The Presidential Candidate of the Progressive People's Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom has lamented the dream of his late former vice-presidential candidate to develop Accra has been deferred.

He bemoaned the vision of the late Eva Lokko for "an Accra that was clean, free of mosquitoes with beautiful public parks, water bodies inviting enough to attract riverboats with restaurants, entertainment, leisure transport, etc" would need enterprising person to come to fruition.

The business"Eva took strong, principled positions and stuck to them. She was a strong voice, always reminding PPP youth to stick to our message, particularly our stand on incorruptible leadership," he said.

This was contained in his tribute to the former Director-General of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) who passed in October this year after a short illness.

Dr Nduom spoke about how he met as professionals from different backgrounds yet their common goals to get Ghana to be a results oriented country got them to become very close.

"She had problems dealing with low productivity and the mentality of “we have always done it this way,” and the institutional corruption that often comes with such state of affairs.

"Her struggles with that institution ended wth a court of law proving her right. As a result of this experience, she did not want to do much with public sector institution and certainly not with politics," he said.

Read his full tribute below:
"Eva took strong, principled positions and stuck to them. She was a strong voice, always reminding PPP youth to stick to our message, particularly our stand on incorruptible leadership. She was against insulting, disrespectful language and made that known to all. The PPP must be different in a positive way, she always said.

- (Papa Kwesi Nduom) October 6, 2016
I was fortunate to meet Eva and begin to get to know her on a long, trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Accra. This was when she worked for the United Nations, and I worked with Deloitte&Touche, USA. We sat side by side and talked the entire journey of more than 10 hours.

We talked about our work, our professional careers and where they had taken us and our families. We talked about Ghana, Ghanaians and all the problems; and then we turned to solutions and which crop of people could lead the nation to the desired level of prosperity

So we began a personal and professional relationship that only got deeper and more engaged over time. What many people do not know is that Eva spent several years working with young men and women educating them about the world of work, helping them launch businesses and raising funds to ensure sustainability.

She was a counselor, always teaching and pushing them to the straight and narrow path, no excuses, and demanding discipline and path high performance that comes from doing the right things.

When Eva became the Director-general of the GBC, the conversation turned to what could be done to inject a more professional work ethic and attitude into a state-owned institution without personalities getting in the way.

She had problems dealing with low productivity and the mentality of “we have always done it this way,” and the institutional corruption that often comes with such state of affairs.

Her struggles with that institution ended wth a court of law proving her right. As a result of this experience, she did not want to do much with public sector institution and certainly not with politics. That is until Progressive People’s Party (PPP) happened.

Eva did not rush into politics. She did not run to the PPP. Some founding members of the Party engaged her over several months before and soon after the formation of the PPP, discussing a role for her, for women and for professional.

She did not want to join just another political party. She wanted to know what was new that we would bring; how we would make a difference; and how -win or lose-we would ensure continuity.

After the 2012 elections, we had long talks about what would best suit her personal interests. So we discussed either continuing in the role of vice-presidential candidate, choosing an Accra constituency from which to re-start her political career as a parliamentary candidate, or staying on as Executive Director.

She chose to establish her own political identity by contesting the Korle Klottey parliamentary seat.

This was a perfect fit into our agenda to promote a credible, indigenous Ga professional to champion local development priorities, and offer leadership to fill the vacuum we have felt existed in Ghana’s capital city.

We imagined an Accra that was clean, free of mosquitoes, with beautiful public parks, water bodies inviting enough to attract riverboats with restaurants, entertainment, leisure transport, etc. She was working on this, and a parliamentary seat was to offer a platform from which to launch the Accra Agenda with support from the rest of us. This is the dream deferred!

My last conversation with her was about her health, preparations for the campaign and the Accra dream. She promised that when someday in the future, she could not be the Accra leader we had envisioned, that she would hand over the baton to someone younger and then move on to the role of advisor. Thus the Accra dream has been disrupted much too soon and unfortunately with no one selected to push it forward.

How I wish that Nii K, the children and the rest of us would one day see the realization-of this Accra Vision together with Eva. I can hear clearly Eva’s voice rising, animated and talking with excitement about what Accra could become, under the leadership of “a proud Lokko”.

Dear Eva, our Party, Party Papa Paa, will live on well into the future when all of us founders have gone to eternal rest The Accra Vision will become a reality in your honour. The “Doers” will make it.

happen. You have left us so soon, so unexpectedly but we will remember you and keep our promise to help make Ghana Great and Strong.

myjoyonline.com