Konadu Hits Road: Campaign Cars Ready

Published in Daily Guide on August 24, 2012
By Charles Takyi-Boadu 

Some of the newly acquired NDP campaign vehicles

The presentation of a provisional certificate to the leadership of the National Democratic Party (NDP) by the Electoral Commission (EC) last week has triggered a flurry of activities within the ranks of the new party, and raised the adrenaline level of the grouping.
Hitherto, there had been questions as to whether the party was indeed ready to join others on the political plane for the December 2012 polls.
The flurry of activities, according to a source in the party, had been fueled by the burning need to meet the EC deadline for presenting the party’s presidential and parliamentary candidates to contest the forthcoming polls.
With ‘Our nation our future’ as the slogan of the party in the currently running jingles blaring on the airwaves, the new political party seems ready to take the political plane by storm.
Among a host of activities that are being undertaken is the branding of its campaign vehicles, including newly acquired pick-ups, in NDP colours, and the acquisition of what has been described by sources as a modern edifice at a location in the heart of the capital city of Accra, as its national headquarters.
DAILY GUIDE photo lenses last week captured car sprayers and designers busily branding newly acquired 4×4 vehicles in NDP colours.
Additional information gathered indicated that measures had already been put in place to select likely parliamentary candidates across the length and breadth of the country in all 230 constituencies.
What was still not clear was who would lead the party as its presidential candidate into the 2012 general elections, which is only four months away.
The name of former First Lady and President of the 31^st December Women’s Movement (DWM), Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings has come up as the likely flagbearer of the new party, though she has not responded to speculations of being the brain behind the party’s formation.
She once told her supporters during the biometric registration exercise that they should not be surprised if they saw her face on the ballot paper and therefore they should all pour out to register.
DAILY GUIDE learnt that one of the items on the agenda of the leadership of the party in the face of the EC’s green light was how to organize what the party preferred to call a conference to elect a presidential candidate.
Also being undertaken was the training of a crop of communication team to spread the word of the party across the country.
Membership of the team was said to have been drawn from the various regions.
DAILY GUIDE also gathered that efforts were underway to confirm the positions of the national and regional officers of the party who were currently in acting capacities.
Doubts as to whether the NDP was real or an entity only on paper, would now give way to the reality of being the youngest party about to debut on the political plane.
With their jingles, slogans and anthems already being aired on radio and a fleet of vehicles waiting to hit the streets of the country, skeptics would now have to review their impressions.
Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa was reported to have described the party as stillborn, in reference to the survivability of the political grouping.
The party’s acting chairman, Dr Nii Armah Josiah-Aryeh, soon after receipt of the party’s EC certificate, told a radio station that they would soon organize themselves for a conference, adding that his party would contest all the parliamentary seats in the country.
What remained elusive to Ghanaians was whether former President Jerry John Rawlings and his spouse Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings were indeed the brains behind the party.
With the death of the late President Mills, political observers had expected the young party to fold up, given the perception that the project was all about decapitating the second term ambitions of the deceased president.
The ongoing activities however suggest that the new party is ready to stake a strong claim in the 2012 political activities.

Konadu Party Born With NDC Colours

Published in Daily Guide on August 16, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

 

The much talked-about National Democratic Party (NDP), a breakaway group from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), was finally issued a provisional certificate to operate as a political party in the country yesterday.
The new party shares similar colours with the NDC— green, red, black and white, but arranged differently. It has a rising dove with the ‘gye nyame’ symbol in the flag with justice, unity, peace and progress as its motto, while ‘our nation, our future’ is its slogan.
It is believed that former president Jerry John Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu, are behind the new party, with speculations that the former first lady will be the flagbearer of the party.
This was after several discussions with officials of the Electoral Commission (EC), the body mandated by law to certify and regulate the activities and operations of political parties in Ghana.
Members of the party could not hide their happiness for crossing the first hurdle in establishing itself in order to contest the December polls.
Present were interim executives of the party. They were National Chairman Dr Nii Armah Josiah Aryeh, General Secretary Dr Jospeh Mamboa Rockson, Robert Quaye Tetteh, interim treasurer and other leading members like Dr Kwasi Ofei Agyemang, Joseph Bediako and Mathias Johnson.
Several members of the party who thronged the Ridge headquarters of the EC had travelled from various parts of the country to witness the occasion.
At a short ceremony, Deputy Commissioner of the EC in charge of Finance and Administration, Alhaji Amadu Sulley, who issued the provisional certificate on behalf of the Chairman of the commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, admonished the leadership of the NDP to work towards completing the provisions of the EC for the final certificate.
“Let us conform our activities to be consistent with the legal framework,” he said with reference to the Political Parties Act which mandates the Electoral Commission to conduct and supervise elections of all political parties.
Mr. Sulley urged officials of the NDP to start putting in place adequate structures including the setting up of functional party offices and officers (executives) at national, regional and constituency levels.
The Interim Chairman, Dr Nii Armah Josiah Aryeh, who received the certificate, described the occasion as a ‘giant step’ for Ghana’s democracy.
Vision
The NDP, according to him, had been founded to “answer and to stop those things; we take deep inspiration from the directive principles of state policy” with specific reference to Articles 35 and 36 of the country’s Constitution, which talks about participatory democracy.
Dr Aryeh indicated that the party would “ensure that democracy is meaningful to everybody and we are also bringing a green agenda to this country that we are primarily an agricultural country and we think that agriculture and a green agenda can push ourselves forward”.
“We are telling every Ghanaian that look closely, look scrupulously and realise that what leadership is doing does not necessarily conform to what you believe in.
“We have come to a situation where our very economic development process has led to a situation where there is practically a gambling for the cloth of the toiling masses and where there is a situation where once people are elected into power, you see an alliance between what I call political princes and their merchant friends in which every contract and every procurement is to advance that interest.”
“We are not simply here to replicate what somebody else is doing; we are not here to reinvent the wheel but we are here to ensure that every Ghanaian, wherever he is today, stands tall and proud because ultimately now we have a political apparatus through which we can realise our vision collectively.
“It may be inauspicious but in the long run, it would become most momentous,” he indicated, whilst dedicating the provisional certificate to the anonymous Ghanaian whose efforts, he said, “are never appreciated”.
“Now, let these words reverberate across our country; from golden coast to sprawling savannah, from boarder to distant boarder, in every town and every village; let these words reverberate that a party has been born and that party is symbolised by the iconic dove with its rising and soaring…that every Ghanaian belongs to, and that’s what we’re going to strive for.
“The politics of this country has seen a situation where the very act of voting has only lived to the empowerment of a few and we are presently on the brink of a situation where cabals and cliques are rising; which cabals take power through electoral process.
Once they take power, they totally disconnect from the people,” said the law lecturer who once served as the NDC’s general secretary.
“A lot of us are seasoned; we’ve seen it all before and we are telling you from the inner sanctum that what goes on there does not reflect us.
Our democracy must develop incrementally and qualitatively,” he added.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu

NPP Strikes Mahama

- Cites Corrupt Deals

Published in Daily Guide on August 15, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu 

Johnson Asiedu-Nketia with Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey at the NPP Headquarters before the press conference

