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The PPP is a member of The Africa Liberal Network (ALN). The ALN was launched in June, 2003, as an alliance of African Liberal Democratic Political Parties. The ALN is also an associated organization of Liberal International, the political family that liberal democratic parties belong to.

The Liberal International was founded in 1947. It has become the pre-eminent network for promoting liberalism, strengthening liberal parties and for the promotion of liberal democracy around the world. There are a number of common principles which unite all liberal parties from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, human rights, free and fair elections and multiparty-democracy, social justice, tolerance, social market economy, free trade, environmental sustainability and a strong sense of international solidarity.

The PPP attended the ALN General Assembly Meeting held in Marrakech, Morocco between 27th and 30th November, 2014. At the Moroccan Conference, the PPP was admitted into the General Assembly of the ALN. By that decision, the PPP has become a member of Liberal International and this has led to various international recognition for the party..

It is of interest to note that the PPP was led by its National Secretary to attend the pre-election conference of the Liberal Democrats in Liverpool recently.

Subsequently the youth wing of the party was also invited to attend the Best Practice Study Session Exchange on Youth Development programme hosted by the Democratic Alliance of South Africa and sponsored by the Liberal Democrats at Cape Town.

On a day like this, we should be sharing with you the joy and recognition that an infant party-the Progressive People’s Party is enjoying within the comity of international politics.

We should be telling you about the useful contributions made by our representatives to the Best Practice Study Session Exchange programmes held Liverpool in UK and a similar one held in Cape Town, South Africa.
These programmes were put together by the UK Liberal Democrats and other allied progressive forces of which the PPP is one of the very few recognized and selected from Africa.

Indeed our representatives made valuable contributions on how to explore various components of the Democratic Alliance Young Leadership programme, as well as how to overcome challenges of political leadership, especially for young political activists.

So the summits offered us the opportunity on how to overcome challenges and explore ways of implementing development initiatives or community projects that will inure to the strengthening of our political organization.

We accepted to be part of this forum because primarily our party is youth based and so we are very much concerned with matters affecting the youth of this country and the age demographics of representatives clearly showed the kind of premium we place in youth development.

Clearly this is a disciplined party which is even prepared to go the extra mile; even beyond the borders of Ghana to pick up some best practices elsewhere all in the supreme interest of building something unique for Ghanaians and particularly the youth.

In effect we want our youth to be committed to useful politics. In the run-up to the 2012 elections, we were one party that made it clear that we would not condone any act of wrongdoing on the part of any of our members.

And indeed our members, especially the youth have been the very embodiment of discipline that our party had been preaching all this while. That is why we are extremely miffed at the highhandedness of NACOB to two of our officers-Messer’s Divine Nkrumah and Richard Armah, our National Youth Coordinator and Volunteers Coordinator respectively.

Our two officers were returning from Cape Town after attending a programme organized by the Democratic Alliance, our South African allies. Incidentally, at the end of the programme, the two were appointed to the positions of the ALN Steering Committee to help establish the Youth of that organization.

They were picked up by NACOB officials on arrival in Accra at 9:15 pm in an embarrassing manner. They were kept in isolated rooms for three (3) hours before being released.

What worries us is that the officials who refused to reveal their identities were also unwilling to disclose their reason/s for arresting the two young men and only said that they were waiting for the orders of their superiors whose name they would also not disclose before releasing our men.

It is surprising to note that even though the two officers of the party were walking in the midst of other passengers, they were identified out and called by the NACOB officers. We were also surprised that the officers were demanding for the Party Cards of our officers before allowing them to go. We then ask, when did party card become a travelling document in Ghana?

The PPP is a law abiding party and will always encourage its members to be law abiding. We however wish to call on the NACOB and its agents to also follow lawful procedures when intending to conduct investigations if there is the need at all.

Words like, “we will show you”, “we have the power to detain you”, “if you ask further questions we shall seize your passport because it belongs to the state” in our view are just evidence of abuse of state power and must be checked.

We cannot live in state similar to the revolutionary junta that we once had in our political dispensation. Indeed this is a constitutional era and we expect the NACOB to be a respecter of the law in Ghana.

Whiles the PPP does not intend to make the work of NACOB difficult, we wish to say that the officials of NACOB will have to be trained to give world class standards of service in their operations. It has turned out that when public officers are asked questions about what they are doing in this country, they get angry and will want to show that they have power thus going the extremes in matters that can be resolved amicably.

We wish to place on record that we shall not be intimidated by any powers from above who do not want to see the success of the PPP in the next elections. The PPP shall continue to be on top of issues and push forward the agenda of a reformed Ghana that will give opportunity to all in a free society.