CPP Digs Into Senchi Concensus …Says Consensus Was Implicit Admission Of Failure By Gov’t

The Chairperson and Leader of the Convention People Party (CPP), Hon. Samia Yaba Nkrumah during its 65th anniversary at the International Press Centre (IPC) presented the party’s position on the Senchi Consensus (SC) that was developed at the National Economic Forum (NEF) by the NDC government.

According to the party, the NEF and SC were implicit admission of the failure by government of the development policy of the NDC government expounded in its electoral manifesto and the Better Ghana Agenda.

The party questioned the basis of the SC and pointed out that any scientific approach to the solution of the current crises should take account of the economic development history of the nation for an examination of past development policies and their respective achievements. This in the view of the party was necessary for the choice of development policy.

The party evaluated the development policies of past regimes and pointed out that they were characterized by a betrayal of responsibility for colonial freedom and the loss of national sovereignty for an independent determination and pursuit of our development aspirations. The party pointed out intends to keep the nation in the same position.

The party also pointed out that the SC that showed a deceptive and feeble commitment to a transformation of the structure is rooted in the development policy framework of neo-liberalism and was therefore anti people, anti poor and definitely not in the interest of the nation.

In the view of the party, any objective study of the economic development history of the country will acknowledge the relevance, appropriateness and superiority of the development achievements of the CPP government of The First Republic and the disruptive results of the externally dictated policy of structural adjustment and neo-liberalism that was given a stamp of approval in the SC.

The party listed the numerous investments of the CPP government of the First Republic that covered every area of human need “from atomic reactor to rattan production”. According to the party, these investments in food security, export and import substitution manufacturing and the diversification of the agricultural export commodity sector were guided by the Nkrumaist development policy guideline of reconstruction of the colonial economy that it inherited.

The objectives of the investments according to the party were intended to develop an internally sustained development capacity to promote a balanced growth of the economy, improve the poor terms of trade, increase foreign exchange earnings, reduce import expenditure to achieve a trade surplus to address the structural trade deficits that was the source of currency depreciation, imported inflation and weak capital formation that underlined our poverty and under-development.

According to the party, the CPP government of the First Republic that built more schools, hospitals and residential estates than any regime in the political history of Ghana achieved the needed transition of the economy of Ghana from a peasant agricultural economy to an emerging industrialized country.

The party advanced a list of development policy alternative to the SC for the growth of the economy that included a review of the policies of trade liberalization, exchange rate, fiscal and monetary policy exchange, interest rates and a proactive role for the central bank in development.

In view of the party, it is an irrefutable face that the development achievements of the CPP is unsurpassed by any regime in the economic history of our country and the nation in recognition of these achievements should return the CPP to power for the pursuit of its human centered and home grown policies that is founded on the nation’s history of colonialism for national development and prosperity.