The 2012 presidential candidate of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Dr Henry Herbert Lartey, has said until Ghana adopted the “domestication policies introduced by the GCPP” and created an enabling atmosphere for businesses to produce locally, the problems confronting Ghana’s economy would not be over any time soon.
He attributed the current state of the country’s economy to the over-reliance on foreign support and lack of assistance for local industries.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Dr Lartey, who is also the interim Chairman of the GCPP, said “Ghana has everything in place to embark on its own development agenda except that the country is relying too much on foreign investors”.
“The Americans built their country and so did the British. Every country which has developed achieved its growth by itself. If we continue to rely on foreigners and hope that they will come and develop our country for us, it would never happen”, he said.
GCPP’s vision
According to Dr Lartey, the vision of GCPP, which is to reduce importation and increase exportation, is the only policy that haa the tendency to redeem the country’s economic woes.
“This is what the party would continue to do ahead of the 2016 elections. We will continue to tell all Ghanaians to adopt the vision and belief that only Ghanaians have the strength to help develop their own economy,” he said.
Dr Lartey said the government alone could not shoulder the burden of developing the country’s economy, adding that “all Ghanaians must join forces together and stop the pull-him-down syndrome which would not get the country anywhere”.
Strengthening GCPP’s resolve
He said the party had begun strengthening its resolve at the grass-roots level as part of the party’s preparation ahead of the 2016 elections.
“I have been in constant communication with leadership of the party in all the regions. We are still propagating the message of domestication and telling Ghanaians why the country should take serious the policy,” Dr Lartey said.
He observed that the party was making frantic efforts to hold its national delegates congress in 2015 in order to elect its national executive.
According to him, the major problem confronting smaller political parties in Ghana, especially the GCPP, is funding, adding that “the party spends huge amounts in trying to spread its messages to the people”.
Dr Lartey said for GCPP to effectively communicate their vision and policies to Ghana, the party needed to solicit funding and support.
Asked whether he would contest the 2016 general election, he said his decision would be made based on the response of the party’s delegates.