The flag bearer of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Mr Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, has criticised the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) one district, one factory policy, describing it as bogus and fraudulent.
“When the NPP comes to tell you about one district, one factory, they are not telling you the truth, “Mr Greenstreet told an excited crowd at Koforidua Magazine on the third day of his tour of the Eastern Region last Wednesday.
The presidential candidate, who is seeking a comeback for his party which has been out of power since 1966, urged the electorate to ignore the largest opposition party’s latest promise because they had eight years in the past to implement the policy but failed to do so.
“They could not do it when they were in the golden age of business, and they could not do it during their President (Kufuor’s) special initiatives’’.
The NPP’s audacious plan to establish a factory in each district in Ghana has been bashed by its political opponent with some describing it as wishful thinking.
But the NPP insists that the promise is redeemable and would not just lead to value addition to the country’s natural resources but will create more jobs as well.
Coming on the back of Mr Greenstreet’s criticisms of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for its attempt to hijack Nkrumah’s name for its campaign, Mr Greenstreet said the CPP was the only viable alternative to the NDC.
Advanced tool centres
He said the CPP had plans to turn the various magazines which represented the country’s innovation hub into advanced tool centres as the foundation of the country’s industrialisation.
The centres, he stated, would help the country develop precision tools for use in road construction, auto industry and hospitals.
“We are going to do that with massive investment and training so that you will be able to do it with computer-aided manufacturing and numerical control. When you are able to make these machines through training and investment we would give all magazines, then all the revenue leaving our country will stay in Ghana and we would have a greater revenue,” he told the cheering mechanics and spare parts dealers.’’
He said the country had the expertise to manage the Akosombo Dam built by Nkrumah, as well as other factories in the country that processed oil from coconut and groundnut and rallied Ghanaians to support the CPP to lead the country’s industrialisation process.
Accompanied by the First National Vice Chairperson of the party, Hajia Hamdatu Ibrahim; the National Organiser, Mr Emmanuel Ogbordjor, the National Campaign Coordinator, Mr Rashid Alao, and a host of regional and constituency executives, Mr Greenstreet also introduced Ms Naomi Osei Sekyere to the electorate as the parliamentary candidate for the New Juabeng South Constituency before embarking on a float through some principal streets of Koforidua.
Galamsey
The next port of call was Ayensuano where Mr Greenstreet pledged the party’s commitment to tackling galamsey in a more effective manner.
With complaints of water challenges on the lips of the electorate, Mr Greenstreet said his administration would construct more boreholes to reduce the locality’s dependence of polluted water from galamsey activities.
To eliminate galamsey, he said a CPP government would empower the district assemblies and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reclaim and restore all the degraded lands in the area.
Buoyed up by the energy and enthusiasm of the gathering, he said the CPP would provide training and equipment to stop the destruction of the environment.
Here, Mr Kingsley Wise Mensah, one of the 14 physically challenged people the CPP is anchoring its hope in to cause an upset in the upcoming election described the party as one that had the aspirations and the needs of the citizenry at heart.
The float continued through the Lower West Akyem District and ended at Akwetia where the flag bearer addressed a mini rally to introduce Ms Joyce Sakyi as the parliamentary candidate.
Here, Mr Greenstreet pledged to revive the Great Consolidated Diamond Company which has been on its knees for some years to create job opportunities for the people.
Hajia Hamdatu also appealed to the electorate to vote for the CPP to redeem the country from years of mismanagement by the NDC and the NPP.
Meanwhile, the CPP campaign train, which has been to 17 constituencies in the region, is expected to shift gear to the Western Region.
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