A pressure group within the People's National Convention (PNC), the Parliamentary Action Group, has said Dr. Sulley Gariba is the right man to lead Ghana. The group said Dr. Gariba's international credentials make him the best person to be Ghana's president. The group has therefore, appealed to Dr Sulley Gariba,who is a leading member of the PNC to contest the flagbearership of the party. According to the group, this is in view of the serious leadership vacuum in the country, which needs a person with the stature of Dr Sulley Gariba to fill. This was contained in a press release signed by the convener and co-convener of the group, Messrs Thomas Issah and Issah Seidu respectively, and issued in Accra. "Dr Gariba is suitable for the Presidency of the Republic of Ghana, and the leadership of the PNC, the most viable party of the Nkrumaist tradition is the most viable platform for realising this goal”, the release said. According to the release, "Dr Gariba understands poverty and the development challenges facing Ghanaians today. He has worked closely, and related well with poor people across the length and breadth of the country, and has shown exemplary sympathy, especially towards the impoverished people," it noted. Dr Gariba assisted in the design of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS I &II) and other interventions meant to address the basic needs of the Ghanaian populace. He has also been particularly supportive of programmes for the development and reintegration of street children in northern Ghana. The release said Dr Gariba was well known in Ghana as he had built a solid reputation as a respected and knowledgeable person in the areas of research, teaching, policy development and decentralized planning. "His incisive comments and pertinent contributions to radio and television discussions on economic, political, governance and social matters have endeared him to the generality of the Ghanaian voting public," the release stressed. It said having worked with Dr Gariba over a period of 10 years, members of the group had come to appreciate his sterling leadership qualities that more than quali¬fied him to govern the country. "The most admirable attribute of Dr Sulley Gariba is that he appreciates and respects all shades of political opinion and relates well with people of the various ideological persuasions". We have no doubt that he will form a truly all inclusive government if he becomes president. This is something that we need but woefully lack in this country," the release stressed. It noted that the PNC itself was in a leadership tug-of war and "as a leader who rises above petty squabbles, Dr Sulley Gariba has managed to steer clear of the squabbling while building bridges from the backstage. This has won him great admi¬ration from party faithful and sympathizers”. It said Dr Gariba's enviable international credentials placed him at an advantageous position to lead the pace for Africa's renaissance as President of Ghana. This is because he had worked closely with Parliaments and trained Parliamentarians across Africa and is very well known in the West African sub-region. He has also the requisite knowledge and negotiation skills to play ball with the nation's development partners. His patriotism is unrivalled. While he was still trying to settle down, he used to commute by air from Accra to Tamale to teach at the then newly established University of Development Studies for the sake of getting the university started," the release said. The release described Dr Gariba as a very successful businessman by all standards and that the profile of his employees clearly demonstrated his commitment to fair play and equal opportunity, irrespective of religious, ethnic or political affiliation or social standing. "This is the man in whose hands we are calling on Ghanaians to entrust their destiny," the group said, and earnestly appealed to Dr Sulley Gariba to take the opportunity to lead the PNC into the 2008 elections. The group said the rank and file of the PNC was yearning and waiting for him to accept their call to lead the party. Dr Sulley Gariba is a governance specialist and policy analyst with over 20 years of experience in providing advice to strategic institutions in Africa and beyond. In Ghana, he was a member of the first ever transition team to negotiate the transfer of political power after successful elections in 2000. Since 2001, he has pioneered the monitoring of elections in rural areas of Ghana, assessing pre and post-election conflict situations in Ghana's conflict-prone northern regions by working actively to mitigate election conflicts. He has over 10 years' experience as a senior policy adviser for the National Development Planning Commission in Ghana, of which he is a member. He also led the Governance Assessment for the preparation of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (2000 - 2002) and he was the lead consultant engaged by the National Governance Programme for the Governance Component of the Common Country Assessment (CCA) of the UNDP and the Government of Ghana (2004). Source: Daily Graphic