2020 elections: It is our time to take power – PPP chairman-elect

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) says it is poised to win the 2020 elections after a shakeup of its leadership.

Nana Ofori Owusu, who was elected as the party’s new chairman ahead of the polls,  encouraged Ghanaian to give the PPP the mandate “to transform our nation within four years”.

“We will transform the social and economic fabric of the nation to facilitate the creation of millions of jobs our people are looking for,” he noted.

Mr Owusu, who was the party’s  the Director of Operations, takes over from Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond, who has served for eight years.

Mr Owusu, who was elected at the party’s 6th National Convention held virtually on Saturday, July 18, highlighted aggressive policies to rejuvenate indigenous businesses and transform the economy.

In his speech, he categorised the mission of the PPP into four pillars: A Just and Disciplined Society; Agricultural Transformation; Reforming and Strengthening State Institutions and Reforms for Good Education.

“In the COVID-19 crises, we cannot even take care of ourselves and must beg for support,”  as he lamented what he described as  the “careless handling” of the pandemic.

“The health system has shut down, and people are dying as a result. In the last 40 days alone, the infected cases have shut up over 300% in Ghana, and no one seems to care,” he bemoaned.

“We opened schools without any baseline data, we tested no child before they entered back to school. We recently had a case of a child dying in school because teachers, administrators thought he had the COVID-19 so they
watched him die”.

He was of the view that Ghanaians have been “hoodwinked, bamboozled into thinking that they have something good for us”.

He entreated the general populace to “break out of the yoke and lift the cascade of darkness from over us. We need to change our mind and begin to see that there is something far greater for us, this change is the Progressive Peoples Party”.

“We believe in the Progressive way of thinking, and we are pragmatists. Ghanaians want food to eat. We want a home to live in. We want good health and safe roads. We want the best of education for our children, and we want good jobs. We want a government that works for all people, and we will deliver this,” he assured.

For his part, the outgoing Chairman of the party, Mr Brew-Hammond, accused successive governments of implementing ideas conceived by the PPP.

“The borrowing of our ideas by other political parties proves we are influencing the national agenda. And that the other political parties are beginning to appreciate the PPP’s position that nothing is beyond human capability. If we set out with a good mindset and a determination to achieve the set objective.

He said the 10-agenda of the PPP will deliver transformation to Ghana.

“It targets a clean environment, which is the basis of our health policy; the use of the State’s Purchasing Power to support indigenous Ghanaian businesses; Free Compulsory Continuous Quality Education from Kindergarten to the Senior High School level; and a Politics of Inclusiveness – that is to assemble the best, irrespective of their political affiliation, to form a government without necessarily looking at who takes the credit.”

The Founder of the party, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, joined the convention via video conferencing from the US where he has been based since the COVID-19 spread to Ghana.

He has been unable to return due to the closure of the country’s borders.

The rest of the party executives who have been elected :

Mr Felix Ograh – First National Vice Chairman
Mrs Belinda Bullet Segbedzi – Second Vice Chairman
Mr Ban Saliah – Third National Chairman
Paa Kow Ackon – National Secretary.
Abena Acheampomaa – National Treasurer
Mr Divine Nkrumah – Director of Operations
Mr Paul Bio – National Director of Research
Mr Felix Mantey – Director of Communications
Mr Kofi Asamoah Siaw – Director of Policy
Mr Faisal Abu Sadat – National Youth Organiser
Jessica Manuel – National Women’s Coordinator.