Aspiring National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Dr Kwesi Botchwey, is due in the country by the end of this month, an aide of the former Finance Minister has hinted.
Dr Botchwey, who announced to the media his desire to contest for NDC?s presidential candidacy, went to his U.S. base some two weeks ago ?to ostensibly round up his engagements with a US university and come down to take up the NDC mantle?.
His aide disclosed that Dr Botchwey has had to speed up his engagements in the United States and come back to answer lies being peddled about on his ineligibility to run for the NDC top slot. ?The man is a lawyer, and he knows implications of any action that he takes, said the aide. ?He would not just join the fray if he knows there are question marks about his candidature.?
It was discovered that Dr Botchwey is perhaps the only NDC activist who told friends and allies about his desire to compete for the NDC slot as far back as in the 2000 elections, but was thwarted by the Rawlings? flat to make Prof. Mills the sole candidate of the NDC. One other Botchwey aide said ?So the man knows what he is about, and cannot be cowed by such cheap political propaganda being churned out by people who are against his candidature?. It was gathered from the Kwesi Botchwey camp that, their mentor has as a matter of constitutional obligation, filled the presidential forms of the NDC immediately on his arrival.
Unlike Professor Mills who openly declared his candidature at a press conference last week, Dr Botchwey, ?The Independent? gathered from of his campaigners, has up his sleeve a different approach. His camp would however not disclose their strategy, but only hinted that ?it would be a novelty in the country?s political history. Investigations have however revealed, the man Kwesi Botchwey has not lost any of his meet the people forte and like when he did during his era as Finance Minster, he is prepared to meet individuals and segments of the Ghanaian society to sell his ideas to them.
Although, they admitted that Dr Botchwey would meet the media, they said ?that would be done when his message has gone down well with the people?.
So far Prof. Mills, Dr Kwesi Botchwey and Alhaji Mahama Idrissu have declared their intentions to contest the NDC primaries. Although Alhaji Adrissu was the first to collect his nomination papers, nothing has been heard from his campaign front. Reports from Tamale where he was supposed to have held a press conference to formally declare his intention say the Alhaji?s campaign has not taken off for reasons we cannot tell now.
