Abu Sakara picks social worker, Cherita Sarpong as running mate
The flag bearer of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Dr Abu Sakara, has named Ms Cherita Sarpong, a 56-year-old social worker and philanthropist, as his running mate for the 2012 elections.
Until her selection by Dr Sakara, Ms Sarpong, the daughter of a former organiser of the CPP, Mr Sarpong Kumankuma, was the Dwantoahemaa of the Dormaa Traditional Area in the Brong Ahafo Region, with the stool name Nana Akosua Frimpongmaa II.
She abdicated when she agreed to partner Dr Sakara in the elections.
Born on February 5, 1956, Ms Sarpong attended the Mfantsiman Girls’ Secondary School in Saltpond for her secondary education and the Kumasi Polytechnic, where she obtained a Diploma in Business Studies.
She obtained further education at the Washington School for Secretaries, the Montgomery Community College and the Notre Dame University, all in the US.
According to her curriculum vitae (CV) made available to the Daily Graphic, she is also a former National Organiser of the 31st December Women’s Movement and one of the initial five people who developed the concept for the formation of the movement.
Ms Sarpong has worked variously with Working Mothers Incorporated, an employment agency for domestic care; Optimum Care Agency, a nursing care agency which provides permanent and temporary workers for nursing homes, and the University of Maryland Early Childhood Department, all in the US.
She is also the proprietor of Caring Kids International, a local non-governmental organisation which assists children and the youth in education, and Youth in Excellence Service for Mother Ghana (YES), a volunteer youth corps that organises the youth to adopt schools and form reading clubs.
She has also sponsored and organised excellence and abstinence clubs in some senior high schools in the country to remind students to make the most of their time while in school and stay away from sex and other social vices.
Ms Sarpong, a mother of three, also organised the first youth parliament in Ghana, a concept later adopted by the National Youth Council (NYC), and also established the Human Potential Community College, a school that admits JHS graduates, regardless of their grades in the BECE.
In a statement on her CV, Ms Sarpong said she would woo the youth, women, children and undecided voters to vote for the CPP.
It said she would use the opportunity to teach Ghanaians “the entrepreneurial way of life and redirect corporate Ghana into competitiveness, both on the continent and globally”, adding, “Kwame Nkrumah’s vision completed the total liberation of the African continent in political terms and it is up to the youth of this generation to uplift the continent economically and compete to the benefit of our people.”
At her outdooring by the CPP in Accra yesterday, Ms Sarpong urged all CPP members who had been on the periphery to get on board to make Ghanaians aware of the policies and programmes drawn for the country’s development.
Speaking with a lot of energy and zeal, she said the platform given to her would enable her to further serve the people as she had always done.
According to her, her family did not agree to her abdication and found her decision strange, but her belief in the Nkrumaist cause and her desire to serve the people motivated her to take that decision.
Ms Sarpong said she was glad that the debate in Ghana had shifted to issues bordering on who had the interest of the nation at heart and added that clearly it was only the CPP which was determined to develop Ghana.
She said there was the need to lift Ghanaians from poverty and deal with all national problems, noting that the CPP would continue Dr Nkrumah’s work and make Ghana “globally competitive in Africa”.
Dr Sakara, for his part, said he had named as his running mate someone who had leadership qualities, adding, “The CPP does not seek to give you better but the best.”
He said the CPP had the best team in the upcoming elections and would compete for every single vote.
He said all Ghanaians who had come to the realisation that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) would not lead Ghana to development needed to cast their ballots for the CPP for “emancipation from the grips of globalisation”.
Surce: Daily Graphic