One of the presidential aspirants of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) and former minister of public sector reforms, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, this weekend received the most tremendous support from students of Takoradi Polytechnic and a CPP youth group called TESCHART. As this supporter saw it, it amazed the man, Paa Kwesi Nduom, and not being manly enough he could have broken into tears of joy.

The students chanting and singing songs to praise the leading aspirant said “you are the next president, CPP and Ghana needs you, Kufuor will hand over to you” among other gracious songs.

However, what became very disturbing was the presence of one of the aspirants of the CPP, Dr. Kwaku Osafo who all of a sudden freezed in his chair as he could not fathom what was happening in front of him, a display of Nduom posters, T -shirts and other paraphernalia with some of the students even kneeling before him to receive his blessings.

Though the meeting was to introduce the newly elected executives of TESCHART and work out modalities to change the face of the CPP to the youth, Dr. Ndoum’s presence stole the show as the students vehemently displayed support for him to lead the CPP, saying we have already endorsed you.

Although, Dr. Nduom arrived late, the moment he showed up to the waiting numbers of over thousand students jostling to find a sit at the auditorium of T’Poly, the room was electrified with chanting and singing of CPP songs to the admiration of all the CPP gurus. The atmosphere indeed changed and the tempo became very charged.

Various speakers addressed the students including the regional executives and some national executives of the TESCHART, what became evident of the renaissance of the CPP were thoroughly seen at the polytechnic.

When Dr. Nduom mounted the podium the whole auditorium was fired into an ambiance of good feeling with noise piercing through it, though Dr. Kwaku Osafo an astute economist had earlier addressed the students, his presentation seem not have charged the the students, judging from tremendous shout of support as compared to Dr. Nduom who centered his argument on issues instead of the Osafo’s world economic assessment which nearly bored the thousands of the students who had gathered. But for Nduom, it was full of issues. He told the students that a new CPP was born, and that CPP would take over power come 2008.

According to the former minister, if the NDC, NPP campaign strategy and display will over matched by the CPP.

He stated “if they go for TV commercials we will go for TV commercial, if they go for Radio commercial we will go for Radio commercial, if it’s debate, we will face them squarely because we want to wrestle power” he added. According to him, he was not only interested in contesting as a flag bearer aspirant, but as a contender come 2008 if given the nod by his party and further solicit the mandate of Ghanaians, so that he could eventually receive the handing over notes from the sitting government.

When he asked the students “who do you think will take over from President Kufuor”, the response was “you, you are the man, you deserve it”