Story: Abdul Aziz
THE flag bearer of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), Mr Emmanuel Ansah Antwi, has called on the people of Bawku and Anloga to ensure peace and stability in their areas for sustainable development.
He said when the country is engulfed in conflicts and indiscipline, socio-economic development is impeded, leading to mass poverty, hunger, disease, squalor and ignorance.
He observed that policies embarked on by governments to eradicate poverty and disease in the rural areas could only succeed in an atmosphere of peace, which is dear to the party.
Mr Antwi made the call when he paid a courtesy call on the national Chief Imam, Sheik Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, in Accra yesterday.
He said indiscipline and immorality were eating deep into the social fibre of society and that chiefs and religious leaders had a role to play to improve the situation.
He said the DFP believed in religious secularism and that when the country based its development on religious and moral grounds, most of these challenges would disappear.
Mr Antwi, therefore, urged the Chief Imam to use his religious clout to urge warring factions and especially Ghanaians to eschew conflicts, and indiscipline in their commuinties for peace to prevail.
He explained that his visit was therefore to ask for the blessings and support of Shiek Sharubutu to tackle some of the anti social activities in the country.
Mr Antwi said when crisis erupted in the country, it was the poor who usually bore the brunt of such crises.
He said, for example, that the food crisis in the country could have been averted if the government had the political will to grant subsidies to farmers to grow more food to feed the country and export the surplus.
The presidential candidate said some African countries such as Malawi that ignored the conditionalities of international donors in 2005 and supported their farmers with subsidies were now reaping the benefits of the brave policy and exporting surplus corn.
He said when the DFP was mandated to govern the country via this year’s elections, the government would re-introduce subsidies to farmers as was being done in the Western world.
He elaborated that the subsidies would come in the form of inputs such as tractors, fertilisers to farmers through the rural banks and the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).
He declared that the DFP was against the sale of the ADB to any foreign strategic partner and that any decision to sell the bank to foreigners would be reversed, if the party came to power to enable the bank to play a dominant role in the green revolution of the party.
Mr Antwi added that the over-liberalisation of the economy was having adverse effects on the local industries, as well as the agricultural sectors, with more people losing their jobs because Ghanaians were no more producing but largely consuming what other countries had produced.
Sheik Sharubutu, in a welcoming speech, added that the prosperity of every country depended on good relations and friendship existing between the various institutions, for example, relations of religious leaders with political parties.
The National Chief Imam, therefore, reminded Ghanaians, especially those involved in conflicts, that they had no other country apart from Ghana and ought to guard the prevailing peace in the country.
The DFP flag bearer was accompanied by some national executive of the party, who included the Greater Accra Regional Chairman, Mr Nikoi Addison; Deputy General Secretary, John Amekah; National Organiser, Mr Piesie Anto; Mrs Francis Essiam, National Vice- Chairperson and Dr Obed Asamoah, Patron of the party.
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