Papa Kwesi Nduom
Loading ...Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, the former Minister of Private Sector Reform, is an astute politician. He is intelligent, a visionary, eloquent, trustworthy and above all the politician who can think on his feet.
For the period that he served in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration led by President John Agyekum Kufuor, Dr. Nduom exhibited a high sense of discipline and dedication to work and had proven beyond doubt that he is the politician for the people.
Arguably, Dr. Nduom stands tall among his peers and can be considered one of the finest in the Kufuor team.
Even though Dr. Nduom has served diligently in the NPP government, he is not a member of that political tradition. He displayed unalloyed loyalty and worked in unison with the team which was largely dominated by the NPP faithful.
A few weeks ago, Dr. Nduom resigned his position to concentrate on reinvigorating the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and offer himself for election as the flagbearer of that great party.
However, some members of the CPP as well as some political watchers, who might have forgotten the circumstances that led to Dr. Nduom working with the Kufuor government, are questioning his loyalty to the CPP.
The Mirror last Wednesday had the opportunity with Dr. Nduom, who was then in Washington , and he explained how he came to work in the Kufuor team and threw some light on his political career and other accomplishments.
Political Career
According to Dr. Nduom, he started his political career by contesting local elections for the position of assembly member for the Akotobinsin electoral area at Elimina. He had earlier been invited by Nana Okutwer Bekoe, General Erskine to rebuild the CPP after the 1992 elections.
He had had the opportunity to associate in various ways with leading members of the Nkrumaist family including the former president Hilla Limann, Messrs Kwesi Armah, Felix Amoah, K.S.P. Jantuah, Kojo Botsio, Kow Nkensen Arkaah, Alhaji Asuma Banda, Dr. Abubakar Alhasan, Dr. Edward Mahama, Prof. Mawuse Dake and many others who helped him to understand the CPP tradition and its commitment to the poor, the workers, the underprivileged and the pan-African agenda.
Dr. Nduom worked with other leading members of the party to bring Nkrumaist parties together to form the People’s Convention Party. “With the Honourable Freddie Blay as our lawyer, we developed the strategy to get back the name CPP to restore to the political scene the party that won for Ghana its independence”. Dr. Nduom said.
Besides he worked in various capacities including being the Chairman of the Organizing Committee and a member of the Central Committee of the party. He has been one of those at the forefront to internally revitalize the CPP and strengthen its leadership by appointing spokespersons to articulate what they stand for so they can make the party more competitive and also appealing to the youth.
In the past two elections (2000 and 2004), he tried to persuade the party to pay special attention to winning parliamentary seats to enable the CPP to become a serious contender for the presidency.
He was able to build an organization that allowed him to be elected in December 2004 as the Member of Parliament for the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) Constituency with the CPP winning about 65 percent of the votes cast.
Over the past year, Dr. Nduom had dedicated his efforts to helping to recruit new members for the CPP through a national movement led mostly by young men and women across the country. “Our goal is to register at least 150, 000 new members to help build a new CPP”, he declared.
According to Dr. Nduom, it is important for him to explain that the CPP and the NPP entered into an alliance for the second round of presidential election in 2000 following formal discussions to ensure a change in the political administration of the country.
The CPP felt that the alliance was good and necessary for multi-party democracy to take root in Ghana . Following the election, the incoming NPP administration asked for some CPP members to participate in the work of the transition team.
Dr. Nduom was assigned the area of the economy. After that the request was made for him to serve in the new administration. This request was approved by the CPP’s Central Committee. He had not planned to be part of the administration, but when approached, and with the approval of his party, he took it, considering it as an opportunity to serve his country. Dr. Nduom resolved to work not as a CPP man and not to work as the NPP but to work for Ghana and its people.
He took his involvement in government as something important, serious and an opportunity to learn while at the same time delivering positive, visible results to account for his time in office.
For six and half years that Dr. Nduom has served in the Kufuor administration, he was a minister of Economic Planning and Regional Co-operation, Chairman of the National Development Commission, minister of Energy and also minister of Public Sector Reform. He was a member of the Economic Management Team and also chairman of the Infrastructure Committee of Cabinet during the first term of President Kufuor.
