The Presidential Candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, has declared that a government led by him will be run with only 40 ministers.
The 40, he explained, would include deputy ministers and regional ministers.
The PPP flag bearer disclosed this when he addressed a press conference at the party’s headquarters at Asylum Down in Accra last Monday to ‘outdoor’ the party’s Presidential Policy Team (PPT).
The PPT is another step by which the PPP is demonstrating to Ghanaians its unique brand of politics which focuses on what the party can do differently to change the dwindling fortunes of Ghana for the better.
The key objective of the PPT, Dr Nduom said, would be to recommend how a PPP administration should implement “our priority policies, including funding and human resources considerations.”
The PPP flag bearer noted that members of the PPTs would speak for the party’s presidential candidate and the party in their areas of expertise.
Priority areas
The PPTs, Dr Nduom said, had been formed around 11 priority areas for a future PPP administration.
These priority areas are Constitutional Reforms and Good Governance, chaired by Dennis Ofosu Appea; Public Sector Reforms, headed by William Dowokpor, Preventable Diseases, headed by Felix William Ograh, Compulsory and Universal Education is chaired by Andrew Deroy; and Agricultural and Food Security by Nana Ofori Owusu.
Others are Financing Energy for Industrialisation by Paul Bio, Economic Infrastructure team by Dr Bawa Mahama; Sports by Prince Kwabena Okyere; Domestic Enterprise Development is by Ladi Nylander, Women Enterprise Development by Belinda Bulley and a Technology team headed by Hilda Nkansah.
He stressed that the teams will be convened by the team leaders to engage in research, analysis and detailed policy preparation for the consideration of the national committee of the party prior to the December 7, 2016 elections.
Dr Nduom stated that the PPP National Policy Advisor, Mr Kofi Asamoah-Siaw, would serve as the convener for the PPT, while Mr Nylander would head the key policy area of job creation and domestic enterprise development.
Qualified men and women
“This is to show to the Ghanaian public that the PPP has qualified and experienced men and women on offer as part of an all-inclusive team to take charge of Ghana in January 2017 and make it a better nation for all its citizens,” Dr Ndoum stressed.
“Unlike other political parties such as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), we have already made public our policy document that clearly sets out our reform agenda and job creation strategy. While others are busy launching campaigns and running around the country, making promises they know very well they cannot keep, the PPP is strategising and doing research on what to do when in power to make our country great and strong with prosperous people,” he said.
Human progress
According to Dr Nduom, a PPP-led administration would be inclusive and rely mostly on professional, civil and local servants to ensure an efficient administration.
This inclusive approach, he explained, would make the government efficient and the country united to help raise revenue to pay public sector workers well.
Dr Nduom said the PPP believed in broad-based human progress that was felt by the people.
“Unlike others who have made us poor by bad governance practices and a leadership prepared to accept less than what our God-given abundant natural resources must provide, our orientation and core beliefs about the world we live in are progressive,” he added.
Dr Nduom concluded that under a PPP government, Ghana would move from a Third World to a First World nation by working with a great sense of duty and urgency within one generation.
This, he stressed, was the more reason the PPP had created the PPT to prepare the grounds now “so that we will be ready to take off when given the nod come January, 7, 2017 to work for Ghana from the blast of the whistle.”
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