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| Goosie Tanoh |
A former member of the National Democratic Congress has given the
clearest indication of his readiness to return to the party to
contribute to the development of the country.
In an open letter to the party, a copy of which has been intercepted by
Joy News, Augustus Obuadum Tanoh popularly called Goosie Tanoh said he
will in the coming days join forces with like-minded members of the NDC
to provide a new leadership for the party.
He stopped short of stating categorically whether or not he will contest the party’s flagbearership race in December.
Sources, however, say the founder of the National Reform Party has
intentions of contesting the highest position of the party and a
possibility of campaigning for the presidential position of the country.
Goosie Tanoh broke away from the NDC prior to the 2000 election in a misunderstanding over who leads the party.
He formed the Reform Party which failed to make any real impact in the
election which was eventually won by the New Patriotic Party’s JA
Kufuor.
Tanoh makes a return to the party he resigned from with the hope of
reviving the grassroots and assuring members of a trusted leadership.
The following is the full details of the open letter
Beloved,
WE HAVE A CHOICE
An Open Letter to the National Democratic Congress (NDC)
We are at a time and moment in our country’s history that requires
profound and far reaching new thinking and new ways of doing things.
It also requires a new breed of disciplined leadership unswervingly
committed to serve Ghana and Ghanaians, in particular, our youth, women,
our working and middle classes, our farmers whose living standards and
security of livelihood are in perpetual free fall.
It is a time when we must pull ourselves up to become visionary, focused
and determined to execute a true agenda of social justice, and economic
and social transformation.
This must begin now if we are not to perish at the hands of the brutalizing poverty we see all around us.
We must find the will and purpose to rid ourselves of the dysfunctional
governments that parade before us every four years brimming with
self-importance and yet are, as demonstrated by the current state of
affairs, tragically and pathetically clueless in seeking solutions to
the many and varied problems that confront us as a community.
We are tired of economic policies that are at best experimental and at
worst a certain recipe for continued hardship, pain and the
dispossession of the many by the few. Policies that no matter how well
intentioned continue to make our national destiny subservient to an
international economic system that mercilessly extracts our wealth and
consigns our national life to one of perpetual crisis.
Hope and confidence are material forces that contribute immeasurably to
the drive for economic prosperity and social advancement. Hope nourishes
our zest for life and reinforces our fortitude to struggle and
overcome.
I fear that we are fast losing this hope, this confidence in ourselves
as a Ghanaian people able to meet any challenge no matter how hard and
overcome.
The propelling sense of national optimism so necessary for forging a
better present and constructing a promising and formidable future is
also day by day diminished as dark clouds of despair and hopelessness
immobilizes thought and purposeful action for change and the
construction of a better Ghana.
Our nation has in the last several years been held hostage to the
triumph of injustice over right, the naked and unjust appropriation of
our public wealth to service family and friends and a few chosen
apostles of greed whose sole virtue is their expertise in the
dissipation of the public purse for private gain. The consequence has
been a profound loss of confidence in our governance institutions and
the functionaries that man them. The hope of the 1992 constitution has
been replaced by a deep skepticism and lack of faith.
We as a Party have a historic duty to rise up and resist these
tendencies that have brought us to this place of despair that not only
threaten to impoverish us all but leave in their wake a poisonous
mediocrity where merit, dedicated principled service and ability are
sacrificed at the altar of sycophancy, cronyism and debilitating theft.
Arise.
If we are to wake up to this call of duty then we ourselves, indeed, the
entirety of our membership must imbibe and cultivate, at this time and
in this moment, the virtues of honesty, sacrifice, volunteerism and
determination to build a mass based political organization that has the
vision and equipment to lead Ghana out of the mire that threatens to
engulf us towards a future in which Ghana’s vast economic potential
and the well-being of its long-suffering citizens are fully realized .
We believe that NDC can regain its preeminent standing as a mass-based
political organization through sustained and disciplined effort. We must
sweat a little so that our exertions can and must retrieve our national
political life from the clutches of those who are intent on weakening
our nation's dedication to the principles of social justice,
accountability and popular democracy. And who over the years have
instituted by design a culture of elitism, impunity and hostility to the
grassroots, the common man and the founding principles of our party.
The politics of inclusion must be nurtured, cherished and deepened.
