An Open Letter To Mrs. Nduom

By Kofi Thompson

Dear Mrs Nduom,

Re: Enhancing the Paa Kwesi Nduom narrative.

It is sad that a presidential candidate, honest enough to put his filed tax-returns and the sources of funding for the political party he founded, into the public domain, in a nation being held back from transforming its economy because of high-level corruption, is failing to connect with ordinary people.

If ordinary people became aware of the extent of Dr Nduom's business empire, and the number of jobs he has created across the country, for example, many would come to think of him as the Ghanaian equivalent of the US independent politician, Ross Perot.

The drubbing the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) candidate received in the recent Kumbungu by-election, is a pointer to the real possibility of a third-force presidential candidate winning the 2016 election - and a harbinger of future events. There are many who are fed up with the two major parties in Ghana.

Has the time not come for you to take personal charge of the task of making sure that the marketing of Dr. Nduom to ordinary Ghanaians is done more effectively and on a more sustained basis between now and 2016?

Discerning and independent-minded Ghanaians are yearning for real change - unlike the blinkered hordes of the my-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong types, whose blind support for the two major parties has polarised our country: and is slowly destroying Ghanaian democracy.

Years ago, I left a note for you (at the Regency Coconut Grove Hotel, at the suggestion of your sister - who was driving a black Rover saloon car - who I met when I came seeking you in your house to talk to you about Dr. Nduom's candidacy) advising that Dr. Nduom, then the Convention Peoples Party's presidential candidate, ought to publicly publish his assets.

It did make a real difference when that was done during the December 2012 presidential election campaign - but was not capitalised on by the PPP, sadly.

It is sad that a man of Dr. Nduom's calibre has not succeeded in connecting with ordinary people - desperate for a transparent leader in the Nkrumah-mould.

It is an unfortunate failing you must rectify personally, Mrs. Nduom.

Ordinary people hanker after a leader who can rebuild the enterprise Ghana by industrialising it - using the import substitution model of Nkrumah, as well as adopting General Kutu Acheampong's Operation Feed Yourself and Operation Feed Your Industries initiatives, to boost agricultural production in Ghana.

Unlike many, I actually believe that if the right narrative is adopted, Dr. Nduom could win the 2016 presidential election. Like millions of other Ghanaians, I want to live in a country in which political parties are transparent about their sources of funding. That is the most effective means of cleaning up Ghanaian politics.

As an intellectual exercise, helping to make that happen, is something that interests me - and is a challenge I would gladly accept for Mother Ghana's sake.

It is instructive that during the campaign for the December 2012 presidential election, Dr. Nduom's main political opponents neither published their own filed personal tax-returns nor disclosed the sources of their parties' funding. To date they have failed to do so.

For discerning and independent minds that speaks volumes. Political parties and politicians who are secretive about who funds them, are no longer fit-for-purpose to lead Ghana, and must not be allowed to destroy our nation with their divisiveness and corrupt ways.

Mrs Nduom, I would be happy to help you deliver the presidency for Dr. Nduom free of charge - one's reward simply being to have been part of a winning team that was able to successfully out-think all its political opponents.

Yes, free of charge - which is how I have always contributed my quota to nation-building, in the country Nkrumah founded, and which I love passionately: surprising though that may sound in the materialistic, dog-eat-dog society our country has now become.

Incidentally, I was the one who wrote an article suggesting that Dr. Nduom found his own party - proving that original ideas volunteered by ordinary people, not paid consultants, can sometimes bring about game-changing moments.

The founding of a political party prepared to be open about the sources of its funding is truly momentous.

Sadly, even the speed and efficiency with which the PPP was established, and its transparency about its funding sources, was not used to enhance the Nduom-as-an-effective-results-oriented-leader narrative. Pity.

You can read my blog:wwwghanapolitics.blogspot.com - and contact me afterwards, to take the Nduom-narrative-enhancement project a step further.

Ghana must be saved from those power-hungry and power-mad old-style political parties - whose short-sightedness and lack of transparency and accountability threatens to tear Mother Ghana apart.

We must stop them from so doing, Mrs. Nduom.

Thank you - and peace and blessings to you and Dr Nduom.

Yours in the service of Ghana,

Kofi.

Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com.