CPP flagbearership race: Bright Akwetey picks nomination forms

Legal Practitioner, Bright Oblitei Akwetey has picked nomination forms, and paid GHS 20,000 to contest for flagbearership of the Convention People’s Party (CPP).

The CPP has tentatively fixed June 10, 2023, to elect its flagbearer for Ghana’s 2024 general election.

Mr. Akwetey, a senior CPP member, told the Ghana News Agency after picking the nomination forms that the party needed a flagbearer that would work with the party leadership to boost its fortunes in the 2024 elections.

“The CPP requires a Flagbearer who is dedicated, forward-thinking, disciplined, credible, and capable of radically transforming the current fragile party structures into a formidable, well-tuned election machinery,” he stated.

The CPP approved fees for the flagbearership race, which included GHc20,000.00 nomination forms, GHc200,000.00 filing fees, and a GHc230.000.00 grassroots mobilisation money.

The party opened nominations on April 20, 2023; nominations were picked and filed from April 20 to May 11, 2023; and nominees were vetted from May 12 to 13, 2023, with the National Executive Council meeting scheduled for June 9, 2023.

The party’s Presidential Delegates Congress will be held on June 10, 2023.

According to Mr. Akwetey, the CPP needed “a Flagbearer with the capability of removing the credibility gap created in the media by acts of omission and commission by some leading members of the party in recent times, as well as helping build a united, strong, vibrant, and attractive party.”

Mr. Akwetey, a former Chief State Attorney expressed hopes that his candidature will provide a window of opportunity for party faithful who had been reluctant to participate in party activities to reconsider their stance.

“My candidature is a good omen and a golden opportunity for all Nkrumahists to join hands with him and the leadership to build a more disciplined party that is not based on individualistic ego.

“CPP is larger than all of its members…It will never yield to any personality… the party is paramount, with prospects of reclaiming lost decades for Ghana’s social development,” Mr Akwetey added.

According to him, Ghana required the CPP to restore the country’s sovereignty and economy. “Ghana requires a psychological transformation and sustained efforts aimed at decolonizing the minds of leaders in areas of the national development agenda to create a united and prosperous Ghana.

“It is now more important than ever to put Nkrumah’s three pillars of self-determination, social justice, and pan-Africanism into action.”

He added: “It is more important than ever to demonstrate in the clearest terms that, after all, the black man is capable of managing his own affairs.”

He stated that he was ready to lead the CPP to power, saying, “I am capable of marshalling a formidable force in the country with the ability to shoulder with the flagbearers of the National Democratic Congress and the NPP.”

Mr. Akwetey, who previously investigated and prosecuted economic crimes in Ghana and The Gambia, stated that he had examined the CPP during this time, and concluded that the party’s inability to identify its core objectives, values, and ideologies had been its bane for unappealing performance since the 1992 elections.

He stated that the CPP would focus on Kwame Nkrumah’s ideals and grassroot membership mobilisation to produce an electorate-friendly message.