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Dr Nduom quits
cabinet post to pursue party building
By Kweku Asare, ACCRA
Accra, July 11, Ghanadot - After several months of
speculations and persistent denials, Public Sector Reform
Minister, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom has finally resigned from the
John Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
In a chat with Ghanadot in
Accra, Dr Nduom said he was quitting to concentrate on
helping his party, the CPP, build the necessary structures
as the nation prepares for the general elections next year.
He is the CPP's Member of Parliament for Komenda Edina
Eguafo Constituency in the Central Region.
The move by the Convention People’s Party (CPP) stalwart
further unsettles the NPP government which has as much as
eight of its heavyweight cabinet Ministers tendering in
their resignations to pursue the flagbearership of their
party for the Presidential elections next year.
The resignation further opens gaping holes in the Kufuor
administration, since according to a number of political
analysts he would be sorely missed and very difficult to
replace. Dr Nduom, a very meticulous character, is known to
be a workaholic, who never stops until the job is done and
done well.
Dr. Nduom, first served as a Minister of State in 2001 then
as Minister of Energy and Minister responsible for Regional
Integration and NEPAD. He was the Chairman and heartbeat of
the Millennium Challenge Account of the United States for
number countries, including Ghana, which is putting a total
of 547 million dollars for a five-year, anti-poverty
program, which aims to raise the income potential of farmers
through increased production of high-value cash and basic
food crops, an improved transportation network and
development of food processing industries and handling
facilities. It includes an initiative to improve access to
education, water and sanitation, and electricity in rural
areas.
“I have had the opportunity to have a discussion with the
President about what I have been doing together with him and
others. The fact that election is coming next year and I am
a member of a party different from his and that it is
important for us to find an appropriate time for me to exit
the government.”
He
said to Ghanadot.
He had earlier told a local radio station that this was the
appropriate time to bow out of Kufuor’s administration to
focus on rebuilding his party - CPP.
He denies ever going to form a new party to prepare him for
President in the 2008 general elections: “I have repeatedly
explained to people… I want to start a movement that would
help in rebuilding and revitalizing the CPP … to create a
new CPP…”
Dr Nduom remains the CPP's MP for Komenda Edina Eguafo
Constituency.
Kweku
Asare, Ghanadot, Accra, July 11, 2007
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