Former National Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Peter Mac Manu has said the NPP is the best political party to ever exist in the country since the inception of the Fourth Republic.
According to Mr. Mac Manu, the party has grown from strength to strengthen, widening its support base significantly in a short period of time and has since held the best record in terms of performances in elections in the history of the Fourth Republic.
These successes chalked by the party since its formation, Mr. Mac Manu asserted, are attributable to the ideologies and ideals of the party’s forebearers on which it was founded.
“I can tell you from record, if you look at where we started from, 1992 to date, we are the best party and we will continue to be the best party in this country. The party is strong by being compassionate, believing in human and enterprise rights. These are what are powering us from 1992 till date,” he told host of currents affairs show, The Probe on JoyNews TV.
The NPP’s 2020 Campaign Manager said, although the party’s ideology tilt towards ownership of properties and businesses by private individuals, its forefathers were compassionate about the plight of the ordinary people hence, the decision to infuse elements of socialism into the party to bridge the inequality gaps.
This, he noted, is what some have misconstrued to mean that the party has abandoned its center-right ideologies.
Mr. Mac Manu, who was speaking on the party’s recent celebration of its 29th anniversary, explained that Ghana, at the time of the formation of the party, was faced with gross human rights violation and confiscation of people’s businesses and properties by the then military government hence, the party’s decision to opt for property-owing ideologies.
It was, however, not oblivious of the inequalities that existed and still exist in the country reason the various governments of the party have taken deliberate steps to bridge the gap through the implementation of pro-poor policies, he added.
“The NPP was built on what our forefathers (J.B Danquah, Dr. Busia and Dombo) stood for. They stood for democracy, human rights, enterprise rights and they believed in God. They believed also on compassionate living so people will think that sometimes we swerve to the left because we do all manners of social spending but it is part of the compassionate values of the party
We came into being with ideas particularly center-right ideas of freedom of speech, freedom of enterprise. At that time, people’s goods, shops and businesses were confiscated so there was not even freedom to engage in business activities. We believe in the private sector and strongly believe that there must be freedom of enterprise,” he explained.
