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| Ivor Kobina Greenstreet |
He won the CPP presidential race with 1,288
votes, representing 64.2% of valid votes
cast, beating closest contender Samia Yaba Nkrumah- the daughter of the party’s
founder and Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, - who managed 579 votes.
Two others, Joseph Agyapong and Bright Akwetey, polled 83 and 42 votes
respectively.
Mr.
Greenstreet was born to two dons of Ghana’s premier university, the University
of Ghana, Legon. The third of four children, he is a lawyer, both in the
English (Inner Temple) and Ghanaian Bars. He is also a writer, a publisher and
a businessman.
A Die-hard Nkrumahist, Mr Greenstreet, went
into active politics in the 90s, joining the Peoples’ Convention Party (PCP),
and was elected by the PCP as their parliamentary candidate for the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency for the 1996
poll.
However,
with his party merging with the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to form
the Great Alliance, which contested that year’s election, Mr. Greenstreet was
compelled to give up his ambition, so that the NPP candidate at the time – Isaac
Amoo-could contest.
He,
nonetheless, managed to run for parliament on the CPP’s ticket in 2004, after
the collapse of the Great alliance, in the same constituency, amassing 4,964
votes. It was an unprecedented feat, given that the CPP had managed less than
500 votes in that constituency previously.
He
went on to become CPP general secretary, serving two four –year terms,
spanning 2007 to 2015, and holds the
reputation of being the only national officer to be re-elected for a second
term.
Mr.
Greenstreet comes as a bold and principled politician, who is unafraid to speak
his mind. For example, at the governing National Democratic Congress’ national
delegates’ congress in Kumasi in December 2014 , Mr. Greenstreet said directly
to President John Mahama and Vice President Kwesi Amissah –Arthur that “You
don’t care”.
“Nobody is feeling your better Ghana”,
Greenstreet shouted when he delivered his party’s solidarity message to the NDC
at the Baba Yara Stadium in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi – stronghold
of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Mr
Ivor Greenstreet’s election for the CPP flagbearership makes him the first
physically challenged person to run for president in Ghana.
He
is married to the daughter of late former vice president Kow Arkaah. He has
been confined to a wheelchair since a ghastly accident that occurred one night
in Accra, as he returned home from overseeing business at a nightclub he owned.
SFG CONGRATULATES CPP
The
Socialist Forum of Ghana has congratulated the Convention Peoples Party (CPP)
for holding a successful congress for the election of the party’s Presidential
Candidate for 2016.
The Forum also congratulated the Presidential
candidate, Mr. Ivor Greenstreet on his decisive victory.
A
statement by the SFG in Accra said it believes that the CPP has a lot to offer
in the struggle of the Ghanaian people for a new society where resources will
be controlled and exploited for the benefit of its people.
It
described as unacceptable the current situation in which the leadership of
various political parties has accepted the status of neo-colonial dependence.
The
SFG said it believed in the possibility of the new Ghana Osayefo Dr Kwame
Nkrumah wanted to construct, on the principles of Social justice and deeper
democracy – A new Ghana which would
banish poverty , illiteracy, disease and ignorance.
The
SFG pledged its readiness to be part of a broad platform of progressives to
struggle alongside the masses of Ghana for economic emancipation and the
formation of a continental Union government.
Editorial
CONGRATULATIONS
The
Insight has no hesitation in congratulating Comrade Ivor Greenstreet on his
election as the Presidential candidate of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP).
Getting
more than 64 percent of total votes cast
is a decisive victory under any circumstance and it must be a true reflection
of the wishes of party members thirsting for real change.
In
congratulating Comrade Greenstreet, The Insight is fully aware of the fact that
there has been no significant policy change in Ghana since 1983.
All
this time all Ghanaian leaders have been obedient servants of neo-colonial
interests and they have acted under the marching orders of the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund.
The
consequence of this has been complete devastation in all aspects of the
national life.
Access
to education, housing, potable water and health has been drastically reduced
while the national currency has been devalued by more than 2,600 percent.
Ghana,
once the pride of Africa when it comes to the development of industry and
agriculture is now dependant on imports of foods and all kinds of manufactured
goods.
The
Insight hopes that the CPP under the leadership of Professor Edmund Delle and
comrade Greenstreet will address these issues and take bold steps to delink
Ghanaian national life from the colonial
metropolis.
Ghana needs to develop along the path of
national self-reliance within the context of African continental unity.
Forward
with the Nkrumaist Agenda
