Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, the man who wishes to become the next President of Ghana via the ticket of the Convention People's Party (CPP), has explained how come he has two official sets of names but uses only one.

Dr. Nduom said when he was born in February 1953, his father, Mr. Joseph Hubster York, gave him two different sets of names - Joseph Hubster York Junior and Papa Kwesi Nduom - and he actually grew up using the name Joseph Hubster York.

He said after secondary school he travelled to the United States of America but became uncomfortable with the name Joseph York due to the colour of his skin.

"Just look at me, look at me; I found myself in the United States of America walking around and people looking at me and calling me 'Joe York' and I had to look left and to the right and sometimes ask who they were referring to because I do not look like any Joe York.

"So I called my father and said if he would not mind, I want to use the other name he gave me and he said I should go ahead, and that is how come I became Papa Kwesi Nduom.

"Let me explain the peculiar things that most of us Fantis have; we are given one complete name and then given another complete name. So if you see Papa Kwesi Nduom, it is my name, given to me by my father and then, Joseph Hubster York Junior, also given to me by my father,” Dr. Nduom explained.

He was speaking last Wednesday at an interactive programme organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) for presidential candidates of all the political parties to explain their vision and policies and also answer questions from the public.

Read and listen to Nduom.

The CPP presidential candidate took the opportunity to declare his party's faith in the women of Ghana and commitment to empowering them in the event the party is voted into power.

Answering a question from a women's advocate on what percentage of women his government would appoint in office, Dr. Nduom remarked: "It was the women who put Kwame Nkrumah in power and it is women who would put me in power, so what I am saying is that we would sit with you, we would work together, we would set the target and we would implement them.

"It is for us to discuss it to the top and we would have a summit with the women's groups to make sure, and I want to make sure, that they are well represented; we used to have the National Council for Women and we would bring it back and it would be there because it would not be the politicians that would be in charge."

Dr. Nduom noted further: "When the CPP was in power it put women in Parliament and made women Ministers and put them everywhere, but what do we see today?

"I do not know of any other political party that has a woman as the Regional Chairperson but we have our Regional Chairperson for Greater Accra as a young woman. We have our National Organizer as a woman so I am just proving to you that we practice what we preach."

The CPP candidate said he represents a real change and that under his presidency the Office of Attorney General would be separated from the Ministry of Justice to make it effective in fighting corruption at all levels and said, he would call for an amendment of the Constitutional requirement that calls for majority of Ministers to be appointed from the legislature.

He promised to make education completely free and compulsory by law and also put the Ghanaian at the centre of opportunity in the private and public sector.


Source: The Daily Guide