All the three living former presidents invited for the 70th anniversary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) failed to turn up, 3news.com has gathered.
According to the party’s Acting General Secretary, James Kwabena Bomfeh, only former President John Agyekum Kufuor responded to the invitation by sending a representative to the programme held on Wednesday, June 12.
The CPP, the second political party to be formed in Ghana, was founded on June 12, 1949 after its first leader Kwame Nkrumah mobilized a mass group of people of about 60,000 to counter the ideals of elitist United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).
Dr Nkrumah, who became Ghana’s first Prime Minister, in 1957, and President, in 1960, advocated ‘Independence Now’ against UGCC’s ‘Independence Within the Shortest Possible Time’.
Since being ousted from power in a coup d’etat on February 24, 1966, the CPP has not returned power.
They have remained a shadow of their past, falling off the pecking order especially in the Fourth Republic.
Speaking on TV3’s New Day on Thursday, June 13, Mr Bomfeh, popularly known as Kabila, said they were disappointed not to have the former presidents attend the programme despite the invitations given them.
But he said it is high time the political parties – particularly the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) – came together for the development of the nation.
He stressed that “we should build consensus in this country through coordination and sincerity”.
He also invited the NPP, particularly, “to understand that politics is not all about power [or] holding position because power and positions in themselves mean nothing” if they do not inure to the benefit of the people.
“We must have a policy that will integrate and include [all] people.”
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana