‘I Won’t Disappoint‘

Posted: Daily Guide |Monday, 09 August 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The re-elected Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said he is more than ready to deliver Ghanaians from the hands of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Nana Akufo-Addo therefore sent a note of caution to the NDC to start preparing their handing-over notes before the 2012 elections, since he could not afford to disappoint Ghanaians this time around, with the authority vested in him as flagbearer of the NPP.

Speaking before thousands of supporters who had gathered at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park in Accra where he was declared winner of the NPP presidential race, Nana Addo said the confidence reposed in him gave him a strong platform for the ultimate battle ahead.

Describing it as the greatest moment in his political history, he hoped to go into the 2012 election with the strong record of the Kufuor presidency.

Nana Addo stressed his determination to lead an efficient campaign machinery to deliver what he described as ‘the crucial victory’ in 2012.

This, he hoped to do by first uniting the rank and file of the party, since, in his words, “we need each and everyone on board and I pledge to work with all my heart and soul to achieve this”.

He indicated his preparedness to work out a programme with the national executives of the NPP to foster unity across all sections of the party, noting with emphasis:

“The majority of the people have had their say but the whole family must lead the way to the victory we seek in 2012.”

He believed the efficiency with which the party, under the leadership of Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, organized the election, which is considered a novelty on the entire continent of Africa, under five months, was an indication that “we will indeed build an efficient, energetic political machine to drive us to victory in 2012”.

With this election, Nana Addo believed that the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition which metamorphosed into the modern-day NPP, had established a strong template for defining the modern contours of multi-party democracy in Africa.

“This is a victory for a brighter, prosperous future where the young men and women of our nation can live dignified, purposeful, fulfilling lives”, was how he put it.

“An opportunity has been presented to us for a clear total direction of our beloved Ghana. The dream of the founders of our tradition to build a thriving democracy and a strong market economy in our country which will deliver prosperity for the broad masses of our people under the rule of law, respect for human rights and the principles of democratic accountability, is still very much alive”, he noted.

The flag bearer of the NPP therefore called on not only members of the party, but Ghanaians in general, to join him in making this dream a reality, adding, “Let us continue to believe in Ghana.”

It’s Nana With 78%

Posted: Daily guide |Monday, 09 August 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo last Saturday shrugged off the challenge from four other contestants in the flagbearership race of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to record a landslide victory.

Nana Addo obtained 83,517 out of 106,590 valid votes cast, representing about 78.35 percent.

His main challenger, John Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen polled 21,226 votes, representing about 19.91 percent, with Isaac Osei, the only parliamentarian in the race, placing a distant third with 1,194 votes representing about 1.12 percent.

Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the heart surgeon who dropped his stethoscope for politics, picked 428 votes, representing 0.40 percent; and John Kwame Kodua, a Kumasi-based lawyer and evangelist, obtained a paltry 225 votes representing 0.21 percent.

Four hundred and twenty six ballots were rejected as announced by Albert Kofi Arhin, Director of Elections at the Electoral Commission (EC).

Nana Akufo-Addo was subsequently declared winner amidst wild jubilation by party supporters who had thronged the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park.

In all, 112,716 delegates made up of representatives from the 228 constituencies, former President and former Vice President, former presidential candidates and their running mates, MPs, overseas branches, and patrons voted in the polls, described as a novelty in the annals of African politics.

The euphoria at the Children’s Park where scores of supporters of the NPP and leading members of the party had gathered to listen to the declaration of the results, was one that spoke volumes about a party with a sense of unity.

After going through what proved to be a successful congress, the party promised to give the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) a run for their money in the 2012 general elections.

If there is any message that resonated among the rank and file of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the declaration of the final results, it was that of a party poised for unity and victory come 2012.

This was exactly what was on the lips of each and everyone who mattered on the evening of Saturday August 7, 2010.

Speaker after speaker including former President John Agyekum Kufuor and other contestants did not just stress the need for unity among the rank and file of the party, but also pledged their unflinching support and commitment in whatever way they could to help Nana Addo and the party return to power in January 2013.

Former President Kufuor was cork-sure that come what may, the NPP will wrest power and assume the reins of governance from the NDC in the next elections.

Addressing an enthusiastic crowd at the Efua Sutherland Park in Accra, preceding the declaration of the results by the EC, Mr. Kufuor said the NPP was prepared to go to battle in 2012.

“By today’s decision, the party is telling the country and the world that it is strongly united, it is strongly focused and the single focus is that in 2012, it is going to redeem Ghana”, he said, amidst rapturous applause and cheers from the crowd.

For this reason, the former president is convinced “the party is coming back to power in 2012.”

He therefore asked the rank and file of the party to bury their differences for the battle ahead since the competition for the standing bearer was over, stressing, “We are all holding together like one solid strong man; behind the flag bearer we have chosen today, Nana Akufo-Addo.

“I assure you if and when we bury the pettiness of the competition that we engaged in, there is no way Ghana will not give power to the NPP in 2012”, he said, since according to him, Ghana will be the proudest nation in Africa if the NPP should come back.

This, he said, is strongly evidenced in the good work that his administration bequeathed to the people of Ghana.

