The immediate past Minister of Communications and one of the NPP presidential candidates, Prof. Mike Oquaye has given a firm assurance that he would appoint a woman as his running mate if he is elected to lead the party for the 2008 general elections.

According to him because of our cultural practices men have dominated the women for far too long and he wanted to change that by giving women equal rights also to occupy sensitive positions in the country. “We have been unfair to women even from the girl-child stage. Look around and you will see that better opportunities are given to men than women”, he said.

Prof. Oquaye who was speaking in an interview with The Chronicle in Kumasi recently after a campaign tour in the metropolis admitted that the choice of his party's running mate was not a decision he had to take alone but said he would convince the Council of Elders to accept his preference for a woman running mate.

According to him factors like regional balance, experience and how best the person could complement his work would be considered but said gender would definitely be part of the overall consideration.

The learned professor stated further that there would be an appreciable proportion of women in various positions with special emphasis on women empowerment during his reign as head of government and President of the Republic of Ghana.

On his campaign, Prof. Oquaye said he was making inroads because his message was based on issues and mentioned women empowerment, Children, health education as some of the issues he was campaigning on.

The NPP flagbearer aspirant said his chances were bright and looked forward to winning the race because he has appropriate party pedigree, qualification, competence, vision and a record of achievement to first strengthen his party in terms of party partnership with government, and build the whole country through sound agriculture and cotton-based industrialized nation.

“I was with the party from the moment of its foundation, I'm one of those who drew the party's Constitution, gave the initial monies for its running and served as a member of its think-tanks”, the NPP torchbearer aspirant, who is a Senior Lawyer, Professor of Political Science, and Pastor of the Baptist Church stated.

Oquaye further told Chronicle that he had also worked for NPP as a Constituency Chairman, Regional Secretary and member of the 1992 campaign team.

“The flagbearer is a party's candidate, not independent, therefore, the person to bear the flag must be seen to have been a true son or daughter of the party”, he argued and continued that being a party man was not enough qualification but competence, vision, good academic standing and achievements as well.

In the areas of academics and competence, the humble-looking professor said he had made great landmarks from rising to the position of Head of Political Science Department at the University of Ghana, winning the Rockefeller and International Fulbright awards, being onetime Ghana's Ambassador to India and having served in two ministerial positions, Energy and Communication.

In all these regions, Prof. Oquaye intimated that he made wonderful strides as a visionary, policy formulator and implementer, and a team player working together with others to achieve good results, indicating that the party members were very much aware of these and undoubtedly would give him the nod to lead the NPP.