What we need is a political economy that serves our people by building a strong bridge from the times when big government did everything, to a future when people are entrusted with self-governance. We need to follow the wisdom of our forefathers: Danquah believed that the Ghanaian was capable of managing what the socialists called at the time, ‘the commanding heights’ of the economy. We must be bold and intelligent in making this happen. To do so, we should not be shy of introducing policies that look, first and foremost, after our own people at every level of our economy.
We must pursue a proactive but pragmatic agenda by picking, stimulating and increasing the number of Ghanaian winners in all sectors, and build champions of industry who can compete anywhere in the world. We do so not by turning our backs on the process of globalisation, but by making use of its rules and regulations in such a way as to enhance our capability and capacity. We should be bold and devise and push an agenda that gets people out of the cycle of subsistence wages and informal, ad hoc economic activities, into the formal sector. We must rebuild the confidence of the Ghanaian entrepreneur. We must not shy away from picking local winners and supporting them deliberately to become regional and continental winners.
We need to mould our economic system to our particular instincts for individual freedom and social justice. Thus, since my election on August 7, 2010, I have put together a Policy Unit, headed by Albert Osei (a retired senior World bank official) and a Manifesto Committee headed by Prof Yaw Twumasi (distinguished political scientist), who are consulting with various stakeholders to ensure that with God’s blessing, we win power in 2012, ready for office.
We want to come to office not with promises but with programmes. Programmes that address the little things that matter to Ghanaians in their communities, like safe neighbourhoods, clean gutters, hygienic food, streets with names, flowing tap water, reduced road traffic, and making sure that rules and regulations are obeyed. Programmes that address the fundamental issues of our time, the urgent need to tackle widespread youth unemployment, good skills, good jobs and good pay, industrialised economy, modernised agriculture, a modern, integrated public transport system that links every corner of our nation and our country to our neighbours. Programmes that will enhance the quality of life, like universal access to quality education and quality healthcare. What the people need are programmes that will establish a public sector that serves them with efficiency, respect, and at value for money.
The mission of the NPP is straightforward and simple: we mean to create a future Ghana that will provide a model of progress for the rest of Africa and the world. Our job as politicians is to ensure that the state provides the people with a quality environment of law and order, physical infrastructure, social services, sensitivity and quick responsiveness to needs, and a regulatory environment that allows free and fair competition. These are policies that make lives better. These are policies that underpin the NPP’s vision of development.
As leader of the NPP, I remain guided by the values of the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition, its history and its promise and the examples of our great leaders who have gone before me, from Joseph Boakye Danquah, Simon Dombo, Kofi Abrefa Busia, Victor Owusu, William Ofori-Atta, and Albert Adu Boahen, to John Agyekum Kufuor. Amongst these values are:
An unwavering commitment to and promotion of fundamental freedoms and human rights.
An abiding faith in multi-party democracy.
A deep attachment to the Rule of Law.
The maintenance of Law and Order.
The proactive development of a market economy and individual enterprise and creativity.
The economic empowerment of the Ghanaian.
The recognition of each of us being the other’s keeper.
The provision of a strong social safety net for the elderly, vulnerable and needy in society.
A strong advocacy of individual responsibility and self discipline.
A preparedness to sacrifice for community, country and continent.
An unyielding belief in the can-do spirit of the Ghanaian.
And, finally, a leadership constantly guided by faith in God.
We need to intensify our efforts in pursuing a development agenda that is broad-based, inclusive and sustainable to extend social justice to everyone, whether an urban or rural dweller. Thankfully, the NPP, in the 8 years of President J A Kufuor, showed through our policies in education, health, youth employment, small loan schemes, to name a few, that we fully subscribe to the notion that government has a responsibility to provide all its citizens with skills and opportunities to create their own wealth. Let me repeat, the ultimate test for our democracy is winning the enduring war against Africa’s old enemy — mass poverty. I believe we can only win this war by building a New Society of Opportunities.
This New Society of Opportunities is what can realise the dream of the founding fathers that all Ghanaians shall have a right and duty to engage in, contribute to and profit from the country’s economic growth and wealth. Hence, we see it as the fundamental duty of government to create an environment that allows the individual to use that talent positively for the benefit of him- or herself, his or her family and society at large. A critical element of that environment is the systematic encouragement by government of the culture and spirit of enterprise in all its citizens.
A new society of opportunities, as we envisage, means establishing a system of governance that provides the very best of public services for every citizen, including an effective, humane public healthcare system, access to a secure and reliable justice system and unfettered access by all and sundry to a quality education in Ghana that rivals any in the world. It means also a governance system that helps unleash the energies of its citizens so that enterprise is appreciated and duly rewarded, not vilified and made the object of envy.
After more than thirty years in frontline politics, the more I travel around the country canvassing for votes, the more I see the urgency in waging and winning the war against poverty. So far, we have not been able to win the war against poverty because we have been using the same ineffective weapons of old. The only way forward is to be deliberate and determined in the pre-independence dream of transforming Ghana from a Guggisberg economy to a modern economy of added value. We must free ourselves from the economic arrangements designed by our former colonial masters to serve their particular purpose at the time.
I am determined to make my leadership of Ghana the period that our economy is transformed from an exporter of raw materials and retailer of cheap imported goods, to a modern, self-sufficient, surplus-producing industrialised one. I see the recent petroleum find as offering as the perfect opportunity to create here in Ghana a petrochemical industry, including monetising our gas to create a multibillion dollar gas feedstock industry. Â Â Continued…Â Â Â
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