By Nikita Stewart
STAFF WRITER
More than 100 people gathered in Newark last night to raise money for the presidential candidate they think should lead them into the next millennium. But buttons and bumper stickers for Gore, Bradley or Bush were nowhere to be found.
The candidate of the hour was John Kufuor, leader of the New Patriotic Party of Ghana, who is on a fund- raising tour of the United States and Canada that began Sept. 30 and ends Thursday. The party's New Jersey chapter, which formed last year, held a reception for Kufuor at the Marriott Hotel at Newark International Airport. Women and men attired in traditional African garb, including kente cloth, trickled into the ballroom while others wore red, white and blue scarves and one man even wore an American flag tie -- symbols of a new life in the United States, yet a continuing link to Ghana. ''There is no place like home," said Antoinette Duah of Edison, who moved to Newark in 1983 to attend Rutgers University. "Most people here are doing well, but at the end of the day, you have to make sure things are going well in your own country." In the late 1960s, Ghanaians began coming to the area to study at Rutgers University, Essex County College and other colleges, said Maxwell Jumah, organizing secretary of the state chapter of the party. ''Then their friends and family started moving in," said Jumah, president of the Africa-Newark Organization, a nonprofit group with connections to Africa. "Our story is not unlike other immigrants."
About 10,000 to 15,000 Ghanaians live in and around Newark, Jumah said. Like other immigrant groups, the Ghanaians remain heavily involved with the politics of their native country, he added. The New Patriotic Party's New Jersey chapter has about 500 members, Jumah said. Ghanaians living outside the country currently cannot vote in elections, but the New Patriotic Party supports absentee voting, Jumah said. Although Kufuor cannot get their votes this year, he said he's hoping to get their financial contributions. Kufuor, who won 40 percent of the vote but lost a December 1996 election for president, would not reveal how much money he needs to run against President Jerry Rawlings, who has been in office for 18 years. ''Politicians tend to be shy about figures," he said, laughing. "I will tell you we need substantial amounts."
Kufuor said he needs money for fliers, advertising and four-wheel- drive vehicles so that his party can reach voters who live in rural areas. Kufuor, 60, has a history in Ghanaian politics, serving as chief legal officer and town clerk of Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. He has also served twice in Parliament, has been deputy minister of foreign affairs and served as chief legal officer.
He listed improvements in health, education and the economy as part of his platform. He said Ghana's current government has a good relationship with the United States and Canada so he wants government officials in those countries to understand that change would not be bad. "It's necessary for them to believe we are a viable alternative to Mr. Rawlings," Kufuor said.
The Ghanaian community in Essex County has managed to get local governments involved in Ghana since the early 1990s. In 1993, East Orange business people toured Ghana and began partnerships that generated an estimated $60 million in business agreements, including East Orange's contribution to building a clinic in Akropon, Ghana. Jumah accompanied Newark City Councilman Donald Tucker on a city- financed trip to Ghana in 1995. The delegation took medical supplies and dictionaries to the country.
Three Newark council members' most recent trip to Ghana caused controversy earlier this year. Some council members complained that $25,000 in taxpayer funds should not have been spent on the junket and that Leonard Jeffries, a black studies professor criticized for anti-Semitic remarks, should not have been retained as consultant for the trip.
