Independent presidential aspirant, Mr. Kwesi Amoafo-Yeboah says what Ghana needs right now is not party politics but a united front to move the country forward.

In an exclusive interview with myjoyonline Thursday January 31, 2008, 54-years-old Mr. Amoafo-Yeboah who appeared optimistic, and hopes to win the 2008 elections, said he was not in the race for himself but because he wants to serve Ghanaians. He stressed that he was not looking for ‘political power’, but a leadership position so he could serve.

He said the country has reached a stage where it is poised to become an economic power house, and to become part of the nations of the world that are doing well, and therefore he wants to lead the country to achieve economic success.

He also said he believes in the private sector and thinks the sector needs the support of government to grow and help to create jobs and wealth for the people.

Mr. Amoafo-Yeboah is of the view that it is a waste for government to use tax from mobile phone talk time to fund the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP). He thinks the money should be used to invest in businesses, from which the government could generate more money through taxation.

Mr. Amoafo-Yeboah who was born in Bibiani in the Western region and grew up in Kumasi left for the United States when he was 18 years old to study.

He came back to Ghana in 2004. He is an entrepreneur with business interests in the telecommunications industry. He is the CEO of iTel Ltd., a telecommunications business.

Asked why he couldn’t serve Ghanaians as an entrepreneur but wants to do so as a president, he said, as a businessman, he could only serve his employees, but as a president he could do a lot more for Ghanaians.

He believes that too many Ghanaians depend too much on the government and they ought to learn to be self-sufficient.

Mr. Amoafo-Yeboah claims he has lots of followers and people willing to support his course and vote for him, but declined to mention any figure.

When it was pointed out to him that politics is about numbers, he said, that is what the politicians always say, but he is not a politician. It was then pointed out to him that, even though he says he is not a politician, he wanted political power, he still insisted he was not one.

He accused all past and present governments of failing the country, especially, the agriculture sector. He said when he comes into power he will find innovative ways to develop processing machines that are not sophisticated but simple and can be used to process farm produce on site to reduce the risk of waste to the farmer.

He also said he would concentrate on building feeder roads to help transport farm produce to places where they are needed.

On export, he lamented the fact that Ghana depended too much on exports, which according to him could suffer should the countries that Ghana export to experience any kind of recession.

He said he would do things differently by creating and encouraging domestic consumption of locally produced items. He said it is only the excess that would be exported.

He expressed worry about the polarisation of the country by the political parties. He argued that these parties although claim to be capitalists and social democrats, their philosophies are not different. Moreover, he said they are just doing politics of personalities.

He said, if Ghanaians unite and vote for him, he will not fail them.