I Would Resign: Rather Than Focus On Prez Ambition Now

In response to media reports that he would vie for the position of Ghana's President as an independent candidate in 2008, Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister for Public Sector Reform, has this to say: “If I were to take the decision that I want to become President after 2008, I will simply go to the President (J.A. Kufuor) and thank him very much and resign my position as Minister and then go and start campaigning.”

Dr Nduom, speaking to The C. Guide yesterday, said he would not be drawn into the debate of whether he has presidential ambitions or not. He said there is an appropriate time for everything and the appropriate thing to do now is for all Ministers to work hard to support the sitting President to make his second term in office a successful one.

“it is not appropriate to try and combine the job of being a Minister in this difficult times and the job of being a candidate to an elected office…Now I am a Minister and a Parliamentarian, if I should add the job of campaigning for something else then I am basically taking time away from the job that the President has given me,' he added.

Dr Nduom said the President had cautioned his ministers on several occasions that any of them who wanted to succeed him should avoid an early start but rather work hard to make Ghanaians reap the dividends of all the strategic policies that were put in place during this government's first term in office.

He said the President had asked all ministers with Presidential ambitions to wait for the campaign time in 2008 for them to campaign, and should not do so now when they have to serve the nation.

Dr Nduom said he would be doing the President a great injustice and the people of Ghana, a great disservice, if he were to start campaigning now.

“If I were to rather go and campaign instead of deal with the issue of pay reforms, what will the situation be? If when I was to work to bring the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) cash, I was in the districts campaigning to be president, what would have happened to the country?...I want to be very clear that having been in government and knowing the difficulty that comes with it, and knowing how challenging it has been and still is to deal with the many, many problems that we face as an administration and as a people, anyone who is appointed by the President to do a job to support him and his programme, and the person wants to contest an election, the person should go to him, thank him and resign.”