Ivor Greenstreet launching the CPP manifesto
The Convention People’s Party (CPP) over the weekend launched its 2016 manifesto dubbed, “Apam foforo” at the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Accra.
The “Apam foforo,” which means the new covenant, covers four broad areas namely: social policies, economic policies, responsive governance and international relations.
According to the manifesto, the party’s short term priorities are job creation with the launching of the Ghana Emergency Employment Programme (GEEP), aimed primarily at the youth, and essential social services such as providing affordable housing, potable water, electricity, food, transport and sanitation.
The rest are public safety – combating the armed robbery menace, the rise in sexual violence against women and children and the fatalities on the roads – and managing Ghana’s natural resources by reviewing and negotiating all contracts which are not in the best interest of the country.
In attendance were the party’s hierarchy, all the 222 parliamentary candidates and executives of their various campaign committees.
Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, flag bearer of the CPP, appealed to the electorate to vote massively for the party because according to him, Ghana has failed to progress under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) regimes.
“We have had enough. The NPP and NDC are one and the same. As we are here today, we are launching a true manifesto of ideas that represents justice, hope, opportunity for the future. This is the only party that can bring economic independence to the nation,” he said.
Mr. Greenstreet said, The NPP and the NDC merely continue to offer Ghanaians what they have been offering them for the past 24 years and that is their greatest specialty – lies upon lies. He described the two major political parties as mendacious.
“They have enslaved us because we continue to be subjected to all their lies. It is time to end their slavery; they are nothing short of being pirates.”
He added, “We must bring back our dignity as a nation. A nation without dignity is susceptible to abuse and corruption and that is what we see before us today in all spheres of our nation’s life. We are abused by our leaders who fail to care for our people and our society has become endemic to corruption.”
Touching on some parts of the manifesto, he said the CPP would implement the rent act to ensure that the ordinary Ghanaian worker can only pay three months’ rent advance and not two to three years as it is being done now.
“We shall reject GMOs. We need no GMOs in this country with all our fertile lands. We will reject international partnership agreement which will put us in further poverty, Mr Greenstreet said.
cephrok@yahoo.com
By Cephas Larbi