Let us be clear that the political elite (on both sides of the aisle),
only see the state as a vehicle to serve and advance the interests of an
acquisitive few by fair or foul means. They and the few who think like
them (and unquestionably serve them for a few talents of silver) have
certainly no intention or commitment to implementing an agenda of far
reaching social and economic reforms and a program of positive
transformation in the lives of the broad majority of Ghanaians.
Theirs is a politics of exclusion of the many to advance the cause of the few.
It is enough.
Organization, Education and Total Mobilization of the Grassroots to
achieve real democracy, national self-reliance, social justice and
fairness in our country is our unyielding cause.
We must through our determined effort unlock the vast energy, sense of
justice and organizational ability of our youth, our women and all of us
who thirst for a vibrant and prosperous Ghana. Our determination to
engage in a sustained struggle to construct a fairer more equitable
society built on the principles of social justice, accountability and
self-reliance must not waver in the coming days, months and years as we
launch the renewal and revival of our party on this difficult but
fulfilling journey.
This is our cause.
All of us who yearn for true and lasting change must understand that
achieving better standards of living for all Ghanaians, personal and
communal security free from harm and crime, equal access and treatment
under the laws - all these benefits of a just and fair society will not
come without struggle or sacrifice.
It is time to move beyond pre-occupation with our many individual
grievances as armchair observers, critics and complainants and rather
engage in purposeful positive action in the quest to find and implement
sustainable solutions to the many problems that we face as a nation.
If we want a transparent, open and functioning democracy (free from
Pre-Set agendas and the “Kululu” that goes with it) in our nation then
we must be prepared to pursue through all peaceful means the organized
sustained democratic action of the grassroots in an uncompromising quest
for social justice and equal access to the wealth of our nation.
The mission is Now.
In the next few days, weeks and months ahead we will, through scientific
analysis and practical systematic organization, concentrate our efforts
in joining others who share our views to rebuild NDC to become once
again the powerful political force it once was. We do so in the belief
that the NDC can and will be a vehicle for the kind of change and
transformation that many of us who were at its birth, have yearned for
all these years.
We must be dispassionate in our analysis, focused and determined in our
mobilization drive, and at all times remembering the creed that - Ghana
comes before any party - as we ponder and decide on these far reaching
and weighty matters.
We have no choice as a true social democratic party but to build a
sophisticated and politically conscious grassroots movement fully able
to provide the impetus for community mobilization for local and national
development. In doing so, we must remain steadfast in establishing
within the membership of the party a commitment to a strong democratic
and transparent culture. We must also equip the ranks of our Party with
the highest calibre of cadres who can man the state apparatus in all its
aspects and who will offer a new spirit of honest, efficient and
dedicated service in the conception and implementation of the urgent
development agenda facing our nation.
Such cadre, inspired by an awakened mass movement, will have as their
sole motivation the wellbeing and development of Ghana and not as we
have sadly come to expect the wellbeing of their pocket and that of
their families and friends.
Undying sacrificial service to Ghana – that will be the sacred pledge of a renewed NDC and the theme of its sustained revival.
We can of course choose the path of “servitude in tranquillity” and
remain subservient to the powerful forces of moneyed politics and
accommodate, by our silence and inaction, injustice, impunity and the
impoverishment that all this comes with.
We can in our silence and inaction hope against hope that somehow the
chop chop agenda will give way to a new wave of transparency and
accountability.
Yes, as members of our once great party we have a choice to be naive and
forever be relegated to the margins of political and economic power or
we can construct a path of struggle and ultimate triumph for the cause
and principles we cherish.
Again, we have a choice to participate in and remain servile to a
political culture increasingly poisoned by the paralyzing gridlock of
partisanship as we witness the elite of the dominant political party’s
present themselves as credible and legitimate alternatives to each other
only to be voted into power for “business to continue as usual” or we
can lift our sights beyond the confines of this useless and unproductive
outlook.
We have a choice.
And indeed, our choice must be to follow the path of grassroots
empowerment fully aware that those with vested interests in the unjust
system we have today will fight tooth and nail to protect and maintain
their privileges and the unwholesome grip they hold over our national
resources.
We have a choice to remain disenfranchised, impoverished, unorganized
and meek as individual common men and women too weighed down by the
sheer burden of survival to fight for what is right and just or we can
take the first step on a journey of hope and national fulfilment not
without danger or toil.
We have a choice.
We are joined.
I remain yours faithfully
Augustus Obuadum Tanoh
(Goosie)
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