The National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) has launched its 2020 election manifesto at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) for the 2020 general election.
The manifesto represented the vision and programs of the John Mahama – Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang ticket for the 2020 elections, addressed the “felt needs of people and It follows months of wide consultations with various interest groups and individuals across the country.
Below is a message from Flag bearer John Mahama
I have had the unique privilege of providing leadership as President, stepping back, and being elected again to lead the National Democratic Congress (NDC) into the December 2020 elections.
I have had the opportunity, during the period, to reŇect soberly on the challenges and expectations of governance and the heavy burden of people’s hopes and aspirations that come with it.
Ghana cannot afford to do things in the same old way.
Survival and success for today and future generations require a much more urgent and, in some cases, painful change of prevailing economic and social relations.
Ghana needs a new era of Social Justice:
• It is time for renewal and gathering
• It is time for greater self-reliance
• It is time to close the wealth gap that divides our society
• It is time to finally end intolerance and social discrimination against ethnic groups, religious groups, gender and age groups
• It is time to end the repression of the media
• It is time to unite and create opportunities for all – not just a few
• It is time to do this democratically – with the full involvement of our people.
The world is changing fast and in very fundamental ways. We must place Ghana in sync with the new developments taking place around the world in order to propel our economy into an advanced one.
We must prepare Ghana to cope with the current global changes, and we must open new horizons and hope, to instil a new sense of purpose in our people, catching up on what we have missed while taking steps to enhance our growth.
To achieve this, we must build a knowledge-based economy and move faster into the new world of smart manufacturing and digital services. This will not only generate growth, but also prosperity for all Ghanaians.
We will create not only jobs, but sustainable and decent jobs, so that people can live dignified lives.
With this in mind, we set out to develop the People’s Manifesto, a social contract between the NDC and the people of Ghana. To make our manifesto-writing process widely consultative and popular, we adopted a botom-up approach.
In addition to internal consultations within the NDC, our grassroots organs engaged their communities and forwarded their expectations for inclusion.
I was also privileged to hold town hall meetings with representatives of different socio-economic groupings.
I sought to derive a consensus on what the next NDC Government must do, how we must do it, and what roles citizens want to play in our forward march. The idea was to distil this knowledge and commitment into our Manifesto.
Our consultative process was interrupted by the COVID-19 Pandemic. We did not, however, abandon our objective. We continued, using technology and small group meetings, until our objectives were achieved.
Six months later, the Pandemic is spreading even faster, and with more disruptive effect on our lives than Government anticipated.
From all indications, COVID-19 will continue to plague the world for some time to come, but this People’s Manifesto lays the foundation for its tackling and the renewal of my resolve to deliver Jobs, Prosperity and More for all Ghanaians.
I hope you will identify with the ideals of our People’s Manifesto, vote for me John Dramani Mahama, and engage us to improve our programme delivery.
I believe that there are great times ahead for all of us.
Let us all join hands to create the country that we all wish for.
John Dramani Mahama Flagbearer
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Kofi Atakora