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) yesterday welcomed President John Mahama into the hot seat of the presidency, raising a number of probing questions about his credibility.
The chairman of the party, Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, who fired the first shot, discredited the now Mahama-Amissah-Arthur led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government since, in his opinion, they had nothing new to offer Ghanaians; insisting that with the two in the driving seat, “‘the value is the same”.
Within the relatively short period of his Presidency, the NPP Chairman said, “we in the NPP have cause to worry about the incompetence shown by President John Mahama,” citing him for complicity in issues of corruption, economic mismanagement, mismanagement of the cedi and a host of others.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra yesterday, Jake indicated that “the President’s own active involvement in some of the most scandalous contracts and loan agreements over the last few years mean that Ghanaians have more reasons now to worry about corruption than before.”
The press conference was held minutes after a delegation from the NDC, led by Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, general secretary of the party, had paid a surprise visit to the Asylum Down headquarters of the NPP, to thank them for their show of support during the funeral of the President John Evans Atta Mills.
 Complicity
Jake said, “President John Mahama was the same man who, against all competent advice, signed us up to the allegedly most corrupt loan agreement ever contracted by any government of Ghana, the $10billion STX housing deal” in which Ghanaians were to be fleeced of $1.5billion for the construction of 30,000 flats, half of them single bedrooms.
The said deal, which was brokered by Mr. Mahama who was then Vice President, allowed the Korean company (Messrs STX) to walk away with a staggering $264million in the supposed ‘political risk insurance.’
The NPP said, “We still do not know where our sovereign guarantee is and the Korean partners are demanding $17million in court for no work done.”
The NPP Chairman added, “Mahama is also responsible for the acquisition of the Embraer 190 presidential jet, disguised as a military jet.”
A deal, he said, included what he described as ‘a ridiculously inflated price’ of $1million for a staircase, $1million for entertainment package and $17million for a hangar to park the plane.
Similarly, the NPP accused the President of being the face of the NDC broken promises, having championed the supposed SADA project whose fate remained unknown.
What seemed to annoy the NPP Chairman and his lieutenants the most was not the fact that the concept was borrowed from the NPP’s plan to set up the Northern Development Authority but the fact that the promise of an initial start-up capital of GH¢200 million and a further GH¢100 million every year was neglected, just like the affordable housing project started by previous Kufuor-NPP administration.
The NPP, as an alternative government, strongly believed that “SADA and STX clearly epitomize headline projects championed by President John Mahama, which have failed,” insisting that “his presidency does not inspire any confidence that public funds are safe.”
Mismanagement
Furthermore, Jake said the fact that President Mahama, who was then the Vice President, led the Economic Management team that the late President Mills put in place to manage Ghana’s economy for more than three-and-a-half years, together with now Vice President Amissah-Arthur, who was then Governor of the Bank of Ghana, in charge of Monetary Policy, “shows that the same team that failed to deliver on the most important thing in our lives, the economy, are the same team who are in charge now”.
For this reason, the NPP chairman insisted that “President John Mahama and Vice President Amissah-Arthur are most responsible for the economic hardships that Ghanaians are suffering now” not because they only failed to manage the economy or deliver on the trust that President Mills had in them but also in view of the fact that “they failed the people of Ghana and cannot be trusted or expected to offer anything new”.
For the NPP, “nothing has changed with the coming into office of Mahama-Amissah Arthur’s uninspiring caretaker team”.
The main opposition has on behalf of Ghanaians appealed to the duo (President Mahama and his Vice) to “drive the nation gently, like a spare tyre, to the December general election for Ghanaians to hold their own referendum on the performance of this NDC government”.
 Judgment Debt
The NPP accused the President of having a hand in dissipating the country’s already scanty resources into the payment of not only gargantuan but also fraudulent judgment debts to individuals and corporate institutions under strange and bizarre circumstances.
That, according to the Chairman of the party, was evident in the fact that “the President has also been part of an administration and indeed had oversight of the Ministry of Finance that doled out GH¢642 million in the payment of so-called judgment debts, with records showing that a majority of these payment were procured by fraudulent means and also through arbitrary settlements”.
He asked “Ghanaians want to know what President John Mahama is going to do differently about corruption to show he is committed to fighting corruption”.
Perhaps, the NPP said, “he can show his commitment by taking action against the likes of former Attorney General Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Deputy Attorney General Ebow Barton-Odro, Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor and other NDC functionaries implicated in this saga” whilst ensuring that the nation retrieved the GH¢51.2million ‘fraudulently’ paid to Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome.
For this and other reasons, the NPP said, “this election (2012) is about our future. It is about the performance of this third NDC government, and the incompetent, corrupt and uninspiring leadership they have provided; the gross mismanagement of the economy; the falling cedi with its inherent impact on trade, from big business to the street hawker; the rising cost of living; and the hypocrisy, lies, propaganda and broken promises”.
That, Jake said, was because “Ghana cannot afford to live under four more years of failure”, insisting that “what Ghana needs is leadership genuinely concerned for the people with the will and the capacity to increase the prosperity of its people”.
“Ours will not be a government of lies and propaganda, but of real action.
“Ghanaians are not expecting anything new from President John Mahama in the last few months of the NDC. He represents no real hope for the youth of this country in addressing things that matter to them most: education, skills, jobs and accommodation.
He has no new ideas for the struggling businessmen and women of Ghana. He gives the country anxiety rather than hope on the big issue of responsible management of public resources.
Ghanaians are worried because the economy is being handled in a manner reminiscent of the NDC’s mishandling of the economy in 2000. We do not need to return to HIPC status,” he concluded.