Ghana needs an independent President in 2016 — Carl Wilson
A former Chairman of the Confiscated Vehicles Committee (CVC) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) activist, Mr Carl Wilson, has announced the formation of a new political movement, Move Ghana, to fiercely challenge the main political parties in the country.
Advertisement
The political scientist has, therefore, called on Ghanaians to use the November 7 general election as a platform to elect the first independent President, who would not be influenced by any political party.
“Let us start to negotiate the way forward, let us consider the reason why, as a nation and as a people, we must come together and change the way we are governed. Let us throw out the current system and replace it with a new system of governance prescribed by the Constitution,” Mr Wilson said.
Executive President
He told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra last Wednesday that Ghana was not going in the right direction and since the 1992 Constitution was promulgated, Ghanaians had been ruled by Executive Presidents, who were made powerless by the dictates of the political parties that brought them to power.
This phenomenon, therefore, in his opinion, influences the citizenry to constantly agitate for change.
He said after Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings’s 11 years’ revolutionary rule, Ghanaians yearned for a constitutional government, leading to the current Constitution.
Mr Wilson said after eight years of Rawlings’s rule under the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Ghanaians again clamoured for change and in 2000 Mr John Agyekum Kufuor was elected as President under the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
He said in 2008 there was another cry for change and the NDC came to power again.
He noted that this time Ghana changed again to NDC not because the people believed the party was any better than the NPP but because there was no credible alternative.
“We all hoped NDC would have learnt a lesson, having been in opposition for eight years,” he added.
Mr Wilson said in 2016, Ghanaians were yearning for change once more.
“Ghana is not going in the right direction. Ghana is not working and it is all about the ‘winner-takes- all’.”
Change political history
He said the youth, who had about 70 per cent presence in the voters register, must work harder and support the move to change the political history of the nation.
Mr Wilson said “the future of this nation is in the hands of the youth and they must rise up, take the bull by the horn, and change their destiny.”
“As a people, we have done our bit to truly build a system that will help propel Ghana towards a sustained development.
“As a people, we have, again and again, trusted and tested the two dominant political parties, believing they would work together to prosecute our national development agenda.
“If after all these genuine efforts, we do not feel or see satisfaction, we must come together and say enough is enough and effect a change.
“It is said in unity there is strength. Our history would show that Ghana had always succeeded whenever its people garnered the courage to come together and act. This is what sets us apart from the rest of the other countries in Africa.
“Let us call for a new system of governance, under which electing a President is not tied to any political party, and thus independent of any political control or interference by any organised groups of people.”
