The political activities of Hon. Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom has come under scrutiny in recent times as a result of highly suspect moves allegedly being made by agents of Dr. Nduom to hoodwink elements within the CPP to join his soon to be formed party. Although Dr. Nduom has been denying these allegations, there is increasing evidence that suggests the contrary. I analyze and evaluate Dr. Nduom’s moves within the body-politic and suggest that since 2005, Dr. Nduom has indeed been positioning himself to lead “a new political party” to the 2008 polls on the strength of his own ideas.
At 10am on December 2, 2005 which incidentally happened to be National Farmers Day, Dr. Nduom met with the nucleus of a team that was drawn from the Ho Polytechnic, Friends of the NPP, TESCON members, NDC youth wing members, KNUST students, IPS Students and a few other political activists from most of the existing political parties at the Coconut Groove Hotel during which time he circulated a document titled “Is There A Need for a New Political Party?”. The fourth paragraph of the document reads “the new party aims to gather like-minded people from all parts of Ghanaian society, activists from the existing political parties and others who are looking for a credible alternative that would be competitive in the 2008 elections”. Ordinarily, such statements would be discounted as Dr. Nduom sought to do on the now defunct “Inside Politics” then hosted by Paul Adom-Otchere on Citi FM. However, the fact that the students who gathered at that meeting were ferried from the Ministries to Coconut Groove by Nana Ofori, Special Assistant to Dr. Nduom that morning shows the extent to which the move had been carefully planned, ostensibly to take advantage of the heightened focus of attention on the Farmers Day celebrations.
Indeed the opening paragraph of the four-page document indicated clearly that “the new party is needed to provide a vehicle to those who believe in the need to build a credible alternative to the NPP and the NDC”. Aside of the 12 alternatives spelt out in the fourth page of the document, almost all its paragraphs are filled with categorical statements on the reasons for the new party and gives indications on how it is to run. It stands to reason from the facts adduced so far that as far back as 2005, Dr. Nduom and his supporters had been planning to form a party, their democratic right without doubt, fed probably by the ever stuttering unity talks between the PNC and the CPP. It must be noted that these events happened in the wake of attempted sanctions by the CPP leadership on Messrs Nduom, Blay and Armah who were deemed to be “recalcitrant” as far as the disciplinary code of the CPP was concerned. Indeed Dr. Nduom’s riposte to Nii Noi Dowuona, General Secretary of the CPP on the aforementioned programme was as insightful as it was revealing; “how can anybody follow a party that is going nowhere?” and further argued correctly that the three seats that the CPP has is largely due to the cession granted by the NPP in the run up to the 2004 elections. Thus, Hon. Dr. Nduom had braced himself for “a credible alternative”, irrespective of his denial of not meeting “anybody to discuss the formation of a new party” although he admitted to “having three meetings at my hotel that day with different people”! Was the honourable MP for KEEA meeting them to give them constituency awards for distinguished efforts at farming, for which reason the need for a new party came up for discussion?
I have taken the trouble to recount these events in the light of recent revelations by the likes of my good friends Michael Kosi Dedey, a dyed-in-the-wool CPPist and others like CJA lynchpin and PNC National Youth Organizer Bernard Monnah who are gathering evidence of signatures being solicited as part of measures to fulfill the conditions for the formation of a new party. Dr. Amoateng has even gone a step further and asked his party, the CPP to show Dr. Nduom the way out of Nkrumah’s CPP. Long before this, some of us had publicly asked President Kufuor to sack Dr. Nduom for we were appalled by the invectives he heaped against the NPP in his attempt to garner votes for Mr. Shanko-Bruce during the Odododiodoo by-election. My good friend Kofi Adzitornu has recordings of his statements against a party that had given him a ministerial position and was largely responsible for his presence in parliament in the first place as he has admitted severally. There is evidence that members of the National Executive of the NPP are aware of and have listened to the statements made on the campaign platform by Dr. Nduom.
Fast-forward to 2007 and it is amazing that this move is being systematically promoted while the research teams of all our major political parties apathetically rest on their oars, focusing more on how to tackle propaganda in lieu of identifying the major shifts in strategic vote maximization schemes being implemented by opponents and friends alike. The ‘new party’ has stated clearly that it aims to galvanize the youth of Ghana especially those who are disenchanted with the two main parties in contemporary Ghana. It is these same disgruntled youth who are traversing the length and breadth of Ghana collecting signatures to meet Electoral Commission regulations. The Patriots of the CPP for instance have clearly stated that it is their aim to make the CPP a winning machine by introducing internal reforms, much to the chagrin of those whose interests the status quo serves. This appears to be the reason for which they have sounded the alarm signals on Dr. Nduom for this writer remembers clearly that in 2005, the eminent political ecomonist Dr. Antwi-Danso also sounded this caution, stressing among others that there indeed is Patriot Club but that it “shall not become a party” and mainly seek to ensure that the dismal performances of the CPP in general elections become a thing of the past.
If the above raise questions about the likely direction of Dr. Nduom’s political ambitions, then the information provided on his website, www.nduom.com should make even His Excellency President Kufuor cringe with distaste, for on this website can be found presentations of Dr. Nduom, perhaps as the best thing that happened to Ghana since Nkrumah left us “a flag and an anthem”! The website makes all NPP aspirants’ websites look like a scribbling pad for kindergarten kids. The same applies to the website of NDC Presidential Candidate Professor John Evans Atta-Mills. So well is Nduom’s website organized and regularly updated and I must give credit here to the webmaster for the updates. Save for the Accra Daily Mail, the Greater Accra Regional branch of the NPP’s website and that of the The Statesman, no other website of a political nature, including Dr. Somuah’s Ghana Government website has regular updates for researchers and information seekers of any kind! But it is also striking to note the way Dr. Nduom has been presented on the website. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I leave readers to examine the pictures on the signing of the Millennium Challenge Account that are posted on the site. Maybe, Andrew Awuni might have a rethink about who to call to order, regarding the use of President Kufuor’s pictures “for personal political aggrandizement purposes”. If the contents of the website do not compare to what Barrack Obama and Mrs. Clinton have produced, perhaps some of us would never know what “positioning for the Presidency” is all about. Worrying though is the presentation and attempt to portray governmental policy successes as the sole preserve of Dr. Nduom. What is on the website is akin to Nana Akufo-Addo’s website showing how he is the alpha and omega of Ghana’s policy successes when in reality, the Chief Diplomat of Ghana is none other than President Kufuor. From his position on energy issues through public sector and other ministerial duties, the impression is easily gleaned that we have a “one-man-thousand” running the show. True it is that Dr. Nduom is one of the few ministers trying their best to deliver their mandate, granted we overlook his envy of Wereko-Brobby’s prowess, clout and influence within government circles, but what happened to the concept of collective responsibility as far as governance goes? Maybe, just maybe, the number of cabinet ministers to be kicked out in the next reshuffle is far higher than the eight that have been identified by political watchers within contemporary Ghana for I know and trust my President: a deep thinker, cool and calm and yet so very decisive in matters of this nature. Proof? Just take a good and hard look at the last cabinet reshuffle and draw your own conclusions. If the next cabinet reshuffle would see the backsides of minister-aspirants perching more in 4wheel drives traversing the nooks and crannies of Kufuor’s Ghana due to their aspiring aspirations, what my dear reader, would be the lot of cabinet ministers bold enough to be using their ministerial positions to form a ‘new party’? I dare say that Kufuor can very well do without “minister-founders”!
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