NPP women want Mrs. Kyerematen for running-mate

An ardent women pressure group of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called on the party's is flag bearer and its leadership to nominate Mrs Leonora Kyerematen, National Governance Programme Co-ordinator, as a running mate of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The group, which stormed the offices of the Daily Graphic in Accra, Tuesday, said it had a lot of confidence in her personality and capability to partner the flag bearer of the NPP to victory in the December presidential and parliamentary elections.

Explaining the rationale for its action, the group said Mrs Kyerematen was a tower of support to women even before she took up appointment as a public officer, explaining that she was also a serious political activist.

The group described her as one of the few party supporters who had undergone formal training and studies in political campaign.

As a strategic planner, the group pointed out, she had also lectured many of the party hierarchies in the art of political party activities.

In addition, the group said women had contributed substantially to Ghana's development, and 50 years down the road, "we deserve this recognition".

"Since independence, apart from Nkrumah's bold initiative of creating space in Parliament for women (affirmative action), the driving principle in politics of equity has been regional balance. Time is up now for gender balance," the group advocated.

It added that the political game in the country had all been about men, and women had been effectively elbowed out.

Members of the group pointed out that during the congresses of the various political parties, there were 17 male presidential aspirants in the NPP, four in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and five in the Convention People's Party (CPP), stressing that even campaign teams formation did not name women.

They said Ghana was a panoramic view of our individual homes and "surely it is women who keep, nurture and manage homes", saying that good home managers would be good country managers.

They said, as the adage goes, "behind every great man, there is a great woman," adding that "our President-in-waiting is a great man, and Mrs Kyerematen is also a great woman who will be a good support".

The group stated that in the last seven years or so, the national vision that was driving development agenda was the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) which had the vulnerable as its centrepiece.

It is a vision to reduce poverty and empower the vulnerable while we grow to share, it stated.

"Women, the youth, children and the disabled are the poorest and the most vulnerable in society, and it is for this reason that a youthful woman such as Mrs Kyerematen must be brought to the centre stage to give a human face to the national vision," it said.

The group again noted that Mrs Kyerematen was of a true blue-blooded NPP pedigree who had deep roots in the UP tradition.

Members of the group were of the view that as Ghana continued to seek the face of God, they must equally look not just for a competent party woman, but a faithful one.

Mrs Kyerematen is a practising Christian, and a member of the Executive Council of the Christian Council of Ghana. A member of FIDA and the African Women Lawyers Association, championing the rights of women.