Nduom’s Change of Clothes…

“Beware of the sheep in wolves clothing” seems like a good description of the political life of Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, alias Joseph Hubster-Yorke, during Ghana’s 4th Republic. The man who literally begged for a special ministry to be created for him by President Kufuor in 2004 so he could continue to bask in the success of the NPP government that he joined in 2001, has now decided that his best chance of achieving his dream of succeeding Kufuor is to bite the hands that have fed his inordinate ambition.

There are many who would attest to the unceasing visits to President Kufuor’s residence by Dr. Nduom to lobby for a position after the major reshuffle. In fact, Dr. Nduom was the last person to be reappointed by President Kufuor after pleadings and lobbying from all manner of persons. Today, he finds it convenient to pretend he was not even part of the decision-making process when he sat in cabinet and either contributed to the decisions or implemented them if they fell within his domain.

The man who was forced to resign his ministerial position long after those of NPP Presidential aspirants, is now pretending to the people of Ghana that he has never had anything to do with President Kufuor and his government, although he picks and chooses which programmes of the government supposedly succeeded because of his efforts.

Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom claims that Ghanaians should be thanked for persuading the Americans to bring the Millennium Challenge facility to us. What he does not tell Ghanaians is in what capacity he achieved this, that is, assuming it was his rather than Osafo-Maafo’s. Indeed, word has it that Nduom has totally expunged his 7 years of service with the NPP from his CV, whilst claiming credit for the national Identification System introduced by the NPP government.

Now the amiable sheep who charmed his way into enjoying the trappings of NPP power that he did not work for has turned into the snarling wolf who is growling and spitting venom at the apparent failings of the NPP and previous governments through a number of despicable public pronouncements and advertisements on national radio and television.

We hear Nduom pontificating about how he would reform the way the public sector works in order to ensure that Ghanaians benefit from it. President Kufuor created the Public Sector ministry for Dr. Nduom. So he should tell us why he did not achieve what he is now promising to Ghanaians when he was the Minister. Are we to believe he was just using the opportunity to beef up his personal sales effort or even worse trying hard to sabotage the NPP Government in order to discredit it in the eyes of the good people of Ghana?

A recent CPP advert points to the failure of a number of state-owned factories that have failed. The viewer is left with the impression that these failures occurred in the recent past. What is left unsaid is that of the 300 State Owned Enterprises that the (P)NDC successfully privatized, Dr. Nduom was the consultant for many of these divestitures. Were these companies not mostly those that Dr. Nkrumah built and left behind? Why did Dr. Nduom not oppose the sale of these ventures when his private interests would have been at risk? Did he or did he not repatriate the profits he made from these divestitures into his bank account in New York, which became the subject matter of a Serious Fraud Office investigation? Why did he not pay the requisite taxes to the state of Ghana, the very state he wants to lead as President? Something about Dr. Nduom is eerily unusual and dare I say, we have a politician who is capable of blowing hot and cold in the same breath without flinching on our hands.

It certainly was not for nothing that Dr. Mahama stated umpteen times that he is not the kind of person who as minister, would take all conferences to his hotels to the detriment of equally good competitors. Dr. Mahama was spot on, for we know how Dr. Nduom’s hotels benefited massively from his position as minister of state, especially the one at Ridge and the one in the Central Region. There are receipts and invoices to confirm what Dr. Mahama said. Nduom’s advertising folly, conveniently failed to show how at least his hotel business has boomed under the NPP administration in general and his ministerial position in particular. In any case, Ghanaians can understand Dr. Mahama’s salvoes because less than 24 hours after brokering an understanding for a political union with the PNC, Dr. Nduom went out of his way to publicize something that had not been sealed by the PNC Executive Committee, thereby giving the union a still-birth. This demonstrates if for nothing at all, the extent to which some would go in furtherance of political opportunism and expediency. Can such a person be trusted?

As minister in charge of the Millennium Development Authority, Dr. Nduom neatly gave consulting contracts to his firm, Deloitte & Touche and granted the man who now doubles as his “campaign strategist” David Ampofo, all the publicity contracts for the Millennium Projects. If this is not conflict of interest, what else can be described as such when one’s own company gets the big share of a government contract under a minister who is head of the company? How can we entrust the state of Ghana to this son of the land with a record as this? Do we now understand why Dr. Edward Mahama was going on and on about the award of seminar contracts to Dr. Nduom’s hotels?

In my personal observation, Dr. Nduom like many others before him, have always thought that Ghanaians can be taken for a ride. During the “Yabre” Demonstration of November 2000, Dr. Nduom, together with one other CPP guru (name withheld) stood at the Asylum Down Roundabout, moved to the TUC traffic lights and later proceeded to the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (Old US Embassy) filming on his camcorder, the proceedings and demonstrators of that day when all opposition political leaders, including Goosie Tanoh were marching to put their point across. Again, he found it convenient not to participate in the demonstration and God knows what he did with those films. Today, he might think there are people who do not know how opportunistic he has been and is actually telling us to overlook all this and give him our mandate. He must really think we are that silly.

Today, there is a “yeresesamu” slogan being jointly used by both CPP and NDC. Does this tell us anything? Is the CPP talking to the NDC quietly behind the scenes? Why is Dr. Nduom and his advertising gurus/strategists not raising issues with the similarity in content of their messages and slogans?

Ghana has long done away with the days of “stomach politicians”. The good people of Ghana need to be very wary of those who just want their vote to be in power at all cost.

Boatemaa, Abeka Box CT 1362 Cantonments-Accra