Accra, Sept 19, GNA – Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, the Presidential candidate of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) for Ghana’s 2020 general election, is physically challenged, but is fit for President, Nana Nana Akosua Frimpomaa Sarpongmaa Kumankuma, Chair and Leader of the CPP has said.
She described the candidate, affectionately called Green, as being athletic and strong enough to carry out the task demanded of him as presidential candidate and later, President of Ghana.
“Ivor was not born physically challenged, but was involved in an accident which rendered him physically challenged, but I can tell, you Ivor is athletic, swims and engages in other sports, without the health problems that many of us who’re physically fit have,” Nana Kumankumah said in an interview with Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra.
The GNA’s conversation with the CPP Chair and Leader was to see how the party was positioning itself to become more formidable, as an alternative to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The CPP Chair and Leader said: “Our Presidential candidate, as you know, is still the former Presidential candidate, Ivor Kobina Greenstreet.
“Ivor Kobina Greenstreet is the one that we’re going to promote because he represents the same ideals of the CPP. The delegates voted for him, and we the Leadership will work with our flagbearer to take the power back and take this nation to the level that we started with, which is the level of freedom,” Nana Sarpomaa Kumankumah said.
She said to the CPP, physical challenges should not limit a person’s determination to contribute to national development, assuring that the party would provide equal and fair opportunities to all to show their dedication and commitment to the national cause.
“We’re going to follow that with selfless dedication,” the CPP Chair and Leader stressed.
Nana Sarpongmaa Kumankumah saw the physical challenge of Ivor Greenstreet, not as health challenge, but strength to be utilised to rally people politically to save Ghana from economic hardship and political manipulation.
She argued that every person had at a point in life faced challenges, but was helped by other people to progress.
“We are not talking about who can run faster or who can stand taller,” the CPP Chair and Leader said adding, “If somebody is in the wheelchair, somebody is wheeling the chair. It’s not about the brain not functioning.”
She called on the rank and file of the party to reach out to Ghanaians with the message of hope being offered by the CPP.
Nana Sarpongmaa Kumankuma described Ivor Greenstreet as fit more than many of the electorate, “than most of use with all our legs.”
With the right structures and message, the physical presence of the flagbearer would not be essentially necessary in all the constituencies, but the right people around to tell hopeful message of the CPP.”
“I believe the Ghanaian being Christian and God-fearing will not judge a person by what he’s no control of, and will give Ivor the chance to prove himself by voting for him and the CPP.”
The third of four children, Green, a native of Ga Mashie, old Central Accra, was born in Korle Bu in Accra on 31st May 1966, to academics Prof Dennis Greenstreet; and Prof Miranda Greenstreet, current co-chair of the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers, in Ghana.
A search by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) showed that the CPP Presidential candidate for Election 2020, a lawyer, father of two and married to a daughter of former and late Vice President Kow Nkensen Arkaah, had his early education in Ghana and furthered in the UK to read law.
Upon completion, he was called to the Middle Temple and Ghana Bar respectively.
He is as well a publisher, and his book—Ghana Register—is a compilation of the details of the various Paramount Chiefs in Ghana.
The prospective President, who was first elected to lead the CPP in the 2016 general election, moves with the assistance of a wheelchair as a result of a motor accident sustained in 1997.
He was re-elected to lead the party into the 2020 December 7 elections, at their Presidential primaries on Saturday, August 22, 2020, where he polled 1364 votes against Bright Akwetey’s 597 and Divine Ayivor’s 171 votes.
His August 2020 re-election positions the CPP as having repeated a Presidential candidate, physically challenged, for a major election.
As an avid swimmer, scuba diver and athlete and a member of the Ghana National Rifle Association (GNRA), Green has represented Ghana’s Black Snipers abroad, being the first African to participate in an International Para-shooting event.
He is also the current General Secretary of the Ghana Shooting Sports Federation and is a father of two and member of the Men of Christ of Christ Anglican Church, Legon
The 2016, the flagbearer of the CPP in the general election, having contested as a parliamentary candidate in 1996 on the ticket of the CPP, had to withdraw due to the Great Alliance, an electoral alliance between the NPP and the People’s Convention Party (PCP), formed with the intention to defeat the then incumbent NDC led by former President Jerry Rawlings.
GNA