No Better Ghana Anywhere -Says Nduom

2012 flag-bearer of the Progressive People�s Party (PPP), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, has called on Ghanaians to do away with their expectation for a �Better Ghana� promised by the Mahama-led administration since, according to him, he does not see Ghana getting any better. At a second anniversary lecture of the PPP held in Accra yesterday, Dr. Nduom who was the main speaker intimated that conditions are rather worsening instead of getting better as promised. Themed: �Solutions for Ghana: A Nation in Crisis,� the lecture aimed at proffering solutions to the numerous economic challenges facing the country. �The reality is that there is no �Better Ghana� anywhere in the country�,� he said to an ecstatic audience which were mainly party supporters and its leadership. To this end, he called on politicians to end the era of sitting in the offices of other media houses and raising the hope of Ghanaians unnecessarily and instead get to the field and to see the reality of underdevelopment in the country. �While people sit in media house offices to engage in endless arguments over statistics, the people out there are suffering from the slow pace of development�government has failed because the people are drinking disease infected water and they are driving on dangerous roads,� he stressed. Low quality of education, poor housing, preventable diseases and high unemployment rate, Dr. Nduom added, continuously diminish the hope for a productive and prosperous Ghana. Dr. Nduom at the lecture also proferred numerous solutions to the continual worsening state of the Ghanaian economy insisting that the creation of an inclusive united Ghanaian society is the perfect solution. �We can only achieve true progress with a unified Ghana. We must create an inclusive, united Ghanaian society. It is this new national unity that will reinvent Ghana. We must, all of us promise to build one solid Team Ghana by reinventing our Ghanaian selves, our attitudes and our way of life.� Ghana in crisis Dr. Nduom was also of the firmest conviction that an acknoledgemnent that the country is in crisis is the first solution that would help Ghana back on its feet. �We must first know and acknowledge the fact that we are a nation in crisis � a crisis of lack of confidence due to the inability to do what we know needs to be done,� he stated. The crisis of lack of confidence, he maintained, is in various sectors of the economy including the currency, leadership, and the country�s ability to improve the standard of living of the average Ghanaian. Sacrifices, hard work and a determined leadership, he added, are part of the remedies for the current economic crisis the country is suffering. Ammendment of the 1992 constititution The astute politician was also of the belief that the 1992 Constitution of the country is part of the fundamental problems facing the country since it has vested numerous powers in the office of the president. A weak currency, exportation of raw materials with little or no value addition, low level of industrialization, high rate of unemployment among other things, the PPP 2012 flag-bearer explained are only part of the crisis. �I lay the crisis we face today squarely at the doorstep of the 1992 Constitution that legitimised an elected dictatorship and centralised our system of governance in a way that has left other arms of governance weak to act and too poor to serve as an effective source of checks and balances,� he asserted. To this end, Dr. Nduom mentioned that the most important solution Ghana needs today is to amend the 1992 Constitution to change the governance structure and empower the people to solve the problems where it really resides, which is at the local level. Ghana loses GH�3b to corruption He further disclosed that Ghana is losing at least GH�3 billion to corruption. �Imagine how many first class roads we can build with that money. Just think about how many complete school compounds with classrooms from kindergarten to senior high school, libraries, toilets, dining rooms, ICT centers, sports facilities and housing for teachers that we can build with that kind of money,� he said. Such amount, he said, can be used to save the lives of many Ghanaians through the creation of jobs for the teeming unemployed youth. �We can stop preventable diseases such as malaria and cholera with that amount of money. That is how serious this crusade against corruption is. So we cannot turn the fight against corruption into a partisan politics one. We must make corruption unpopular,� Dr. Nduom averred. He solely laid the lost in the fight against corruption at the doorsstpes of the politians who he said politicise serious national issues such as the Woyome judgment debt matter, Waterville, CP or the Merchant Bank debtor portfolio. �How can an economy work, how can a nation become great and strong when its people believe that the only way to wealth or prosperity is by joining a political party, bribing a public official or corrupting a minister of state? And we must understand that judgment or settlement debts have arisen because of the type of politics we have been practising that gives everything to those who win and nothing to the rest of Ghanaians,� Dr. Nduom indicated.