According to him, while in government, he earned the label “Mr. Fix-It” due to his aggressive and relentless approach to solving problems. This is also the result of working to “disrupt” the status quo in order to achieve quantum results.
Dr. Nduom in Parliament
He is the chairman of the Nkrumaist Caucus in Parliament. This caucus is made up of CPP/PNC/Independence Members of Parliament.
He has contributed actively to debates on the floor of Parliament. He is one of the most punctual members who is absent only when on official assignments in Ghana or broad.
He can frequently be heard on the floor of the House asking member to be less partisan in their contributions and represent all their constituents and not just their political parties. Dr. Nduom has been unhappy about the presence of the executive (ministers) in Parliament which he feels undermines the impact of the legislature on national life.
Dr. Nduom will long be remembered as the MP who happens to be a Minister of State who questioned the Ghana @ 50 Secretariat and the nation’s preparedness for the historic jubilee year independence celebrations. He voiced the feelings and perceptions of Ghanaians as evidenced in the public relation to media reports in his comments in Parliament.
In his constituency, Dr. Nduom has been an MP with a difference –accountable, transparent and visible in the community. Through him, the name KEEA is well-known in many places nationally.
Agenda for Ghana , Vision
According to Dr. Nduom, he believes that “Ghanaians can continuously create wealth to improve the worth and welfare of our people. We can together, seek to build a society of disciplined individuals with a passion for excellence. We can raise the average income of its citizens to $10.000 in our lifetime”.
This according to the former Minister will happen if focus on doing things differently. “Our success will also be predicated on doing different things than we have done in the past. Our immediate focus should be to ensure that all our people have access to the basic necessities of life”, he added.
Dr. Nduom said he came to this conclusion during his tenure as the Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission. “I had the opportunity to tour all the 10 regions of the country and interact with our people. I have also had the opportunity to visit South Korea , Singapore and other countries that have been able to rise from poverty conditions to become relatively prosperous nations in the past three decades”.
He said in 2001, he decided that Ghana needed to concentrate on only four areas-Culture and Attitude; Healthy, Productive Communities; Long-Term Savings; and National Identification System in order to accelerate our development. If we get it right in these areas, and it will need good leadership, Ghana can be whatever it wants to be.
Dr. Nduom was born at Elmina on Sunday, February 15, 1953. He was given the name Papa Kwesi Nduom by his parents, Mr. Joseph Hubster Yorke and Mrs. Monica Yorke. Dr. Nduom was also named Joseph Hubster Yorke Jr.by his parents.
Dr. Nduom attended the St. Joseph ’s Catholic Boys School at Elmina and the St. Augustine ’s Practice School in Cape Coast . In 1966, he entered St. Augustine ’s College, Cape Coast .
In 1970, he won an American Field Service scholarship and spent one year with an American family at Cokato , Minnesota . He obtained a high school diploma from Cokato High School .
He returned to St. Augustine ’s to complete his Sixth Form education from 1971 to 1973. In Sixth Form, he won the best student prize. He took a keen interest in economics, business and professionalism. It was during Sixth Form that his interest in democracy was awakened by a new arrangement for students to vote for their prefects. Dr. Nduom campaigned hard and was elected the School’s Protocol Prefect for the 1972/73 academic year.
He returned to the USA in August 1973. He worked his way through the Milwaukee Area Technical College , Marquette University and ended up at the University of Wisconsin where he obtained a BA degree in Economics in December 1975.
He obtained an MSc in Management from the School of Business and a Ph.D. in Service Delivery System (USI Programme) all from the University of Wisconsin . Dr. Nduom’s university education was self-funded through jobs in a meat factory, a parking lot, a cannery and an internship with Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, all in Milwaukee , Wisconsin .
Professional Career
Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom started full time work after obtaining his bachelor’s degree as a Life Insurance Underwriter with the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. He changed jobs and worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin and Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District before joining Deloitte & Touch (then Touch Ross) in 1981 as an Associate Consultant.
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