Information reaching the office of The Crusading GUIDE indicates that the former National 1st Vice Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Stephen Ntim, is gearing up to pose a strong challenge to the party’s presidential aspirants, come the December National Delegates Congress. The NPP is feverishly preparing for the Congress to elect a flagbearer for the 2008 presidential election.

Grapevine sources maintained that Mr. Stephen Ntim would file his nomination when that exercise (filing of nomination) commences on September 22, 2007.

Stephen Ntim’s decision to join the flagbearership race might have come out of a clarion call on him by some of the top party officials as well as constituents (who are NPP card bearers) to stick himself out for the slot.

Although the survey was to find out which of the numerous aspirants was most likely going to lead the party in the race to the Osu Castle in the 2008 presidential poll, the name of Mr. Ntim kept coming out as one of the men the delegates might want to see contesting.

Asked to explain the reason why they would prefer Ntim – even though he has not made any declaration to that effect so far – some regional and constituency chairmen (who did not want their names mentioned now) said he has been very supportive and unrestrainedly committed to the cause of the NPP.

However, a greater number of the party gurus and constituents The Crusading GUIDE spoke to were not enthused about Stephen Ntim himself becoming an aspirant because of his youthful age, adding that there are more years ahead of him to contest the presidential slot. They rather gave the assurance that they would throw their weight behind any of the known candidates he would decide to support.

“I have consulted a number of my colleagues and what I gathered was that they are all waiting for Mr. Stephen Ntim to declare for a candidate. Whoever he declares for is surely going to come out victorious and subsequently succeed President Kufuor”, posited one of the chairmen.

He stated emphatically that the former National 1st Vice Chairman has a massive support base, “because of the way he conducts himself”.

Expatiating on his claim, he (regional chairman) said, “Mr. Ntim polled 48% of the total valid votes cast in 2005 to elect a National Chairman. In politics 48% support is not a mere figure to gloss over”.

He went further to indicate that since the 2005 election of the party’s national officers, Ntim had won more admirers and sympathizers because he continues to help the NPP at the regional and constituency levels in terms of logistics.

This was corroborated by all the top people who were interviewed by this paper. They asserted hat apart from being supportive, the rank and file of the party greatly appreciated the high degree of decorum that characterized his campaign towards the national chairmanship contest barely two years ago.

Furthermore, The Crusading GUIDE was reliably informed that Stephen Ntim relentlessly went round to thank all the delegates comprising regional and constituency executives, as well as other delegates who are not officers, unmindful of whether they voted for him or not, when he was slugging it out with other colleagues to occupy the highest position of the party.

“All these gestures have undoubtedly widened his support base. And mind you, he has since 2005 been interacting with the people at the grassroot level and so many people in our party admire him a great deal”, underscored a secretary of the NPP in one of the constituencies (who pleaded anonymity, claiming that he preferred not to be known until Mr. Ntim had taken a definite decision as to whether to contest for the flagbearership or throw his support behind one of the aspirants).

It became demonstrably clear throughout the findings that a lot of the staunch members of the NPP – some of whom claimed to be delegates – were waiting for the former National 1st Vice Chairman to choose a candidate so that they would all gravitate towards that person and campaign massively for him before the Congress.

Before going to press, many attempts were made to get Mr. Ntim to react to the information regarding his alleged presidential ambition, but all the efforts hit the wall.

When his number was dialed, the cellular phone was on answering machine. A message was therefore left on it asking him to call a given number (indicating that it was a Crusading GUIDE reporter) for an important and urgent discussion, but no call was received.

Again, a text message was sent to him, but no reply came.

Stay tuned.