MORNAH TO CONTEST WA CENTRAL (PAGE 12, NOV 3, 2010)

THE General Secretary of the People’s National Convention (PNC) Party, Mr Bernard Mornah, has declared his intention to contest for the Wa Central Constituency Seat in the 2012 parliamentary elections on the ticket of his party.
In 2004, Mr Mornah polled 12,280 votes as against the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who had around 20,000 while the New Patriotic Party had a little over 7,000. He did not contest the 2008 elections.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic after a training workshop for activists of the party in Wa, Mr Mornah said Wa Central required people with a strong voice which would receive the attention of government.
“We need somebody who would relate the concerns of the people to government for immediate and long term solution,” he added.
According to him, the erroneous impression being created that Northern Ghana was one entity was wrong, especially when issues of conflict were being discussed.
Mr Mornah noted, for example, that Wa was different from Tamale or Tumu and said some of these conflicts were as a result of poverty and unemployment, pointing out that anytime these reared their ugly heads they resulted in social vices.
“We need someone to champion these so that the problem of our people would not be compounded and that person is Bernard Mornah,” he said.
Touching on allegations that he was from the Nadowli district and so should go and contest in that area, the PNC General Secretary said the laws of Ghana state that when you are a citizen you can live everywhere without any inhibition.
He said it was that law that made Dr Kwame Nkrumah contest and win the Accra Central seat on the ticket of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) although he hailed from Nkroful in the Western Region, adding that “as long as the constitution of Ghana is concerned, I can contest in any constituency.”
“I can contest in Nadowli West by parentage and Wa Central by birth. The decision to contest in Wa Central is because I was born, bred and schooled in Wa and I have lived all my life in Wa, so if anybody says I should not contest for the Wa Central seat then our constitution should be amended,” he said
He said his entry into the race had sent shivers down the spines of people and that no amount of smear campaign would discourage him from realising his dream since he cut across all boundaries.
Mr Mornah said when the time came, his message would be on hope and what he could deliver rather than play the ethnic card.
On the unity talks between the CPP and the PNC, Mr Mornah described it as tortuous as there had not been any formal meeting between the two parties.
He said what was happening was only individual views “so we should come to the table to discuss what will unite us than taking entrenched positions.”
He said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had not forgotten its ancestry as it had evolved from various stages starting with United Gold Coast Convention, Progress Party, and Popular Front Party to the present stage.
“For the Nkrumaist, we moved from Convention People’s Party, National Alliance of Liberals, People’s National Party and the People’s National Convention, so we can congregate at a point using a name which is neither the CPP nor PNC symbol, but a name that binds us as Nkrumaist. When that is done every Nkrumaist will come on board,” Mr Mornah said.
He said the ideals of Dr Nkrumah would never be achieved if Nkrumaists did not come together under the same umbrella.