More room for improvement after 52 years — Parties

THE four main political parties in the country have observed that although the country has chalked up some successes in its 52 years of independence, there is more room for improvement.
They said that much as the country had over the years been the trailblazer in the area of multi party democracy in Africa, it could have done better in the domains of sufficiency in food production, internal security and socio economic development.
They were all of the view that multi-party democracy had become the best and acceptable way of managing the affairs of the country, and that everything must be done to nurture, protect and ensure that it was not tampered with by any undesirable characters.
The political leaders were expressing their views on the state of the nation and how far Ghana had come in its 52 years of independence.
They are Mr Yaw Boateng Gyan, Deputy National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC); Nana Ohene Ntow, General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP); Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan, National Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC) and Mr Ladi Nylander, National Chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP).
Unanimously, they all said that in the area of agriculture, especially food production, it was unacceptable for a sovereign nation to be importing a chunk of its food requirement from abroad while it had both human and material resources to be self-sufficient.
They called for concerted efforts by all stakeholders to move the country from its hoe and cutlass, back-breaking and ancient method of cultivation to a modernised and non-reliance on rainfall for its food production.
This, the political party leaders said, would cut down drastically on the huge sums of foreign exchange that was spent in importing such food items,to create more jobs for the teeming youth who are idling in the streets.
Commenting on democracy, they said the country had acceptable multi-party democracy as the best way of governing but expressed the view that government must build the capacity of governance institutions to offer their best, and also urged Ghanaians to be more tolerant of the views of their opponents.
For his part, Mr Boateng-Gyan described as unacceptable a situation where workers had to squeeze water out of stone every two to three years to look for huge sums of money to pay for rent advances before they could have a place to lay their head.
He said it was high time the government took bold steps to build affordable houses to save the Ghanaian worker from the yearly ritual of going through ‘hell’ before having a place to lay their head.
On national unity, he said, the various flash points were a blot on the peace that the country was enjoying, and urged all involved to let sleeping dogs lie and also appealed to the security agencies to deal ruthlessly with any culprit to serve as deterrent to others.
The NPP General Secretary said since Ghana had become the reference point in African democracy, it was incumbent on its leaders with the support of the populace to work hard in removing major stumbling blocks to its forward match to socio-economic development.
He said the cultivation of the habit of self-discipline, hard work and patriotism and the rule of law in all spheres of national endeavour was a sure way of achieving the level of development that all Ghanaians yearned for.
He described the numerous ethnic and chieftaincy disputes as a threat to all the great achievement made so far and that more attention must be made to resolve all the protracted conflicts.
He also pleaded with the players in this conflict to smoke the peace pipe in their own interest and that of the entire nation.
Alhaji Ramadan was worried about the large number of the youth who have no decent jobs nor the possibility of seeking further education or learning any vocation.
He said although polarisation was a stock in trade of multi-party democracy, Ghanaians should not overstretch their differences in political ideas to the level of ugly experiences in war torn countries in Africa.
He said the government must do all within its power to restore the nation to its old era of being the safe haven in the sub-region by bringing to the barest minimum the cases of armed robbery and accidents on the country’s roads.
Mr Nylander said although the country was deficient in the area of employment creation, food production, security for the people, among others, it was not deficient in the ideas of how to solve these problems.
He said what was lacking was the political will and the determination of the people to assist the government in solving these problems.