Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah, a 42-year-old Electrical Engineer has declared his intention to contest Election 2012 as an independent presidential with the slogan JOY 2012.
Addressing a press conference in Accra, Mr Yeboah called on Ghanaians particularly the youth to critically re-examine the current democratic system and its structures and begin to chart a new path for the establishment of a new foundation.
“That is a foundation that can save the emerging Ghana and Africa as a key player toward the continental and global reconstruction of a new world political, economic social, technological and environmental order for harmonious co-existence of all humankind,” he added.
Mr Yeboah pointed out that partisan politics practised in Ghana and Africa to elect presidents on the basis of political affiliation and loyalties as well as ethnic divides would continually destabilise the region through subversions and conflicts to deconstruct the African Continent.
He said: “The time has come for Africans to begin to think outside the box to search for a new democratic construct relevant to the peculiar multi-ethnic societies of Ghana and Africa.”
Mr Yeboah said it was time “for Ghanaians to begin to embrace a new leadership that would feel, see and understand the heartbeat of Ghanaians, not imposing or despotic, not partisan or divisive”.
“We need a leadership that seeks and solicits, mobilises, harnesses, concretises and channels ideas, and energises the human and material resources to realise the dreams and aspirations of Ghana and Ghanaians,” he added.
Mr Yeboah pointed out that the core responsibility of political parties must be the election of Members of Parliament for the Legislative arm of government, while the Executive arm of government must be made up of individuals who were independent and not connected with political parties and whose sole interest was the good governance of the citizenry.
He said Election 2012 should not be about an individual or political party ascending to power for the sake of power to delude Ghanaians but should be about the authenticity of Ghana as indeed a truly independent State capable of managing her human, capital and material resources that would bring to reality what the future generation should look upon and say “Yes, see what our fathers and mothers did for us”.
Mr Yeboah is the second independent presidential aspirant after Mr Kwasi Amoafo-Yeboah, who contested Election 2008.