President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (right) with Francis Asenso-Boakye
PRESIDENT NANA Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has highly commended his Deputy Chief of Staff, Francis Asenso-Boakye, for his positive contributions to the formation of the Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), including the development of the ruling party.
According to the President, Mr. Asenso-Boakye, who is also his political assistant, has proved to be an invaluable asset to the NPP government and the country, adding that he has his “umbilical link to TESCON”.
The President was speaking at an event to commemorate the 20 years anniversary of TESCON in the Volta Regional capital, Ho. The Bantama parliamentary aspirant was among the audience.
It was the first time the President was showering plaudits on the Deputy Chief of Staff at a public event after Mr. Asenso-Boakye had filed his papers to contest the NPP parliamentary slot for the Bantama Constituency.
“I have the force to mention the name of my Deputy Chief of Staff and Political Assistant, Francis Asenso-Boakye, the Founding President of TESCON, who has proved to be invaluable to me in my work and is desirous of joining his colleagues in Parliament,” President Akufo-Addo stated.
He noted that it took Mr. Asenso-Boakye, the then President of TESCON, to lead in the mobilization of the NPP youth across the country for the party to make the “historic change” in the year 2000.
“For the first time in Ghanaian history, an opposition party, the New Patriotic Party, under the outstanding leadership of John Agyekum Kufuor came to office through the ballot box. That event gave a great boost to the consolidation of the principles of democratic accountability in our body politic,” the President pointed out.
On his part, Mr. Asenso-Boakye explained, “Prior to the 2000 general election, the NPP had lost the two previous elections in 1992 and 1996 to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) amid widespread controversy.
“Key among the reasons assigned to the two consecutive defeats were rigging on the part of the then ruling party, partly arising from the NPP’s inability to mobilise its sympathizers to serve as party agents at the various polling stations to monitor the polls.
“The formation of TESCON was, therefore, conceived at a meeting at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to mobilise the party on various campuses to inject vitality and vigorousness into the party.”
He told DAILY GUIDE that TESCON had stood toe-to-toe with the NDC’s TEIN since its formation, thereby contributing constructively to the political development of the country through active participation in the national political discourse and election monitoring.
By Ernest Kofi Adu