PNC Urges Members To Market Party
The General Secretary of the People's National Convention (PNC), Mr Bernard Mornah, has advised members of the party to help find ways of marketing the party to Ghanaians, to serve as an alternative to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2012 general election.
He claimed that the NDC and the NPP had over the years bombarded Ghanaians with politics of deception to win votes, but had failed to fulfil the social and economic needs of the people.
Mr Mornah gave the advice in Tamale last Saturday, when he addressed foot soldiers of the party at a day's seminar on 'Understanding the Fundamentals of the Ghanaian Economy' for party faithful drawn from the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions.
The Institute of Multiparty Democracy (IMD) and the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) funded the programme, which was aimed at equipping members of the party with the requisite tools to enable them win souls for the PNC to clinch victory in 2012.
The topics discussed included communication skills, tools for political party mobilisation, and the fundamentals of the Ghanaian economy.
Mr Mornah said a PNC-led Government would put in place pragmatic and affirmative measures to ensure that the economic and social needs of Ghanaians were met.
Mr Mornah said, 'Since 1992, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Government and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have managed to fulfil the political aspects of governance, but have failed to meet the economic and social needs of the people.
The PNC, when given the mandate either in 2012 or at any time that Ghanaians would 'divorce' the NDC and the NPP to vote for the PNC, would mark the beginning of better things to come to improve the living standards of Ghanaians,' he said.
He said when parties need power; they use acronyms such as the Northern Development Fund (NDF) and the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), as forms of deception to amass votes from the north.
Mr Mornah, however, urged the NDC Government to fast truck the implementation of the SADA. He asked members of the party to meet political leaders 'squarely' when they talked of the economy, saying, 'Policies over the years are not geared towards alleviating poverty in the country, particularly the northern sector. Only the PNC can close the development gap between the north and the south, because the NDC and the NPP have woefully failed to do so.'
The Northern Regional Chairman of the Party, Mr Zakaria Alhassan Gundaa, called on the party's leadership to distribute party resources equitably to ensure that those at the grassroots level participated in reforming the PNC into a more formidable party capable of winning power.
He commended the Institute of Multiparty Democracy and Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) for supporting the party, and that the exercise would help the PNC to move forward and be in a good stead for the December 2012 elections.
Professor Kumi Ansa Koi of the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, indicated that Ghana was never a poor country, but its people were rather poor because they failed to use the resources judiciously.
He said countries such as Japan, South Korea and Singapore had no natural resources such as Ghana, but its people managed to use the few available resources to make their countries rich.