He has been mending the sick at the Korlebu Teaching Hospital for sometime, but now Prof. Frimpong Boateng, one of Africa's most renowned heart surgeons wants to mend political hearts if he is elected as the New Patriotic Party's presidential candidate.
Prof. Boateng is one of 12 presidential aspirants who have so far announced their intention to contest the NPP's primaries.
In an answer to one of the many questions on why he wants to quit a humane profession like heart surgery and join politics, which is rough, he said, "I am not going to destroy myself through politics. Somebody will throw something at me, but I will wipe it away and go ahead."
Prof. Boateng was explaining on Metro TV's Good Evening Ghana programme why he deserves to succeed president Kufuor and lead the NPP to an unprecedented third term in office. "I am not going into politics to make it rougher, but to smoothen it", he emphasized when pressed to allay the fears of his admirers whether he can survive in Ghana's rough political terrain, a fine gentleman as he is.
Will his decision to abandon the theater not amount to turning his back on heart patients who need him most? Not really, Prof. Boateng replied. "I will always be a doctor. I will continue to teach and train more medical students", he said, adding that "I have made myself redundant by training more heart surgeons." According to him, currently, he has trained five heart surgeons for Ghana, 20 for Nigeria, one for Togo and one for Ethiopia.
He dismissed the notion that doctors are only trained for the theaters and consultation rooms. " Well trained doctors can to do everything, including politics", he replied the host.
One contributor who was much in love with the professor, however, advised him that history is not on the side of Ghanaian professors seeking the presidency. Since 1992 professors have not fared well against their non- academic competitors. The late Prof. Albert Adu Boahen, the man credited with breaking the culture of silence in Ghana lost to Jerry John Rawlings in the 1992 elections, the first under the 1992 Constitution.
In 2000, another professor, Professor John Evans Attah Mills lost both the first and second rounds of the elections to President John Agyekum Kufuor, who though, has a solid academic background is divorced from the academia and appeals more to the common man. Similarly in 2004 President Kufuor dealt a deadly blow to Prof. Mills, whose chances of even winning the NDC's primaries for a third attempt at the presidency is looking dimmer each day, following the decision of his party to open up the race. In the past, Mills got automatic nomination, thanks to the overbearing influence of the party's founder, Jerry Rawlings. Prof. George Hagan of the CPP also made a colourless attempt at the presidency in 2000.
Swimming in the same boat with Prof. Boateng is Prof. Mike Ocquaye,who is keen on succeeding President Kufuor. Truly, history may not be on the side of the professors, but Prof. Boateng says he is unperturbed. His record in transforming Africa's second biggest hospital, the Korlebu Teaching Hospital into a modern hospital within a short period is his trump card. He hopes to transfer his success at Korlebu to the national level.
He agreed with a caller's suggestion that Korlebu still has many challenges, though the premier hospital has seen significant improvement under his management. Prof. Boateng reiterated his stance that it is ungodly for doctors to go on strike. In his view doctors can at best go on demonstration to register their protest. "It is wrong for doctors to abandon their parents they swore to take care of. Going on strike is wrong and someone should have the boldness to say so."
Asked specifically what he would do to transform the economy, in case he becomes president, he said transforming Ghana's economy would require boosting agriculture to fuel manufacturing. He said in many ways, Ghana's over reliance on the importation of consumer items that can be produced here is imprudent.
