President Kwesi Botchwey?

One of Ghana's most popular politicians, Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, is likely to contest the 2008 Presidential elections.

Contrary to media speculations, Dr. Botchwey, 65, will not offer himself for consideration as a Presidential candidate for the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP).

A close political associate of Dr. Botchwey, Mr. Adotei Tetteh, told The Daily Dispatch that the former law lecturer and Ghana's longest serving Finance Minister, now a professor at the prestigious Fletcher School at Tuft University in the United States, is being pressured by many friends and well wishers who believe that Ghana needed a new type of leader like Kwesi Botchwey.

Adotei said Dr. Botchwey is "a leader who could bring the best talents, no matter the person's political colour, to form a government to take Ghana to another level. The 2008 elections represent a watershed in Ghana's young democracy (since 1992), the New Patriotic Party (NPP) having won two elections, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the other two."

Adotei explained further, "many Ghanaians, including supporters of these two main parties are a bit apprehensive about one of them losing. They have, informally, been hoping for someone who would pick the best talents and blend them into a formidable team. Can you imagine a Ghanaian cabinet of Prof. Atta Mills, NanaAkufo Addo, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, Dr. Edward Mahama, Mr. Alan Kyerematen and Dr. Spio Garbrah working for the betterment of Ghana? Which Ghanaian can appeal to all these persons to work together? Dr. Botchwey, of course!"

A few days after our interview with Mr. Adotei Tetteh, we bumped into Dr. Botchwey around our offices and we invited him in for a chat. He admitted that he knew Mr. Tetteh very well and had had some political discussions with him.

Dr. Botchwey said that he had not decided yet on whether to run in this year's presidential elections. He however confirmed that he will "not offer himself to be considered for election as a flag bearer for the DFP."

We then asked the question "Dr., will you be running as an independent presidential candidate in this year's elections?" He smiled and answered, "yes, I am under a lot of pressure but I will give a definite answer to this question in about 10 weeks, by the end of March."

We later did further checks with other close associates of Dr. Botchwey. The indications are that there is a 70% chance, as a close friend said, "he will opt to run as an independent presidential candidate for this year's elections."

Analysts believe that apart from the former United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, Dr. Botchwey is someone who can run as an independent presidential candidate and possibly cause a surprise by being in a run-off.

By deciding to run as an independent candidate, Dr. Botchwey's first choice of support base will be the floating voters, estimated to be between 20-25% of registered voters. A crucial factor will be how many of the core supporters of the NPP, NDC, the Convention People's Party (CPP) and People's National Convention (PNC) may decide to vote for Dr. Botchwey?

If he decides to run and declares by March, he has up to five months' to put in place an effective grassroots machinery to make any meaningful impact in December.