The recent news by the flag-bearer of the NPP Nana Akufo-Addo to open a factory in every district in Ghana reads like something from the play book of the CPP.
Indeed during the administration of the CPP government in the First Republic, factories were established throughout the length and breadth of the country to lift the ordinary Ghanaian out of colonial exploitation and abject poverty into a new age of industrialization and shared prosperity.
The antagonists at that time, the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition fought the CPP government vehemently. Theirs was in favour of a property owning indigenous elite that was aligned to colonial interests. For them, even after independence the colonial economy was to be kept intact for their benefit and that of Britain.
What we see today is a departure by Nana Addo from the thinking and ideology of his tradition. Together with his 2012 mantra of ‘”Free SHS”this policy shift is in favour of the revolutionary strides made by the CPP under the 7 year Development Plan.
Whereas the CPP may commend him for seeing the light, we must however caution that paying mere lip service to these very serious social issues will not augur well for his fortunes at the polls.
The pragmatic steps to achieve these objectives were embodied in the writings, speeches and works of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The CPP set Ghana on a path to full self determination, complete social justice and linked our fortunes to the collective development of the African continent.
Today, we find all over the world that, many post colonial economies have adopted these tenets of Nkrumaist development to lift their people out of poverty. Perhaps Nana Addo has come full circle and recognises that the only way to build a post colonial Ghana is the same way the CPP government did it in the Fifties and Sixties.
The spirit of the CPP lives in every Ghanaian.This is how our founder intended it to be. The time has come for all who share the vision for a free and prosperous nation to join forces with the CPP, the true vanguards of the Nkrumaist tradition in rebuilding our motherland.
To Nana Addo, we say “Akwaaba Comrade, Welcome to the Struggle”
By Kweku Quansah.
Kweku Quansah is an architect and social entrepreneur. He is also the CPP parliamentary candidate for Ayawaso west Wougon