PNC Picks A Woman

By Edmund Mingle
Tuesday, 14 October 2008

Dr Edward Mahama, presidential aspirant of the People’s National Convention (PNC), yesterday announced the choice of a female as his running mate, making the PNC the first party in recent times to do so.
He believes his choice of 49-year-old Catholic evangelist, Petra Maria Amegashie, who hails from Keta in the Volta Region, would add value to the party’s chances of winning the election in December.
The party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) unanimously endorsed the choice at its meeting in Accra yesterday, when Dr. Mahama presented the name for consideration.
“I believe she is a good partner not because she is female but a capable woman,” Dr. Mahama told newsmen shortly after the party’s General Secretary, Bernard Monarh, had announced the decision of the NEC to the media.
The flag bearer described his running mate, who is an international translator and a former Special Assistant to the CEO of Baywater Contract Mining, as “courageous, affable and charming.”
Explaining why he chose Ms Amegashie over personalities like Kofi Wayo, leader of the National Renaissance Party and George Aguddey, a former presidential aspirant of the Convention People’s Party whose names were earlier rumoured to be on his mind, Dr Mahama said apart from satisfying the public appeal for a female to be at the presidency, his running mate represented the southern part of Ghana.
“Although I am not a Muslim, I represent the northern sector while she represents the southern sector,” he said, adding that the partnership would ensure regional balance.
Dr. Mahama said he was able to convince Ms. Amegashie, who had already picked forms to file as an Independent presidential aspirant, because they both share the vision of development and values for human development.
He said his choice’s credentials and the fact that she initiated action to vie for the presidency on her own demonstrated that she was a good manager and a courageous woman, attributes which were vital at the presidency.
Reacting to her choice in a telephone interview, Ms Amegashie gave glory to God for the NEC’s decision in accepting her.
“I find it as a divine duty to serve,” she told the Times, adding that it was a manifestation of the will of God to have godly people at the helm of affairs in the management of the country.
Ms. Amegashie will be officially introduced to the media today, at the party headquarters in Accra.
Ms Amegashie attended OLA Girls Secondary School in Ho, from 1974 to 1979, from where she proceeded to the Tema Secondary School from 1983 to 1985 and the K&T School of Evangelism at Takoradi from 1996 to1998.
She moved to Rome, Italy where she trained at the Mission Ad Gentes from 2001 to 2002, after which she became the Coordinator for the mission in charge of Episcopal Conferences of Africa.
Before becoming the Special Assistant to the CEO of Baywater Contract Mining, she worked with the Catholic Secretariat in 2001, and Novotel Hotel as Director of Reservations.
“My objective is to make a turnover on investments made in me by my motherland,” she says of her personal objective in her curriculum vitae.