The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is set to launch a book that seeks to compile all its manifestos since the formation of the party.
Titled; “Manifesto Scroll of the National Democratic Congress 1992 – 2020”, it will serve as a certified declaration of policies, aims and objectives of the NDC, issued towards every Parliamentary and Presidential election that the party has participated in.
The aim of compiling the party’s manifestos into a single document is an attempt to enhance its information and knowledge-sharing agenda by creating convenient access to the social contracts and the promises of the party to the people of Ghana.
The 759-page book, which will be launched next month, was also created with the belief that manifestos played significant roles not only in the modern democratic dispensation but also, in the country’s intellectual culture and social sciences.
Significance
In an interview with the Daily Graphic ahead of the launch, the National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, said the book would be the second in a series of books the party intended to publish as a compilation of its various records and another strategy of reorganising the party for victory in the upcoming general election and subsequent elections.
He said the book would give readers the opportunity to know and vividly understand the party’s views and position on various sectors of the country including agriculture, energy, health and rural development among others.
“The important thing about having them in a compilation like this is that you’re able to identify common trends that will tell you the thinking of the NDC.
You’ll see common strands that run through even though details may differ from one electoral cycle to the other,” he stressed.
Mr Nketiah, who wrote the introduction to the book at the time when he was the party’s General Secretary, said even though the documents contained were already available to anyone, he praised the author for giving people the chance to get a fair idea of where the NDC came from and where it was headed.
Inspiration
The author, Israel Yao Dzantor, said the compilation was a result of recommendations he made to the party in a dissertation he wrote whiles at the University of Ghana (UG).
Mr Dzantor, who is the Librarian at the NDC John Evans Atta Mills Memorial Research Library Annex, said as a former organiser of the University of Education (UEW), Winneba Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) and a devout member of the party, he was inspired to use his skills for the betterment of the party and the country at large.
“We are thinking of a bigger project for the NDC and Ghana. We hope that after all our histories are compiled, we then think of something like an encyclopaedia whereby we update every year; writing something on past executives and their biographies, as well as the contributions of notable persons,” he said.