Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, a New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential aspirant, has said Ghana can only actualise its dream of becoming a wealthy and prosperous nation if the structure of the national economy is changed from one that is dependent on the export of raw materials. The current global socio-economic development trends and dictates require the base and foundation of the nation's economy to be science/technology-led and knowledge-driven, with due application of environmental best practices, he stressed. Professor Frimpong-Boateng, an internationally renowned cardiothoracic surgeon, who began his campaign last Saturday, was addressing a meeting of polling station executives of the party at Dormaa Ahenkro in the Brong Ahafo Region. The campaign, which will be formally launched on May 19, at the Christ the King Hall in Accra, took the professor to 12 constituencies in the region. They included Tano North, Tano South, Asunafo North, Asunafo South, Asutifi North, Asutifi South, Sunyani East, Sunyani West, Berekum, Dormaa East, Dormaa West and Jaman South constituencies, where he implored party members to give him the mandate to lead the NPP in the next presidential election. He told the delegates to the party's upcoming congress at which the flag bearer would be elected, that a vote for him would signify a drastic change in the nation's socio-economic development. Professor Frimpong-Boateng said Ghana needed a visionary and pragmatic leader who was abreast of the complex issues of globalisation and also understood what was needed to achieve socio-economic development, explaining that it revolved around commitment to, and effective application of science and technology. He noted that the poverty gap of the country resulted from the failure by successive governments to realise that science and technology underpinned the development paradigm of all prosperous nations in this era and cited the Asian Tigers of South Korea, Malaysia and China as clear examples. Citing his experiences and achievements in the fields of medicine, management, administration and farming, Professor Frimpong-Boateng argued that he was the rightful candidate to lead the NPP to save the country from socio-economic stagnation. He, therefore, appealed to the delegates to give him the party's mandate and subsequently assist in the campaign to wrest political power from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) via the 2012 general election. He debunked the heroic claim by some members of the NPP that they had suffered, sweated and toiled for the progress and stability of the party. The presidential hopeful described those assertions as unjustifiable and said that was not necessarily a qualification for one to be given the mandate as the party's flag bearer. Prof. Frimpong-Boateng explained that the real heroes who had suffered and toiled for the survival of the party were those who lost their lives, resulting in perpetual grief and pain for their parents and relatives during the events of 1995 "Kumepreko" demonstration, and the 2009 Chereponi by-election, among others. He said that he had been initiated into the United Party (UP) tradition as a boy in 1958 by his late grandfather, Opanin Kwame Appiah, a pillar of UP in the Atwima-Nwabiagya Constituency. He said that he had been involved in the affairs of the party besides being a founding member of NPP in 1992, an active Kumepreko participant in 1995, offering financial support to some party members since 1992, and providing medical and surgical treatment to party members. He had also saved the lives of victims of the violence of the Kumepreko in 1995, and at Chereponi and Yendi in 2009, he stated. The NPP presidential aspirant said his professional accomplishments had provided the pedestal for the necessary international goodwill that would facilitate any attempt to obtain foreign assistance for the country. He added that the German Government would help efforts to improve primary health-care such as malarial treatment and eradication. "Ghana is the only place where the German Government assisted in the establishment of the National Cardiothoracic Centre with supplies credit of 16 million Deutsche Marks to provide equipment apart from the provision of seven personnel, including doctors, nurses and technicians, whom they paid for seven years because they knew that I could handle the high-tech nature of the project," Professor Frimpong-Boateng said. Mr Adusei Sarkodie, former Member of Parliament for the Atwima-Nwabiagya Constituency and a member of the Professor's campaign team, described him as a unifier who would be acceptable to not only NPP followers but all Ghanaians. He said Ghana had had enough of leaders with political science, sociology, military and legal backgrounds since independence but seemed to be "marking time" in the quest to better the lot of the people, hence the need for the mantle of leadership to be given to someone with a science and technology background for a change in the country's development paradigm. He, therefore, said among the party's presidential aspirants, Professor Frimpong-Boateng possessed the requisite credentials to lead the party and the country. Dr Kofi Sarpong, a medical practitioner and an executive member of the NPP in the United States of America, said of the five candidates, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng was the one with the pedigree and without any blemish to attract floating voters to enable the NPP to recapture political power in 2012. Source: GNA