Ex-Presdent Kufuor raises Political white flag: Nana Addo is the Winner!
Former President John Agyekum-Kufuor had told party stalwarts and critics that he is not in contention with anybody for any position within the New Patriotic Party or outside it but wish to play his role as an elder statesman within NPP that has foisted him to enviable political height he finds himself now and which every politician would have aspired to…
This appears to have come as a response to the usual rumours that climaxed his party’s December 2007 presidential flagbearerhip contest that the then sitting president, was said to have thrown his weight behind Alan Kyerematen who lost to his equally political heavy-weight Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Addressing one of the major NPP convocations ever since the fiercely contested 2008 presidential election that NPP lost, the former president and UP traditionalist stated emphatically that he is full-bred NPP party man and does not belong to any “faction”. </span>
In making a strong case for himself and perhaps a signal to both his admirers, critics party supporters, who had come and assembled at the Trade Fair Site in Accra to deliberate and vote on the party’s intended constitutional amendments, the Ex-President who had had his reservations said: “Through the party I reached the highest point in the political life of our nation… I have no faction and indeed do not want any faction in the party… I have supported the ideals and principles of the party all my life. I have no intention of departing from them.”
In the address broadcast live from Pavilion E of the Trade Fair Centre by community-based MakoraFm in London, the ex-president was overheard saying that: “As an elder if I see something going wrong or I have a vision I am convinced in, I believe I have a duty…to my conscience, my beliefs to share it with my party members.” Implying that as a die-hard Dankwa-Busia traditionalist, he stands nothing to gain from the very ideological faith that meant so much to his life, soul and legacy. The factional allegations are therefore, baseless.
Former President J.A. Kufuor is said to have had some reservations about the ongoing NPP intended constitutional patch-works that seeks to expand NPP’s current electoral college that he thinks might open floodgates of abuse that in his view, might provoke unforeseeable predictions that could jeopardize the party’s electoral chances in the country. In the quoted words of Mr Frank Agyekum- the former president’s spokesman, Mr Kufuor, is said to have reasoned that the party’s intended constitutional revolutionary proposals including changing the party’s name from New to National Patriotic Party, poses an uncertain future.
But some disgree- Minority Leader Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu and his parliamentary colleagues see it differently. Addressing delegates at the ex-ordinary conference, Joy News report quoted him as saying: “We in Parliament by consensus do support the proposed amendments.” This position, if the Statesman recent news report were to authoritative, has also been supported by the NPP 2008 presidential candidate- Nana Akufo-Addo, who is also rumoured as one of the said factional leaders within the main opposition NPP.
Assuming this is true then the ongoing convocation, which according to Joys News, will be followed by a rally on Sunday at which the NPP leadership, will reiterate calls for stronger cohesion as the party attempts a counter-attack to recapture power in 2012, has internally, a lot to achieve for leadership and party that have failed to lobby for consensus and future.
