Posted: Daily Guide | Thursday, April 22, 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The Nima residence of 2008 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, shook to its very foundation yesterday when hordes of people including journalists, party faithful and bigwigs in the party as well as Members of Parliament (MPs) thronged the place to see and listen to him, as he launched his bid to run for the party's flagbearership position.
Packaged to be a media-only affair, the organisers eventually had to deal with not only members of the inky fraternity, but hordes of party faithful from all walks of life.
In what could be described as his state of the nation address, Nana Akufo-Addo lambasted the Mills Administration's penchant for persecution and witch-hunting of political opponents, elevating it to a national policy status.
“The control of public toilets these days has become the ultimate symbol of power and authority under the reign of the Asomdwehene-the King of Peace. Law and order has broken down,” he charged at the Mills Administration.
The 2008 presidential candidate of the NPP said the twin canker has been the dominant menu on NDC's agenda at every function including cabinet meetings.
In a concise and robust delivery, Nana Akufo-Addo fired salvos at President Mills, jabbed at the NDC and poked fun at his physique as sarcasm to his opponents' description of him as a short old man.
The crowd became charged when he asked them the multi-million dollar rhetorical question: “Ghanaians are broke. Ghana is breaking. Who must fix it?”
Then the crowd responded 'you'. He asked again: “Who can fix it?” and the response was an expected, 'you' and “Who will fix it?” attracting a chorus “it's only you”.
When he mounted the podium to speak, Nana Addo said the numbers that had gathered there gave him more than enough reason to believe that the good people of the NPP would elect him the flagbearer to lead the party to liberate Ghanaians from the incompetence of President Atta Mills and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.
He took a swipe at what for him is the hypocrisy of the Mills Administration.
Nana did not forget to touch on the activities of the NDC foot-soldiers whose acts of indiscipline all over the place he described as lawlessness.
Nana Addo said having reflected over the party's defeat in 2008 and a critical examination of himself and the strategies that he used in that election, he noted with emphasis that “I assure you that I have come out stronger for future leadership.”
Nana Addo made a joke of the campaign about his age and personality in sections of the media including flying text messages, saying “after nearly 35 years of being in the frontline of Ghanaian politics, this 66-year-old, short and not-so-handsome young man still has the energy and passion to lead Ghana to a new and exciting future.”
According to the flagbearer aspirant, the very challenges, hardships and oppressive environment that motivated him at the age of 33 years to help organise and lead the PMFJ's mobilisation of the people against the obnoxious Union Government concept of the Acheampong regime in 1977/8 were the same ills that motivated him when he was 51 years old to help lead the 'Kume Preko' demonstrations of 1995.
For him, it is this same motivation that is driving him to lead the battle to recapture power for the NPP and Ghana in 2012.
“My soundings in the party tell me that there is broad support for my candidature from all sections within the party, young and old, men and women, from the established figures of the party, emerging figures, through the polling stations and constituencies across the country,” he stressed.
Despite the systematic attempt to denigrate President John Agyekum Kufuor's eight-year record, Nana Addo said, he and his colleague NPP members are satisfied that Kufuor laid a solid record of achievement in virtually all aspects of national life.
Under the current situation and the government that Ghanaians find themselves, he said, “we are hamstrung with a government that appears to be incompetent even at managing and maintaining the economy the NPP bequeathed to them.
“Instead of focusing on the economy which is shrinking,” Nana Addo stated, “when they (NDC) meet at the top level, they only plan persecution.”
He described the NDC government as one of witch-hunting, since according to him, “there are clear signs that the Mills government is embarking on a series of politically motivated prosecutions. Their intention is to dismember the NPP.”
No matter the length they will go with the persecutions, he said, “they will not succeed!”
Ghanaians, he maintained, are living in fear and therefore looking up to the NPP to rescue them.
For Nana Addo, this is why he is still in the race to lead the NPP and subsequently lead Ghana, saying “Insha Allah, it shall come to pass.”
As he hits the road today to begin his national tour of all the 230 constituencies, beginning with the Central Region, the flagbearer aspirant said apart from appealing to the 115,000 delegates of the National Congress for their votes on August 7, he also intends to use this national tour to listen to the party people, especially the five polling station executives in each of the more than 21,000 polling station areas nationwide.
“We are one party, one family with one goal: Victory 2012! NPP, Ghana ani da mo so!”
At this stage, Nana Addo could not but give his word to his anxious audience: “If by the grace of God I have the chance, I will bring back hope and restore the kind of confidence that we need to move our nation forward.”
The resonating response following said it all about how far his speech had sunk in. What followed was a session of merrymaking and exchange of pleasantries.