Samia: CPP must rejuvenate itself

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CPP 60 Lectures (Pol)

Samia: CPP must rejuvenate itself

Story: Donald Ato Dapatem & Francis Kyei

THE Convention People’s Party’s (CPP’s) only Member of Parliament (MP), Ms Samia Nkrumah, has called on the leadership and members of the party to be transparent and truthful with each other concerning the unity and growth of the party.
She said the party required a great revival to rejuvenate and inspire its structures as well as bring all its members in other Nkrumaist political parties together through a genuine unity talks devoid of parochial interests.
Ms Nkrumah who is the MP for Jomoro in the Western Region was speaking at a lecture organised by the CPP as part of the 60th anniversary of the CPP in Accra on Thursday. Other speakers were Prof Esi Sutherland-Addy and Dr Thomas Aidoo, both lecturers at the University of Ghana, Legon and Dr Kweku Osafo, a former CPP Presidential aspirant.
She hinted that she, together with other leading members of the party, were working behind the scenes in unity talks with the People’s National Convention (PNC) to bring them together as part of the revival process, adding that “We must work hard to bring the spirit that made CPP win elections and did great things for the country”.
She expressed concern that as the only MP of the party and the daughter of the Founder of the CPP, the party failed to invite her to the programme, and added that “as a daughter of Nkrumah I am a bit upset that I was not invited to the programme”.
Sharing her insights about the role of women in the formative years of the country, Prof Sutherland-Addy said over the years it had been clear that any attempt to engage in transforming the society, especially the attainment of independence of the country and the growth of the economy could not be achieved without women as active participants.
She argued that such contributions of women were not heard of in history due to certain complications such as the fact that “official space, particularly in terms of nation building is masculine, leaving the contribution of women out”.
She said most stalwart women were involved in the burning issues of African Unity,and were also exposed to the CPP’s international meetings and conferences, especially the Conference of Women in Africa and of African descent held in 1960.
Dr Osafo for his part said Dr Kwame Nkrumah had a vision to ensure that the nation on its own built the capacity of its people, especially the youth, to be able to transform the economy through value addition to the country’s rich natural resources.
He said what the First President of Ghana abhorred was the wholesale export of the nation’s cocoa, bauxite, gold, timber, among others, and that necessitated the establishment of gold refinery, cocoa processing company, among others.
He said the selflessness, vision and the love for the country, especially the future generations, were the reasons why Dr Nkrumah took far reaching decisions which beat the understanding and imaginations of his peers, and cited Dr Nkrumah’s call for African Unity, building of the Akosombo Dam, the construction of the Tema Motorway as some of the examples.
He said Dr Nkrumah was always taking decisions that would not make the country become a beggar nation but self-sufficient because he believed that “until we learn to help ourselves, nobody would genuinely help us. Because the dignity of a people is linked with their ability to do things for themselves”.
He challenged the youth to dream big, have great visions and prepare themselves to take over the mantle of leadership in the party and the nation in general, but they must always be patriotic, transparent and accountable to the people they hoped to serve.
Dr Aidoo speaking on “Economic Transformation” said the CPP government showed commitment that it was determined to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign goods to bring an end to the nation’s vulnerable position as a supplier of raw materials.
He said during the first decade of independence, the CPP government undertook great works, including rural development, which was hinged on agricultural development which was mainly self-reliant, without foreign loans and technology.
He said Dr Nkrumah tried to establish an egalitarian and socialist society that would provide better life and happiness for all through the setting up of many public corporations and state institutions to cater for the industrial and agricultural needs of the country.
Dr Aidoo said to grow local industries, the CPP Administration took a number critical steps such as restricting import licenses.
“By imposing a regime of imports tariffs and quotas, the CPP government managed to increase the market for domestic goods. This type of protectionism was designed to benefit the domestic economy. This policy in the long term protected domestic firms and kept domestic production high.
According to Dr Aidoo, after the overthrow of the CPP government in 1966, incomes became lower than 50 years ago, health prospects were poorer, coupled with widespread malnutrition, corruption and incompetent management, which have all contributed to the current low level of development.