In life one must be courageous even if for a moment. True former general secretary of the CPP Ivor Kobina Greenstreet has emerged as the presidential candidate of the Party at congress on Saturday, January 30, 2016 but I dare say Ivor sowed the seed for the victory on 20 December 2014 at NDC’s National Delegates Congress in Kumasi, where before party gurus he fearlessly enumerated the hardships poor Ghanaians have been subjected to without mitigation.
It was a fierce performance not seen in many years for often when political parties invite rival ones to offer solidarity messages, they expect friendly banter but Mr. Greenstreet was in no mood for pleasantries rather he opened fire which earned him admiration even from persons who had no love for the CPP.
I dare say from that moment onwards some Ghanaians including the CPP delegates kept an eye on the wheelchair bound warrior of a politician and when it was Showtime Mr. Greenstreet coasted to victory bagging 1,288 votes, representing 64.2% of valid votes cast and leaving in his trail Samia Yaba Nkrumah who picked 579 votes while Joseph Agyapong and Bright Akwetey got for their efforts 83 and 42 votes respectively.
One would have thought such wind of change blowing over the CPP would have galvanized all those professing believe in Nkrumah’s policies, development blueprint and ideology to hail Ivor’s critical win and use it as launch pad to entice undecided Ghanaians to join the family and work for victory come November 7.
Sadly however one who ought to have known better but chose to be unguarded Samia Nkrumah quickly sought to belittle Ivor’s win with claims of vote buying on Ivor’s part. Controversial brother of Samia, Sekou had often asserted that his sister’s only claim to fame is using their late father’s name for her own advancement stressing that under scrutiny Samia would be found wanting if their father’s goodwill is stripped of her.
I had often poh-pohed Sekou’s claims even when we worked together at XFM often castigating him for his unyielding nature and being the other sheep of the family but increasingly Samia’s political naivety and constant finger pointing of vote buying as causes for her political defeats is turning an otherwise contentious Sekou into an unlikely sage.
When she lost her Jomoro seat on her second try, Samia bellowed to the skies that her opponents fed cash to the voters hence her loss: not because she was incompetent, not because she couldn’t champion her constituent’s developmental cause, not because she was wasteful and certainly not because she was uninitiated.
True Samia’s lose jolted many not least because she appeared to have been on many media platforms spreading her gospel and making her case including Starr FM and GTV but the will of the people must stand and in choosing a Ivor: a son of the soil and one who has championed the cause, the over 2,500 delegates choice of person must be hailed and then the election machinery set in motion to right the wrongs of the previous campaigns.
Thankfully CPP party chairman, Prof Delle has described the vote buying claims of the former chair-person supported by Prof Akosa as most unfortunate indeed stressing that he hopes the coming days heal the wounds of the vanquished who in licking their wounds sought to denigrate the winner.
Never one to back down from a challenge, Ivor described the vote buying claim of distributing Gh Ȼ200 and Gh Ȼ500 as baseless, unfounded and a clear frustration of a loser stressing that he will lead the Nkrumahist party with integrity.
The man married to one time vice president kow Arkah’s daughter attributed the success of his campaign to experience earned as two-time General Secretary of the party adding he did not sit in Accra engaging in radio campaigns as he was on the ground meeting the delegates and selling his message and vision for the party and country.
Although onetime Ghana’s formidable political force and election winning party the Convention People’s Party (CPP) has suffered gravely and performed abysmally since Nkrumah’s overthrow and the reinstatement of the party in recent years. It is a tall order turning around the party’s 2012 disappointing election result which saw Dr. Abu Sakara garner only 20,323 votes representing 0.18 per cent of valid votes cast. Sakara has since served notice of resigning from the party as Ndoum before him.
But an emboldened Greenstreet believes the time is now for the CPP to break the dominance of the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and win November’s general election given that a good number of Ghanaians have become disillusioned with both parties. Thankfully Prof Delle has rebuffed NPP’s offer of an alliance.
With no clear plan for curtailing corruption, irregular power supply, high unemployment rate and a general mistrust of this government, the man born to university lecturers rising to become a lawyer, writer, publisher and businessman who remains a die-hard Nkrumahist beginning his active politics in the 90s with People’s Convention Party (PCP) and running on the CPP’s ticket in 2004 for parliament, becoming General Secretary serving two four-year terms appears ready to prick the conscience of Ghanaians not to go for lesser of two evils in the NDC or NPP but rather vote in the CPP to protect the meekest and weakest in society while keeping greedy politicians at bay.
Viewed as observant and sharp, the man who is assisted to move around in his wheelchair caused by one night’s vehicular accident is also praised for his honesty, courage and desire to see Ghana advance and take its rightful place in the committee of nations.
For a while this year’s election seemed to be same old-same old with Nana Addo, John Mahama, Edward Mahama being familiar faces but for the psyche of the voter, seeing the man who bears queer names shall be different and when all things are equal a major upset could be recorded in this year’s polls.
Voters who had long given up hope on the current crop of politicians may just be tempted to give Ivor a chance. Persons who were undecided {floating voters} as to whom to vote for on the dee day may just veer towards Ivor and the CPP. The affinity Ivor has with the physically handicapped groupings can shore up his numbers as well and oh he might just have some votes as he put it himself of the NDC: “…Currently nobody, I mean nobody is feeling your better Ghana.”
This year’s campaign promises to be an intriguing one given that we have a youthful president in John Mahama, a warrior of a politician in Ivor, a Ghana must work again man in Nana Addo, a never say die until the bones are rotten man in Eddie Mahama and perhaps I have done it in business, let me replicate the success in government man in Ndoum.
