CPP GOVERNMENT WILL FOCUS ON ASSEMBLIES...Says Prof. Akosa (PAGE 14)

THE Kwame Nkrumah Foundation has indicated that in the event of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) forming a government in future, its development agenda will focus on the use of the metropolis, municipalities and the districts as instruments of integration and development.
The foundation explained that the chief executives of the assemblies would be the chief development officers to work with a board of local people to execute the party’s agenda.
According to the foundation, the continuation of the chief executives in the job would only be based on the level of delivery in the estimation of the people.
The President of the Kwame Nkrumah Foundation, Prof. Agyeman Badu Akosa, outlined the party’s vision at a press conference on the 60th anniversary celebration of the CPP at Tarkwa in the Western Region last Saturday.
It was in Tarkwa that the decision to form the CPP was taken, and delivered in Saltpond in the Central Region and outdoored at Arena in Accra.
Prof. Akosa explained that if the development was centred on the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, it would stem the tide of rural-urban drift.
He said the Central Bank would also have a development role to play in lifting the country out of the doldrums.
“Ghana at 52 years is mature and we must begin to tackle our problems, however complicated they may be”, he emphasised.
He said the CPP government would harness the intellectual capacity of the people, and that a think tank would be formed from the University Teachers Association(UTAG), consultants from the Association of Recognised Professional Bodies as well as research and development institutes to advance the course of the country.
“Getting the youth, who are supposed to be the future of this country off the street must be a great challenge and aspiration of us all and this is one that the application of the collective intellect of all of us shall help to resolve”, he added.
Professor Akosa said the Kwame Nkrumah Foundation had taken up the challenge and would be taking the lead in addressing some of the fundamental issues, noting that the foundation would be the voice of the poor.
“The poor in Ghana are also children of God and blessed are those who take time off to do things that bring solace to the poor. We must work for the benefit of them all,” he stated.
He said agriculture would be the bedrock of the country’s transformation into industrialisation.
According to Professor Akosa the vision of the CPP government would be to make Ghana the happiest place on earth for all.
Professor Akosa emphasised that since the overthrow of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s government, the welfare of the Ghanaian had not been a variable in Ghana’s development equation.
“The adequate provision of food, clothing and housing appear to be a compelling responsibility of the government and how well has the government of Ghana discharged its obligations. Not at all is the answer,” he stressed.
“In Ghana today, the life of the poor people in some cases is unimaginable. Ghana has now spawned third generation street children for whom the concept of hometown does not exist,” he regretted.
Professor Akosa stressed that there was no reason why 50 per cent of Basic Education Certificate Examination students should fail the examinations year on year in the country.
He said 20 per cent of pregnancies in the country were teenagers, and that there was no concerted effort to do something about it, adding that 69 per cent of pregnant women and 59 per cent of lactating mothers were anaemic.
He explained that such anaemic and teenage mothers gave birth to low weight children who had greater risk of dying or not developing well, while such mothers were themselves prone to dying in pregnancy or during delivery.
He said 40 per cent of Ghanaian children were stunted, from chronic malnutrition, explaining that malnutrition underlined 55 per cent of deaths in Ghanaian children.