President and Chairman of Groupe Nduom (GN), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, has urged political parties in the country to be active not only during elections but after elections as well.
He bemoaned the situation where political parties go to sleep after elections only to resurrect when elections are approaching.
According to him, political parties exist to disseminate information, participate in dialogue, discussions and debates and also help formulate policies on the economy and matters of national interest.
“This means that political parties must not go to sleep after elections but rather must exist throughout. Political parties shouldn’t cease to function but are supposed to continuously be talking, working and participating in all programmes and issues that will help determine the positive development of our nation Ghana,” he urged.
Dr. Nduom made these observations on Ghana, Great and Strong on Ocean 1 Television in Elmina in the Central Region.
The programme, which is hosted by Dr. Nduom every Saturday from 7:00 p.m., to 8:00 p.m., is also carried live on four television channels and over twenty (20) radio stations across the country.
Speaking on the topic: “Promises, Promises, Promises,” the veteran businessman and politician said it was in this regard that he wanted to bring to the attention the promises made by presidential candidates and their political parties during the 2016 electioneering campaign.
“The idea for the formation of political parties is not just for them to throw their promises away and but to help shape the will and minds of Ghanaians, by keeping on presenting their ideas to the public and continuously comparing what they would have done with what the present administration [Akufo-Addo] is doing,” he indicated.
Enumerating some of the promises made by the 2016 presidential candidates, he said the National Democratic Congress (NDC), for instance, campaigned on four thematic areas.
These, Dr. Nduom mentioned, were putting people first, social and human services; strong and resilient economy for job creation; social and economic infrastructure, and; transparent and accountable governance including five additional administrative regions to the existing 10.
For the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Dr. Nduom recalled its candidate, Mr. Ivor Greenstreet, campaigned vigorously on the promise to mobilise two million young people to plant 1.2 million almond trees to raise more than $300 million revenue for the state.
He said the CPP also promised to offer free medical care to persons with disabilities.
To this end, Dr. Nduom urged Mr. Greenstreet to continue to let Ghanaians know what his party would have done if it had been given the chance to govern this country.
The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), he recalled, made many promises including the much talked about free senior high school (SHS) education, one village, one dam, one million dollars for every constituency, creation of office of independent prosecutor and a new Ghana within 18 months of its administration.
Ghanaians, Dr. Nduom said, were yet to see the fulfillment of all these promises.
“We the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) also made some promises which included free compulsory continuous education from kindergarten to SHS because in the modern world that is what we need so as to be able to compete with others and at no point should we leave our children and only concentrate on JHS education.
…We also promised to amend the constitution so that the people will elect their own Municipal, Metropolitan and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to make them accountable to the people who elected them and further amend the constitution to separate the office of the Attorney-General from the Ministry of Justice,” he recounted.
Against this backdrop, Dr. Nduom called on the citizenry to constantly keep the political parties, especially the ruling party on their toes, by ensuring that they keep to their manifesto promises while even in the opposition.