speak louder than words, referring to the “Ghana Beyond Aid” slogan promoted by the Akufo-Addo administration.

In a statement released and signed by the Spokesperson of the CPP's Interim Council, Dr Akwasi Bosompem, on March 6, 2024, marking Ghana's 67th Independence Day, he stated, “Specifically, we must be prepared to wean ourselves rapidly off the illusion of foreign charity, by doing more than merely mouthing empty slogans like “Ghana Beyond Aid”.

The party also cautioned Ghanaians against colluding with self-serving foreign entities against their perceived rivals for power.

“We must avoid absolutely the temptation to conspire with self-interested foreign actors against our perceived opponents in the domestic competition for power. Those of us who do otherwise only prove that they have not learned even the most elementary lesson of our experience, which is encapsulated in the history of how Africa’s Native States lost their independence to foreigners: United We Stand; Divided We Fall.”

The CPP also encouraged Ghanaians to approach the future with a positive outlook, reignite the spirit of 1957, and resist the urge to retreat in the face of danger.

“The CPP encourages all Ghanaians on this day to face the future with optimism, instead of recoiling in fear of danger. The simultaneous economic, social, environmental and political disasters that confront us are in fact a concealed gift, in the sense that they are sending us a powerful signal that we must waste no further time in embracing radical change in all aspects of our nation-building project — behavioural, cultural, developmental, constitutional and geopolitical.”

“We urge Ghanaians to seize this historic opportunity to rekindle the energising spirit of 1957, by leaving our unhappy experiences behind us (without forgetting them); breaking our pattern of bad habits, poor choices and repeated misjudgments; and making a conscious decision to shift the paradigm and change the course of our national development process. We will need to summon all of our courage, conviction, confidence, commitment and capacity — while sharing fairly the bearable sacrifices it will take for us to prove beyond renewed doubt that Africans can indeed manage their own affairs much better than any foreign imperial pretender or wannabe global hegemon.”

The party expressed confidence that the next CPP government will address the deficit by eliminating well-documented revenue leakages, implementing spending controls, and reducing losses.

“We intend to bridge the gap by plugging all the well-documented revenue leakages; enforcing spending controls; stemming losses arising from the neglect and mismanagement of State-Owned Enterprises; redesigning and rebuilding the Public Sector with a focus on preventing, instead of merely punishing, official corruption; and by actively cultivating new non-traditional development partnerships.”

—citinewsroom