The Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has been highly mentioned as a potential running mate to the new flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
Discussions have started within the party for consideration of the indefatigable Bosomtwe Member of Parliament as a likely running mate to Dr. Bawumia.
The name of Dr. Adutwum, whom many have said had performed tremendously as the Minister for Education, comes at a time when discussions have also started on the need for the NPP, beyond competence, to look to the Ashanti Region for a running mate to contest the 2024 elections.
Dr. Adutwum, 59, is seen as the perfect candidate to balance the presidential ticket, either geographically or ideologically, and to make them the best pair to happen in the NPP, in its bid to break the eight.
Views sampled from party executives and communicators, as well as market women indicate that the Minister for Education is the best to partner the presidential candidate to achieve results at the election and in governance.
The bet on Dr. Adutwum stems from his humility, loyalty, dedication, hard work and commitment, as well as his significant contributions to the promotion of education.
Just recently, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev Prof. Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mante, commended the Education Minister for his quality of leadership, describing him as “the most innovative Education Minister in Africa”.
He explained that the kind of innovations that Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has brought into the nation’s education space were apt and gradually shaping the nation’s fortunes through education.
Others have also praised his effective implementation of government’s flagship Free Senior High School policy, towards the transformational interventions of the party and the government in the education sector.
They also cited his frequent engagement with the youth (students) and the teaching fraternity, which forms the largest forms the largest portion of public sector workers in Ghana, and are endeared to the Minister’s sterling performance in his sector over the years.
In the Bosomtwe constituency, where he has been a Member of Parliament since 2016, he has offered scholarships to about 150 students to pursue various courses in science, engineering and medicine, as his personal contribution to promoting education for development.
Some hold the view that Ghana’s Education Minister has added to the success story of the Education Ministry since 2016, when he returned to Ghana after a 24-year stay in the USA.
Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum obtained a bachelor’s degree in Land Economy (Business Administration with a major in Real Estate) from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology prior to immigrating to the US.
He has a Masters’ degree in Education Management from the University of La Verne and holds a PhD (Educational Policy and Administration) from the University of South California, California, in 2009.
He is the founder and former CEO of New Designs Educational Group, Los Angeles, California, with a combined enrollment of about 1200 students in grades 6 to12 in Los Angeles.
He also owns a Lake View Group of Companies, including Lake View Schools (Crèche to SHS) and a macro finance company, among others.
With these qualities, which have long-term consequences for the fortunes of the party, Dr. Bawumia, himself a trailblazer, would need no less an achiever than Dr. Adutwum to support the electioneering campaign towards annexing power in the 2024 elections.
Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum’s admirers say he is, undoubtedly, the man to partner with Dr. Bawumia to enable the NPP to break the 8.
