CPP launches Remembrance Day - Charges youth to rally behind party
The Convention People’s Party (CPP) has launched the 57th anniversary of its Remembrance Day with a call on the youth to shun the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
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The Chairperson of the party, Nana Akosua Frimponmaa Sarpong Kumankumah, who made the call, said both the NPP and the NDC had for the past 30 years proven to the citizens that they were incapable of handling the affairs of the country.
“We are here today to say that the CPP has opened its doors. Don’t waste your time. Don’t vote and waste your energy anymore in service of the duopoly. They do not have a plan,” she added.
The Remembrance Day is celebrated annually by the CPP to commemorate the overthrow of the founder of the party, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, in a military coup on February 24, 1966.
The coup was led by Lieutenant-General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka and Lieutenant General Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa.
The month-long commemoration would include programmes aimed at showcasing and recognising the achievements and vision of the country’s first president.
Blame, 800 positions
Nana Sarpong Kumankumah Frimpongmaa also blamed Ghanaians for the lack of development and economic crisis in the country because they continuously voted representatives of the two parties (NPP and NDC) into office.
“It is about time that Ghanaians stopped totally blaming the leadership of this country. We also need to be blamed because we keep putting them there. But I don’t want to blame you the youth too much because you have been fed with lies your whole lives,” she said.
She, therefore, advised them to join and take over the party in order to have a say in their own affairs at the national level.
“We are not asking you to join as mere followers and supporters. There are about 800 positions available in the party at this very moment so you are coming on as executives who will run the party because we the older generation, our time is over,” she explained.
The Seven-Year Plan
The Chairperson recalled that before his overthrow, Dr Nkrumah was three years into the implementation of a seven-year developmental plan that brought about a period of economic growth and stability.
She noted that under those three years, the Nrumah-led administration had established about 400 factories, extensively constructed rail and telephone lines and among others made significant gains in health and education.
Nana Sarpong Kumankumah, therefore, urged the youth and the entire populace to throw their weight behind the CPP in the 2024 general election to restore the economy to its former glory.
Accountability
In a related development, the CPP said it was time for Ghanaians to make the NPP government accountable.
“We the people should demand answers to how our resources are dissipated. It is unfortunate that all this while after the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah we as Ghanaians/Leaders cannot manage our own affairs but have to depend on our foreign partners for a lifeline to survive. Indeed, we are in a sorry state,” a statement signed by the General Secretary of the party, Nana Yaa Akyempim Jantuah, on the 57th anniversary of the overthrow of Dr Nkrumah, said.
It said 57 years after the unfortunate 24th February Coup d’état that ousted the CPP government led by Dr Nkrumah, Ghana had stopped working and that the nation was at a standstill and nothing was being done to salvage the socio-economic problems Ghanaians found themselves in.
“While the CPP was doing everything possible to lay the foundation for a prosperous and an economic independent nation, the local imperialists were busy with their foreign counterparts to stake a coup to oust the CPP out of government.”
“The country is bleeding and being woefully mismanaged. We are broke and have to resort to taking money from the vulnerable in society to be able to even qualify to participate in an IMF programme because our debt portfolio is scary to look at and very unsustainable,” it said, adding that “we have a burden hanging on our neck, and saddled with a very unsympathetic government which does not care about the well-being of the Ghanaian”.
The statement said it was sad that the country was going to ask for a debt cancellation from China, a country that was its protégé 57 years ago.
“What went wrong and whatever we did wrong must be corrected by the people of Ghana in due course by voting the CPP back into power to continue with the good works for the country.”
