One of the presidential aspirants of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the 2008 elections, Dr Arthur Kobina Kennedy, has stated that the party requires a young and visionary leader. He added that the party must not make the mistake and "opt for a leader whose view is centred on the last century. There is an older generation of candidates whose thinking is based on the middle of the last century". The 48-year-old medical practitioner who was briefing the Daily Graphic on his campaign tour of some parts of the country so far, said the word 'new' in the party's name meant that "we should look for emerging leaders who will be working with new ideas and contemporary attitudes that would unite the party for the betterment of all, rather than those who are akin to old ideas and whose time had elapsed". Dr Kennedy expressed the view that the general mood within the party was for change and also while the NPP government had done a lot, most Ghanaians were of the view that "we can do better", hence the need for the delegates to give him the mandate to form a government that would continue after President Kufuor. He entreated the delegates to the forthcoming congress to elect a candidate who could solve the party's problems and that of the nation and "not just people who want to be president for the sake of it". According to him, another issue that the party would have to grapple with was that most of its members were harbouring the impression that the separation between the government and the party, which gave birth to the government, was too wide and called for unity and cohesion. Dr Kennedy said most of the footsoldiers who toiled for the party to attain success were disgruntled because they had not received enough recognition and there was insufficient consultation by the government on the nomination and appointment to positions such as district chief executives, and ministers of state. "There is the feeling that those who have benefited from our presence in government did not toil long enough and hard enough," he said, and added that he would work hard to change the situation. He categorized the problems bedeviling the country as culture of lawlessness and lack of respect for institutions, unemployment which had culminated in most professionals queuing at the various embassies to travel abroad, lack of quality health care and poor sanitation. Others are the culture of dependency at both individual and national levels. Dr Kennedy said under his administration, "the work of building Ghana would be done through the hard work of all Ghanaians". Offering solutions, Dr Kennedy said his immediate priority as a president would be to reform the work of government for better delivery through pragmatic decentralisation, with the election of district chief executives at the centre. He said he was not happy that the NPP that prided itself as a Danquah-Busia party had not been able to make the position of district chief executive elective, and promised that he would make the position of chief executive elective, He said district assemblies would be given more control over their resources, and also their share of the common fund would be increased from the current five percent to 7.5 percent, as well as providing them with another 2.5 percent as grant to be used for innovative programmes such as wind mills to generate electricity. He said when such programmes were successful other districts would emulate them. Dr Kennedy said another area that he would devote much attention to was to use constitutional means to reduce the powers of the president in appointing more than half of his ministers from parliament, a situation he described as limiting the powers of Parliament. After this, he said, he would take another move to empower Parliament to play its role effectively by strengthening it and providing members with resources. Land, according Dr Kennedy, was at the root of many of the nation's underdevelopment and promised that his administration would put together all the 106 laws on land administration, reducing them to five and ensuring strict enforcement. He said an independent body would be established to oversee all land transactions to eliminate double selling of lands and associated problems. "Under my administration, the state would instantly pay compensation for or release all lands that the state had acquired but had not put to use to the original Owners within 18 months," he added. He expressed optimism that with the good reception he had received so far from the nine regions he had toured, he stood a chance of being elected as the flag-bearer of the NPP. Dr Kennedy said all the regional and constituency executives he had met commended him for the clarity in his messages and wished him well. Source: Daily Graphic