A leading figure in the recently launched “Organising for Ghana” (OfG) movement, Goosie Tanoh, has called on Former President Jerry John Rawlings, founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at his Ridge office in Accra.
Goosie Tanoh is also considering a run for the Presidency in 2020 on the ticket of the NDC.
Goosie Tanoh, a former aide to President Rawlings during the PNDC era, noted that the ethical collapse of state institutions and the grinding poverty and insecurity of Ghanaians today has dangerous similarities to the situation that Ghanaians confronted in the late 70s and early 80s.
He asserted that an urgent course-correction is required if Ghana is to avoid the kind of social collapse it faced in 1981.
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This will require a massive and sacrificial national mobilisation that not only solves the country’s material problems, but also challenges the selfish and elitist values and leadership practices that underpin them.
He noted that political parties, the central political institutions that the 31st December Revolution bequeathed to the Fourth Republic, are simply not delivering value for society, and that the political establishment must be overhauled to bring the masses back to the forefront of national development struggles.
Goosie indicated to former President Rawlings that the OfG agenda is first to reorganise the NDC to restore voluntarism, participatory decision-making, integrity, and transparency; second to regain public trust in the NDC and reposition it in national life; and third to help it recapture power to resume the national democratic transformation of the country.
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He said that the OFG campaign is a successor, in a constitutional context, to the revolutionary struggles that President Rawlings led in the late 1970s and early 1980s which saw the mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians in their communities, workplaces, schools and barracks across the country to collectively, confidently analyse and resolve a wide range of socio-political problems rooted in our historical position in the global economy and, the profligacy of the Ghanaian political elite.
“These experiences have profoundly shaped my own political outlook and methods. They underlie what I believe I can offer the Party and the Ghanaian people. Today the NDC needs leadership that understands mass mobilisation and participatory democracy. My greatest pride remains my work as Head of Projects and Programmes in the National Development Committee where we worked with PDCs, WDCs, the Student & Youth Task Force and other mass organisations in achieving this mobilisation. If I have any claim to leadership now it is based on this experience.”
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On his part, President Rawlings again reiterated the need for a free and fair party electoral process at regional, national and flagbearer level.
He said it would be important that the campaign be devoid of the indecent money politics that had plagued it in recent years.
Flt Lt Rawlings stated that he would leave the decision as to who leads the NDC into the 2020 elections to the collective judgement of the delegates.
He affirmed his position not to be an obstacle to all those seeking leadership positions in the NDC.
In his concluding remarks, Goosie Tanoh mentioned that it would be a mistake to assume that dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs will translate automatically into a rejection of the NPP administration.
He said NDC members need to think deeply about the challenge ahead and make the right choices and commitments not only to achieve victory but to be able to deliver the kind of leadership that the country needs.
OfG is a progressive pressure group within the NDC that is campaigning for the restoration of the Party’s founding vision, principles and values.
Profile of Gossie Tanoh
Tanoh is a Lawyer and a politician born on February 7, 1956.
He holds a Bachelor of Law (LLB) from the University of Ghana and Master of Law degrees from the North Western University Law School, Chicago, USA.
He worked as a Board Member of Worldspace Ghana in 1996, Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of Transport and Commodity General Limited in 1993, the Executive Director, Finance and Administration of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation from 1989 to 1992 and as the Director and Board Member Ecobank Ghana Limited during those same years.
Mr. Tanoh was a Law Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon in 1982 and also served as a member of the Consultative Assembly that drafted the 1992 Constitution.
He pioneered the packaging and exportation of Cassava chips from West Africa to Europe in 1989.
He was a member of Ghana’s delegation to the Security Council, General Assembly and the Preparatory Commission on the law of the sea, at the United Nations from 1986 to 1989.
Goosie Tandoh breaks away from NDC to form NRP
Goosie Tandoh parted ways with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 1999 citing issues of corruption and disorganization and founded the National Reform Party (NRP).
He was the Presidential Candidate of the National Reform Party (NRP) in the 2000 elections.