IT'S NDC-NPP FAILED LEADERSHIP - CPP
Wednesday March 31, 2010
By Douglas Akwasi Owusu
The Convention People’s Party (CPP) has expressed concern about the spate of lawlessness in the country involving the two leading political parties, the NDC and NPP, and the unruly behaviour of their supporters which it described as ‘an assault on the nation’s law and order’.
At a press conference held in Accra yesterday, the party condemned the failure of the leaderships of the two political parties to control the behaviour of their supporters which it noted, has brought untold hardships to Ghanaians.
Mr. William Doworkpor, communications director of the party, who read a statement at the conference outline five issues of national interest in the last four weeks which have generated threats to national security and development but which leaders of the two parties have failed to address.
The issues are condoned lawlessness involving the youth of the two parties, chieftaincy and politics, the Alhaji Mobilla’s murder and trial of his killers, the NDC youth lock-outs and the creation of 1.6 million jobs and the CPP.
Mr. Doworkpor mentioned “the condoned lawlessness evidenced in the frequent and sometimes bloody clashes between NPP and NDC supporters” citing the clash at an Accra High Court premises after a hearing involving an NPP activist.
“We find the actions taken by supporters of the two parties, which are yet to receive any official condemnation from the leaderships of the parties involved, unfortunate and a real threat to Ghana’s democracy and rule of law. There is no justification, whatsoever for these developments and we demand that the leaderships of the two parties stop justifying such acts”.
He said the seeds of such impunity sown in the past are sprouting the heightened lawless behaviour of party activists.
Mr. Doworkpor noted that partisan politics seemed to have seeped into the chieftaincy institution and cited “the unhealthy and unfortunate events around the Ga stool, the Tuobodom/Techiman disturbances and the consequences thereof and the killing of a chief in Tamale, as examples”.
The CPP recalled that “the seeds of partisanship, on the part of some chiefs, were sown in the run-up to the December 2008 elections. Some chiefs displayed open and extreme partisanship, some gladly arranged and accepted courtesy calls from some political parties while frustrating the efforts of others who sought the same audience they had given to other parties”.
“We believe that such acts of partiality on the part of some chiefs, during the 2008 elections were motivated by what they could gain ‘when their party’ came to power or maintained power”.
The CPP reminded chiefs that it was not for nothing that the 1992 Constitution forbade them from engaging in active partisan politics. “The constitutional provisions preventing them from engaging in active partisan politics are to preserve the institution and their own dignity. They must therefore refrain from doing anything to the contrary”, Mr. Doworkpor stressed.
Touching on the late Alhaji Issah Mobilla’s murder, the CPP stated that the NDC, then in opposition, made the prosecution of the suspected a key campaign issue. “Today, after close to 13 months, the matter is now before the courts. Very often, the NDC and its functionaries have tried to make political capital out of our grief and we ask them to desist from doing so”.
The CPP described the NDC youth lock-out as an unfortunate development which needed to be halted with immediate effect.
“The NDC youth may exercise their constitutional rights to demonstrate but it is criminal to prevent an officer of state from doing his work. It is also criminal to take the law into your own hands because your party is in power and you are covered”, Mr. Doworkpor said, adding “these are obvious tell-tale lines of a lack of party education, based on social principles. Every Ghanaian is covered by law and the President is for all of us”.
The CPP found as intriguing the claim that a “whooping 1.6 million jobs have been created in 2009 and yet, NDC activists are on the rampage protesting against unemployment with threats and attacks”.
Mr. Doworkpor said as a party interested in creating jobs for the youth, the CPP had been monitoring the jobs market and had seen no evidence so far to confirm the claim that over one and a half million jobs have been created.
“That claim, in our opinion, is a mere propaganda. It is easy to use propaganda to bring down a government but it takes more than propaganda to run a government”, it stated.
It advised the government to focus on the real business of governing and not put faith in media packaging of its achievements. “The people of Ghana want tangible results that impact on their lives and not media hype and image projection”.
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