body-container-line-1
28.03.2008 PPP

I’ve Always Battled With Gov’t – Nduom

By Daily Guide
Ive Always Battled With Govt – Nduom
28.03.2008 LISTEN

Presidential Candidate of the Convention People's Party (CPP), Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom has denied claims that he started criticizing government only after he ceased to be a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.

Dr. Nduom said during the period when he was a Minister in the NPP government, he had consistently spoken against and criticized certain government policies which he had cause to believe were not in the larger interest of the state.

He said it was untrue that he had hitherto painted a cozy picture of the government and that he was complaining now only because he was no longer in government and wanted to contest as president on the ticket of the CPP.

Kwesi Nduom made these remarks last Tuesday in response to a question during a soiree he had with journalists in Accra.

He said as a CPP politician, during the time he was serving as a Minister in the NPP government, he had to overcome a lot of subtle but significant opposition from his colleague NPP Ministers and that there were many times the President himself had to intervene before some suggestions he (Nduom) made were accepted.

Dr. Nduom said he had video recordings and documents to show that even before he joined the NPP government and when he was in government, he had remained consistent in speaking against policies he deemed not to be very good, adding that there were many other things he disagreed with the NPP government on but never made them public.

“I can give you many instances when I had to struggle in government: there was one time in Paris when I sat there and argued with Ministers until 4am. I won't tell you which Ministers were there but I was battling with them on the things certain people are now taking credit for.

“Equatorial Guinea, I was almost... let me not use the word because if I say it, it would be in the headlines tomorrow; but I was there to see the President and I sat there for two days waiting for him to see his audience because there were some people who were supposed to write letters for me in Ghana but never did. I had to go there myself and I dare anybody to tell me I was not there.

“I was going to clarify whether Cosmos, the people who say they have found oil in Ghana are credible or not, and nobody was prepared to help me but what helped me was that as soon as the man saw me, he said: “Ah! You are the Kwame Nkrumah's man in the government,” and he sat there with me for two hours talking about Kwame Nkrumah and I finally came back with the answers I was looking for.

“So we were battling constantly because it was not easy to sit with people who do not want to go in the same direction with you.

So when you se me out, I did not come out for nothing; I came with memories and I dare anybody to come and challenge me because I did my work.

“There has been consistency in all the things I have been saying all over the years, and it is because of the concern I have for this country that I keep saying these things. I have been saying these things before I entered government; I kept saying them when I was in government,” Dr. Nduom added.

He said he was an unhappy person because after spending the best part of his life in government, not much had been achieved.

By Halifax Ansah-Addo

body-container-line