Major Courage Quarshigah, a former Minister of Health in the erstwhile NPP government has dropped hints that he may bow to pressure from well meaning Ghanaians to run for president on the ticket of the opposition NPP.
Major Quarshigah says many people both young and old have made direct and indirect calls on him to join the flagbearship race of the NPP.
Just last week, one youth group called the Activist Forum for the New Ghana, said Major Quarshigah will be the NPP’s best bet for victory in election 2012.
Major Courage Quarshigah
Another group based in the Northern region, Kandahar, has reportedly thrown its weight behind the former minister.
But as all politicians say, Major Quarshigah in an interview with Citi FM revealed that he was doing serious consultations with all who matter in the party and society before launching his bid.
The NPP over the weekend at its extraordinary conference to amend portions of its constitution revised certain aspects of the document.
Key amongst the over a dozen amendments, was the decision to expand the party’s Electoral College to give more power to the grassroots support base of the party; a constituency of the party purportedly neglected for a long time.
The conference also agreed to adopt a two-tier system of selecting its presidential candidates in all future elections.
By this new system, the NPP shall constitute a 500-member special Electoral College made up of the top echelons of the party, mainly all party MPs, members of the national executive council, all regional chairmen, and representatives from the party’s organs.
Overseas branches of the party shall also be represented amongst others.
This special college will be tasked to whittle down the number of flag bearer aspirants in the party at any time to five, then, present it to the one hundred and ten thousand-man grassroots Electoral College for them to elect one to lead the party into an election.
With this limit on the number of candidates who can now vie for the party’s flagbearership position, it is unclear how Major Courage Quarshigah, will place.
He, according to some people, comes into the race with his ethnic appeal. If he wins the flagbearship of the NPP, the party would have wriggled out of its major criticism that it is an Akan party.
He is seen by many as very humble and hardworking. Already, names such as Alan Kyeremanten, 2008 flagbearer of the party, Nana Akufo-Addo and first time MP for Subin, Isaac Osei, have had their names peddled around as already entertaining ambitions of seeking the party’s mandate.
It will be interesting to see how the race will play out. The last time round, seventeen people paraded themselves all praying for delegates’ votes to lead the party.
Major Quarshigah, who had a short stint with former President Jerry Rawlings’ PNDC, is also said to be one of ex-president Kufuor’s respected ministers.
He started his ministerial career in the NPP regime as Minister for Agriculture, and later on as Health Minister. He hails from Keta in the Volta Region and a trained ranger.