Mr. Kufuor told the ecstatic crow: “I assure you that the whole world and not only Africa is asking why the NPP could leave power the way it left in 2008. The world is expecting the NPP to come back.”

Since the NPP stepped down, the former President said, the economy of Ghana had been tumbling whilst the rule of law had been relegated by the Mills administration, stressing, “The atmosphere of freedom and rule of law is now under threat.”

In their days in opposition, Mr. Kufuor said, the NDC used to talk about corruption in his administration but then today, it had virtually become incarnate since it was glorified in the Mills administration.

That, he said, was evident in the fact that there was corruption everywhere, indicating that it was only the NPP that could restore the country back to normalcy and give meaning to transparency and accountability.

The former President said “So we must not fail Ghana and we must assure Africa that we are poised to lead it into the mainstream of globalization and we have got the flag bearer to take us there.”

Each of the contestants including Alan Kyerematen, Professor Frimpong-Boateng and Isaac Osei did not only concede defeat graciously to Nana Addo, but also pledged their unflinching support to him and promised to put everything including their resources at his disposal to ensure the total annihilation of the NDC in 2012.

They therefore urged their respective supporters and members of their campaign teams to bury their differences and forge ahead since the competition was over.

CPP Stokes Fire In NDC

Posted: Daily Guide |Monday, 09 August 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Ivor Kobina Greenstreet
A statement by the Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP) has started a wild fire in the National Democratic Congress (NDC), threatening the very foundation of the ruling party.

In reaction to a statement by the NDC’s Propaganda Secretary, Richard Quashigah, which sought to liken the CPP’s National Youth Organiser, Kwabena Bomfeh to an NPP mole, CPP General Secretary, Ivor Kobina Greenstreet flayed the ruling party, stating that “if criticism is the yardstick by which NDC determines what a mole is, then the real mole the NDC should be concerned with is their own loose cannon; founder Jerry John Rawlings.”

Quashigah had accused Kabila of being a mole for the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), following the latter’s decision to take the STX Korean deal to court for interpretation.

But barely 24 hours after the CPP issued the statement to deflate the NDC Propaganda Secretary’s assertions, a splinter group within the NDC, the Youth for Leadership in Ghana (YFL) which does not only identify itself with the former President, but also feels beholden to him, issued a counter statement which questions the allegiance of President Mills to the NDC as a party.

A statement signed and issued by General Secretary of the group, SaCut Amenga-Etego, wondered why President Mills had devoted much of his 18 months in office to honour Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, instead of Rawlings, who formed and nurtured the NDC to its present stage where he (Mills) had got the opportunity to become its leader.

According to the YFL, “for the CPP to carefully craft a statement that attacks the personal integrity of the NDC founder while absolving the President and NDC leader Prof. Mills, exposes an extreme form of treachery that cannot be hidden from good Ghanaians.

“Our understanding of the CPP statement makes it clear to us that such NCP (National Convention Party) elements who formed the progressive alliance with Kow Nkensen Arkaah with President Rawlings for the 1992 general election are still embittered by the breakaway in 1996 that saw Prof. Mills running for Vice President with President Rawlings.

“The CPP could not even hide the agenda of the schemers as it clearly deviated from a debate about the STX Korea housing deal between the Propaganda Secretary of the NDC on one hand, and the CPP youth organizer on the other hand into a deliberate attack on the NDC founder while at the same time, absolving President Mills of blame in the same statement, thereby separating President Mills from the NDC and its founder.”

After studying the content of the statement from the CPP, the YFL said “we are convinced that such a statement could only be part of that grand scheme orchestrated by certain defunct National Convention Party (NCP) elements within both the CPP and the NDC to divide the NDC with the hope of taking over the power base of the NDC.”

For this reason, the YFL said people including the Ahwois, and the Totobi Kwakyes were collaborating with the likes of Kwesi Pratt and Ivor Greenstreet to tamper with the foundation of the NDC by scheming to denigrate and openly attack its founder.

“The YFL is wondering if it is the case that President Mills is actually encouraging these ‘alien elements’ to try to divide the NDC that put him in power” and “we are also still trying to come to terms with the reasons for CPP’s worry over embarrassments to President Mills while having no qualms in openly calling the NDC founder ‘a loose cannon’?”

The leadership of YFL asked: “Is it also the case that President Mills spending his first eighteen months in office engaging in various activities to honour the CPP founder Dr. Kwame Nkrumah is part of such grand machinations to sell out the NDC to these scheming and disgruntled NCP elements who obviously have become his close confidants?

“Why would the CPP be so mean as to dishonour the NDC founder Jerry Rawlings with such an open attack without direct provocation at a time when the NDC government under President Mills has committed so much national resource into the honour of the CPP founder?”

They therefore denounced what they described as a ‘carefully planned and projected agenda’ by Rawlings’ detractors, with a stern warning that “such intrigue will not divide the NDC for their benefit today or ever.”
The group also cautioned President Mills to be wary of these intrigues and their dire consequences for his presidency since they have vowed to “defend the Jerry Rawlings legacy- the legacy they want to either usurp or destroy - even if it will cost us an arm and a leg.”