There were scenes of jubilation among members of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) at the forecourt of the palace of the Chief of Akim Achiase in the Eastern Region when he endorsed the presidential candidate of the party, Mr Ivor Kobina Greenstreet.
Nana Gyenin Kantan II, who is also the Nifahene of the Akim Kotoku Traditional Area, recalled the many development projects—school, clinic and road—initiated by the Nkrumah regime as being the most significant the town could boast off.
The endorsement
“Being number one on the list is a sign of good things to happen. You are the only presidential candidate who has visited me at the palace. You have my blessings. I will pray and pray for you. We want people who can transform the country. Nkrumah started with silos at Tema and other places, which have been abandoned. If you get the chance, revive them.“I hope by December 8, we will hear of your victory. I am very hopeful with the way you wrested power from Samia Nkrumah. You are a man of determination and I know it,” he said to the delight of the supporters who were in the mood for a victory lap.
The endorsement comes on the back of several others from chiefs endorsing the candidates of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which has been met with criticism from political pundits and supporters as the 1992 Constitution bars traditional rulers from engaging in active party politics.
Fertile ground
He described Achiase as a fertile ground of the CPP in the days of Dr Nkrumah and added that the town’s first MP, Madam Mary Koranteng, was among the first 10 female MPs appointed by the country’s late first President.
“Achiase became vibrant because of the CPP in the days of old. There was a vibrant railway station but it has collapsed. The only health centre in the community was established by Dr Nkrumah in 1965, no addition has been done. What was left by Dr Nkrumah is what we still have. We had a very vibrant sawmill at the current site of Jungle Warfare School but it is gone forever; the youth have to depend on galamsey and most of them are travelling outside,” he lamented.
Go back to Nkrumah’s days
Dasebre Kantan urged the CPP presidential candidate to go back to the days of Dr Kwame Nkrumah when there were factories everywhere, saying “I was in Tema in my school days and I know what Kwame Nkrumah did for Ghana.”
He also urged Mr Greenstreet to continue projects that were started by the Mahama regime when elected as it was very sad that projects started by one regime was left to rot by another.
He cited a number of examples, including the new site of the Achiase Senior High School which was started in 2004 by the Kufuor regime but had been abandoned.
“My only plea is the one who will come and complete our project. It is our major concern,” he stated.
Accident centreA smiling Mr Greenstreet who turned up in the constituency, his last during his five-day tour of the Eastern Region, promised to provide subsidies for farmers and add value to the country’s agriculture produce.
He recalled a recent gory accident on one of the roads in the Achiase area in which five people who were on their way to bury a corpse died.
A victim of a road accident in 1997, Mr Greenstreet said a CPP government would establish accidents/ trauma centres for the country’s major roads to ensure emergency response.
“It is the Convention People’s Party that brought political independence to Ghana and is the only party that can bring economic independence,” he said before introducing the party’s parliamentary candidate, Mr Ernest Botwe, an architectural engineer.
Among Mr Greenstreet’s campaign team were Mr Emmanuel Ogborjor, the CPP’s National Organiser; Mr Rashid Alao, the National Campaign Coordinator; regional and constituency executives and Hajia Hamdatu Ibrahim who urged the electorate to reject the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) because they had failed Ghanaians for the 24 years they had led the country.
She said Mr Greenstreet’s resounding victory during the party’s primaries attested to the fact that the party had seen something special in him.
She again reiterated that being in a wheelchair does not make Mr Greenstreet incompetent, as he was not born in the wheelchair.
A town goes agog
The Achiase township was turned upside down when the campaign team arrived at exactly 3 p.m.
A brass band met the team with tunes that got bystanders and party supporters dancing and waving party colours.
Many in the crowd walked, ran and screamed as they caught glimpse of the man aspiring to fill the shoes of Dr Nkrumah with his Apamfoforo, to wit new convent, message.
At the forecourt of the palace, the gathering broke into dance as high decibels of Mr Greenstreet’s campaign song took over the quiet town from giant speakers mounted on a pick-up track.
For most of the women, “he is handsome, that is a very handsome man, what happened to him?” were on their lips.
After 18 constituencies in five days, the CPP campaign train takes its message of change to the Western Region.
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