Mr Kwasi Amoafo-Yeboah, an electrical engineer, who has declared his intention to contest the upcoming presidential election as an independent candidate, has thrown a political jab at the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for failing to provide the necessary fuel to propel the economic engine of this country. He said Ghanaians were suffering today because both parties, when offered the opportunity to govern this country, failed to implement the right economic policies to empower the private sector to become the engine of growth of Ghana’s economy. In an interview with the Independent newspaper, he said his decision to enter the presidential race was born out of the conviction that the country needed a radical paradigm shift to accelerate the nation’s growth and to improve people’s lives as well as generate sustainable employment to bring extra income for the ordinary person. “I believe our nation is poised for accelerated take-off which when properly executed will propel us beyond the modest middle income status that has been the expressed vision of the last two administrations”, he stressed. A compassionate capitalist, he expressed belief that the basis of capitalism was personal responsibility, where individuals took responsibility for themselves and allowed the government to handle the tasks in the public domain. According to him, it is the responsibility of the government to provide an enabling environment for the people to take care of themselves adding that that is the sort of government he would provide Ghanaians if he became the president. “My decision to enter this race is also based on my conviction that our past leadership under the organised political party system has failed us as a nation”, he maintained, stressing that there was too much polarisation in our political systems as a result. Again, he related that the opposition parties tend to sit on the sidelines in critical situations always waiting for the ruling government to fail so they could use the failure for political gain. For him, political parties spent too much time playing the blame game. He said what the country needed at this point was a neutral person at the top to help harness the power of our collective human resource and concentrate it on solving the crucial problems facing the nation, something he said could only be achieved by an independent President. For him, the problem facing this country is “the economy” and “if we get the economy right everything else will fall in place”, he insisted. Mr. Amoafo-Yeboah maintained that the people needed money in order to be responsible for themselves and their families, to pay for proper health care for themselves and their families, to provide proper education for their children and also to pay for additional basic amenities that all humans want for their families. “These two needs are interdependent and form the basis of what I call “opportunity cycle” Mr Amoafo-Yeboah stated. He said the government also needed money to provide the infrastructure needed for the nation’s continued growth, to maintain good governance and the rule of law and to ensure fairness and equity. Mr Amoafo-Yeboah said he carried a message of hope for all Ghanaians and that although he considered himself the underdog in the December elections, he carried a strong message. On how he would tackle corruption, he said the laws must strictly be enforced irrespective of the individuals involved, adding that Ghanaians were good people, who would not commit crime if their living conditions were right. According to him, the current National Youth Employment Programme was a welfare project which could not tackle the unemployment problem. He said what he would have done differently was to channel the capital involved to expand individual businesses to absorb the unemployed. Mr Amoafo-Yeboah is an entrepreneur, who has managed several companies in the fields of financial services, real estate and telecommunications and currently the chairman of i-TEL. Source: Gye Nyame concord