Ocquaye ‘Meets The Volta’

From Stephen K.Effah, Sogakope
Friday, 14 September 2007

A Presidential Aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Professor Mike Ocquaye, on Wednesday held the first in the series of regional forums with party faithful at Sogakope in the Volta Region, describing it as a prelude to the formal launch of his bid.

The meeting dubbed: "Meet the Volta" was aimed at discussing with the people the various programmes and policies he intends to implement if elected as the President of Ghana.

Prof. Ocquaye said should he become the President, he would embark on a green revolution by adopting the Asian model of agriculture through the use of simple tools and implements for production, and the creation of mass ordinary producers whose net produce will be equivalent to large plantation production levels.

He said grain production in the country would be given a boost, noting that corn will be grown throughout the year with simple irrigation techniques.
"We are going to grow corn bountifully to eliminate hunger and bring up a new generation of children who will eat an egg a day," he said.

He said a Grain Marketing Board would be established to purchase grains at guaranteed price to encourage farmers to store and market their grain production.

On education, the former Minister of Communications said his government would decentralised it by empowering district assemblies to take centre stage, adding that education budget will also be decentralised as originally perceived in PNDCL 207.

He said his educational programmes would encourage part time education to enable those who are not in formal education to improve themselves, saying "every district shall have adult night school/college to serve as the focal point for part-time, continuing education."

He underscored the importance of Information Technology and Mathematics education which he said is very key to the country’s development.

The former political science lecturer, said his government will re-orient its approach to private sector development and design appropriate measures tailored to the national agenda and goals.

In the health sector, he indicated his intention to tackle environmental and sanitation problems facing the country which has resulted in the outbreak of diseases, and among other things reintroduce ‘town-council’ inspectors of the colonial times."

He said he would encourage environmental hygiene, introduce more preventive methods and intensify research to help the sector be on top of all diseases.

Professor Ocquaye, who is also a lawyer, said that law and order will be a hallmark of his government, noting that the "spate of vehicular accidents, the needless disorder in public places, recent incidents of drug trafficking and the high incidence of trafficking would all be stamped-out of the country."

Touching on the media landscape, he said that the internal self regulatory mechanism of the media as a respectable institution would be re-examined to empower it to discipline its members without external interference.

That, he explained, would help maintain high journalistic standards.
On the party front, he said if elected as the party’s presidential candidate, he will work to "build it stronger and stronger in the interest of the party and Ghana as a whole."

Prof. Ocquaye who is the Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya said if elected as the presidential candidate of the party, he will operate under the policy "Party in Partnership with Government."