CPP Chairman cautions party leadership on potential leadership aspirants

As the two major political parties in the country cling to each other's throats on issues of governance, the leader of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Dr. Edmund Delle, has urged his party to work collectively to unseat the ruling government.

He said although the CPP can make significant strides because the masses were calling for the return of the party into governance, fragmentation, wrangling and bickering within the party would not help achieve the intended mission of the leader of the Nkrumaist, the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

Explaining the need to close ranks and work as a team in the supreme interest of the party, he underscored that as long as the party remain divided, its ideals would be thrown out the window because the electorate would not want to vote for a divided family.

“We must come out with one voice because if we remain divided, people would not see us as a committed group preparing to lead the nation,” he pointed out. “Let us forget about our personal interests and concentrate on ways of reviving the fortunes of the party.”

He said vitriolic attacks on the leadership of the party would not help. “The party is about to go to congress and if you don't like the person, you exercise your thumb and vote against that person.

“Let all of us be seen as one or united people in the same family championing a common goal,” he told this paper in an interview.

Dr. Delle, who is also the national chairman of the CPP, frowned on disunity, rancor and bickering within the party, appealing to all party gurus with noble ideas and innovations to join the team to revive the fortunes of the CPP.

To him, the only solution to the nagging issues of the party was the “re-organization of the party structures, as well as relegating parochial individual interests to the background.

“If we want to organize the party, we must all forget about our personal ambitions and come together and plan a way for the progress of the party.”

In the on-going unity talks among the Nkrumaist family, the dermatologist said the Central Committee would seek the mandate of the congress to decide on which way they would go.

According to him, the electorates on the ground were not bothered about the mergence of the cockerel (the CPP) and the 'Kube' [(Coconut) – the People's National Convention (PNC)] but were only interested in the name CPP, according to samplings organized by them.

Taking a swipe at the NPP for its property-owning democracy, Dr. Delle said such philosophy was unfortunate because it helped only a few. To this end, he said the masses were crying for the CPP to bring the nation's economy back on track, adding that contrary to the speculations that the CPP the CPP upholds democracy.

“We believe that democracy is for all and that it cannot be limited to a group of people,” he said, contending that in modern democracy, it was selective.

He expressed grave concern over how Nkrumaist in Parliament consistently refused to speak for the Nkrumahists but rather joined the bandwagon of the ruling government.

According to him, the CPP which believes in social justice, creation of wealth and distribute it evenly, said the CPP could have been known better and heard if its members in Parliament presented the party's position on issues on the floor of the august House.

Meanwhile, a press release signed by the National Chairman on members harboring presidential ambition, said at its regular monthly meeting, the party discussed the pursuit of the political and individual ambitions by a number of party members.

According to Dr. Delle, the Central Committee restated its position that the contest for leadership at all levels of the party organization had not been officially opened and urged all those harbouring leadership ambitions to exercise the necessary restraint.

The statement also implored office holders at all levels of the party to treat every leadership aspirant fairly by remaining neutral in the contest for leadership when it officially opened nominations.

Dr. Delle, in his statement, said the Central Committee insisted that the national leadership and other leading members must not declare openly their intention to aspire to be presidential candidate for the CPP in order to create a level playing field for all future contestants.

He pointed out that the Committee entreated all members to rather engage their efforts in the re-organization of the party for its future, with the primary aim of building it into an independent and viable alternative to all other political parties.

He said the focus of the re-organization must be the only option of worthwhile strategies for the resolution of social, economic and political problems confronting the people of Ghana.