The presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, last Friday took his turn at the GBC’s Presidential Encounter Series, making a case for himself as the best candidate to govern Ghana in the next four years.
Among the seven candidates contesting the presidential election on December 7, he said he was the most trustworthy and “the one with the right team to lead Ghana to attain its development goals”.
“The party I lead, the PPP, is a forward-looking, inclusive political party dedicated to making our nation Ghana great and strong and all of its people prosperous. We believe in ‘Ghana first; everyone else second’”, Dr Nduom said.
If elected President, he said, Ghanaians would not regret, as he would implement result-oriented policies to bring the economy back on its path of progress.
Dr Nduom expressed the view that Ghanaians had no business to be poor, adding that the current economic challenges stalling the country’s growth were cumulative results of bad leadership.
He observed that Ghana under a PPP government would implement feasible policies aimed at making the economy solid to compete globally.
“As we have stated in our policy document, the PPP seeks the opportunity to implement an efficient agenda for accelerated development through incorruptible leadership, education, health care and jobs. These are the three pillars that we stand on”, he said.
The programmes the party intends to implement include the creation of sustainable jobs, effective healthcare delivery through the prevention of diseases, compulsory universal education, proper agricultural and food security initiatives and support for local entrepreneurs.
On job creation, he expressed his party’s desire to create jobs for millions of Ghanaians who remained unemployed.
“Our focus is job creation through competent and incorruptible leadership. No political party in Ghana, not the NDC nor the NPP, has been so bold and clear about its focus”, he added.
Dr Nduom said more than half of the problems being faced by Ghana had to do with the lack of job opportunities for the youth, adding that his government would make job creation its topmost priority.
Touching on the PPP’s policy for the agricultural sector, he said he would make the sector vibrant by providing a ready market to sustain farming operations.
“One way to provide a ready market is to ensure that all basic schools on the school-feeding programme, as well as senior high schools, patronise strictly made-in-Ghana commodities for cooking”, he said.
He also touched on how his administration planned to address the high importation of rice, saying that he would encourage rice farming and milling in Ghana, so that in four years “we stop the importation of rice — we will save the more than $1.2 billion we spend every year to import rice”.
“This alone will mean one million well-paid jobs in virtually all the 10 regions. I know that this can be done because my company, Group Nduom, has invested in a rice mill at Worawora in the Volta Region and is building a new one at Assin Bereku in the Central Region”, he added.
Concerning the oil and gas sector in the Western Region, Dr Nduom said he would ensure the development of a petrochemical industry and the movement of the headquarters of oil and gas producers, including the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), to that region.
That, he said, was to make regions with specific natural resources gain direct benefit from the companies that made use of the resources.
He said his government would also develop the Kakum National Park, the forts and castles along the coast and the Mole National Park as major international tourist attractions and destinations, with nearby airports and enabling infrastructure.
“My leadership will take advantage of the country’s rich resources to build a better economy in which every Ghanaian will have the opportunity to achieve his or her ambitions”, he said.
Dr Nduom called on the electorate to give the PPP a chance to show “the NDC and the NPP how to govern a nation efficiently”.
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