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Inside March <strong>22</strong>, 2018 .qxp_Layout 1 3/21/18 9:12 PM Page 9<br />

12<br />

DAILY<br />

Politics<br />

WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH<br />

HERITAGE THURSDAY, <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>22</strong>, 2018<br />

Ghana committed to CFTA’s<br />

success –Akufo-Addo<br />

BY WILBERFORCE ASARE<br />

THE PRESIDENT<br />

Nana Addo Dankwa<br />

Akufo-Addo, has said<br />

Ghana is fully committed<br />

to the success<br />

of the Continental<br />

Free Trade Area (CFTA), after its<br />

formal launch in Kigali, Rwanda, at<br />

an Extraordinary Session of the Assembly<br />

of Heads of State and Government<br />

of the African Union (AU)<br />

yesterday.<br />

With the CFAT described as “the<br />

largest free trade area created since<br />

the formation of the World Trade<br />

Organisation”, President Akufo-<br />

Addo noted that Ghana has already<br />

indicated her readiness to host the<br />

CFTA secretariat in Accra.<br />

The coming into being of the<br />

CFTA, according to the President, is<br />

one of the most important decisions<br />

the AU will ever take.<br />

“Fifty-five years ago, the Organisation<br />

of African Unity was formed<br />

to spearhead the struggle for liberation<br />

and de-colonisation of our continent.<br />

Its triumph ushered us into<br />

the era of the AU, our continental<br />

body, which is now the champion of<br />

our collective interests in the global<br />

community,” he said.<br />

The President continued, “The<br />

time is now right that we demonstrate<br />

strong political will to make<br />

the African Union an economic and<br />

political success, and to make the<br />

project of integration real.”<br />

With Africa’s population set to<br />

reach some two billion people in 20<br />

years time, President Akufo-Addo<br />

noted that an African Common Market<br />

presents immense opportunities<br />

to bring prosperity to the continent<br />

with hard work, enterprise and creativity,<br />

hence, the importance of the<br />

success of the CFTA.<br />

“A working, common continental<br />

market has to be a very fundamental<br />

objective of all peoples and governments<br />

on the continent. Research<br />

has shown that countries or groups<br />

of countries with the largest share of<br />

world trade are located within regions<br />

with the highest levels of<br />

intra-regional trade. It is, thus, vital<br />

that the treaty works, and that the<br />

•President Nana Akufo-Addo<br />

CFTA becomes reality,” he said.<br />

An increase in trade, President<br />

Akufo-Addo explained, is<br />

the surest way to develop fruitful<br />

relations between African<br />

countries.<br />

“An increase in trade is the<br />

surest way to develop fruitful<br />

relations between our respective<br />

countries. It will mean a rapid<br />

increase in exchanges of our<br />

agricultural, financial, industrial,<br />

scientific and technological<br />

products, which would enhance<br />

dramatically our attainment of<br />

prosperity, and the prospects of<br />

employment for the broad<br />

masses of Africans, particularly<br />

our youth,” the President<br />

added.<br />

President Akufo-Addo appended<br />

his signature to the<br />

three legal instruments namely<br />

the agreement<br />

establishing the CFTA; the<br />

protocol on free movement of<br />

persons; and the Kigali declaration,<br />

which have brought the<br />

CFTA into being.<br />

Provide us with party office<br />

• Concerned Tarkwa NDC members yield<br />

CONCERNED PARTY supporters<br />

of the opposition National Democratic<br />

Congress (NDC) in the<br />

Tarkwa-Nsuaem constituency have<br />

charged the leadership of party to as<br />

a matter urgency, provide the party<br />

with an office.<br />

In a statement issued by the leadership<br />

of the concerned party members<br />

and copied to the DAILY<br />

HERITAGE indicated that the<br />

current constituency executives prior<br />

to their elections four years ago<br />

promised the party members of providing<br />

a well-furnished office but<br />

have failed to honour their pledge.<br />

“Isn't it embarrassing and failure<br />

on the part of leadership to find a<br />

great party like NDC in the whole of<br />

Tarkwa-Nsuaem just a year and a<br />

month in opposition without an office?<br />

If the current leadership of the<br />

party at the constituency level has<br />

forgotten about the promise they<br />

made to party prior to their election<br />

into leadership positions then, they<br />

should as a matter of urgency visit<br />

their archives.<br />

“Or perhaps, we humbly remind<br />

them that, they promised in their<br />

verbal manifesto to acquire ‘a befitting,<br />

well-furnished office for the<br />

party in the central business district<br />

of Tarkwa’ should they be elected as<br />

executives.<br />

“Almost four years down the line,<br />

“Almost four years down the line, after the people<br />

falling in love with their juicy promises and voting<br />

them into respective leadership positions, the inability<br />

to maintain the party office bequeathed unto them by<br />

the previous leadership, left the owner of that facility<br />

with no option than to eject the party from the office",<br />

the statement emphasised.<br />

after the people falling in love with<br />

their juicy promises and voting them<br />

into respective leadership positions,<br />

the inability to maintain the party office<br />

bequeathed unto them by the<br />

previous leadership, left the owner<br />

of that facility with no option than<br />

to eject the party from the office",<br />

the statement emphasised.<br />

The concerned members also revealed<br />

that the party has asked to<br />

leave the rented office and according<br />

to them, seeing this development as<br />

a total embarrassment to a great opposition<br />

party like the NDC.<br />

They also added that due to this<br />

situation, accessing basic information<br />

has become very difficult for<br />

them.<br />

Below is the full statement<br />

Grass-root members are not<br />

happy with Constituency Executives<br />

- Concerned party members<br />

We have observed with much astonishment<br />

the state in which our<br />

beloved party is, and the<br />

direction it is being headed to. Indeed,<br />

one would have expected to<br />

see more action-driven approach by<br />

a party in opposition looking forward<br />

to wrestling back power in a<br />

shortest possible time. However, it<br />

appears persons charged with leadership<br />

responsibilities to ensure the<br />

success of the goal above have<br />

rather developed a lackadaisical attitude<br />

and unconcerned about the<br />

state the party finds itself.<br />

Isn't it embarrassing, and failure<br />

on the part of leadership, to find a<br />

great party like NDC in the whole of<br />

Tarkwa-Nsuaem just a year and a<br />

month in opposition without an office?<br />

If the current leadership of the<br />

party at the Constituency level has<br />

forgotten about the promise they<br />

made to party people prior to their<br />

election into leadership positions<br />

then, they should as a matter of urgency<br />

visit their archives. Or perhaps,<br />

we humbly remind them that,<br />

they promised in their verbal manifesto<br />

to acquire" a befitting, well-furnished<br />

office for the party in the<br />

central business district of Tarkwa”<br />

should they be elected as executives.<br />

Almost four years down the line,<br />

after party people falling in love with<br />

their juicy promises and voting them<br />

into respective leadership positions,<br />

the inability to maintain the party office<br />

bequeathed unto them by the<br />

previous leadership, left the owner<br />

of that facility with no option than<br />

to eject the party from the office.<br />

The party as we write is under reorganization<br />

with a nationwide registration<br />

of its members. "We have no<br />

party office" as said by the constituency<br />

chairman in one of the recent<br />

party meetings. Where to access<br />

basic information, with regards to<br />

the ongoing re-organization in the<br />

constituency has turned nightmare<br />

to us, and to all concerned party<br />

members, we believe.<br />

We, therefore, by this release,<br />

calling on leadership to as a matter<br />

urgency, secure a party office where<br />

members could go and transact<br />

party businesses on daily basis, especially<br />

in this hour of re-organization<br />

exercise.<br />

God bless Tarkwa-Nsuaem!

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