Boakye Agyarko Kyeremateng
The urgent call for the NPP to be rebranded is a tacit admission that we have deviated from our core values, mores, beliefs and values, and have lost our sense of direction and identity, thereby.
The manifestations of this loss are what is driving this call for reforms and rebranding.
Thes desire to rebrand is a tacit recognition that our current brand is tarnished, and we are unhappy with the current state of affairs.
When we bleach the banners of the ideological brilliance of our party, fewer people will desire to march under its colours. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is our heritage, our inheritance and the faith of our fathers born out of years of desperate struggles and culminating into the United Party tradition.
John Gardner in his book, “Self Renewal”, notes that, “No organization in the Church, business or government can survive unless from time to time it re-examines its purpose for being and returns to that original agenda; otherwise it gets deflected into all sorts of side issues”. Our values are fundamental truths. They are central to who we are. They point us in the right direction.
We must ensure they remain our compass through changing times (John Hannaford) We do not intend to merely sigh from the past. That would be reactionary. We should use these teachings and lessons of our past to more intensely celebrate the present and reshape the future.
Our objectives to rebrand and reposition the NPP are to restore the values, teachings, practices, traditions and mores of liberal democracy, the essence of which is to impart them to the youth of Ghana in particular, and the rest of the body politic in general. The rebranding of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) must mean the rediscovery and return to its core founding values. These values and beliefs include;
✓ The respect for and defense of the rule of law.
✓ To build in Ghana, a free and democratic system of government under which all citizens will be able to contribute to the welfare, peace and prosperity of our nation and keep its people free from dictatorship and oppression.
✓ The protection and preservation of fundamental rights and freedom of the individual.
Every individual deserves respect and must have their dignity protected.
✓ The right of individual property as secured and inviolable. Thomas Paine in the “Rights of Man”, asserts that, “the rights of property being secure and inviolable, no one ought to be deprived of it except in cases of evident public necessity, legally ascertained and on condition of a previous just indemnity”.
✓ The devolution of power away from the central government to local levels where policies are implemented.
✓ The promotion of an efficient market economy and individual enterprise and creativity, while ensuring that there are adequate safety nets to protect the poor and the vulnerable.
✓ The promotion of sound institutions to uphold and sustain democratic governance.
✓ The granting of a place of pride and active role for our moral-cultural institutions such as religious organizations, the institution of chieftaincy and civil society organizations.
✓ The legitimate role of the democratic state in the just distribution of production resources of the nation so as to prevent them from being monopolized in the hands of a few or a particular area of Ghana. This is the means by which we secure the material conditions of equal citizenship. This distribution must lead to policies that give unfettered access and opportunities to equal education, healthcare and employment.
✓ To create a climate in which private enterprise (citizens and foreigners) may invest without fear and unnecessary bureaucratic restrictions and impediments, in order to create wealth and prosperity for its people. This is the best way to help people earn an income, achieve success and take care of their families.
These central tenets of the NPP are collectively meant to improve the material wellbeing of all our citizens. It is this brand that we seek to restore. If we of the NPP should remain true and honest to our tradition, values and mores, we can be sure that these will engender even greater ideas, programmes and projects, which will enlarge and enrich further the opportunities that will become available to all our citizens.
We are a party whose central objective is to promote the welfare of the citizens of Ghana. Let us restore the ideological brilliance of the banner of our party and many more will desire to march under its colours.
