General News of Monday, 5 May 2008

Source: Accra Mail

Alan Shames NDC - Ocquaye

Professor Mike Ocquaye has said the return of Mr. Alan kyeremanten to the New Patriotic Party has put their enemies to shame.

"They thought Alan would not come back and they thought the party is going to divide but to their surprise Alan is back and the party would continue to move forward", he told ADM.

The Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya in the Greater Accra Region said all those who thought that the party was going down and would not win the December elections would bow down their heads in shame.

He told ADM that the NPP will never disintegrate as people are saying because the party believes in democracy and members understand each other and love and care for themselves.

Prof. Mike Ocquaye said there is no organization or political party in the country which does not have problems; the most important thing, he said, is how to solve the problems amicably. He said "that is why the party executives and its members were not happy when Alan resigned from the party. That is why we asked him to rescind his decision in order to allow the party solve any problem he and his followers were having with the party as he stated in his resignation letter".

The return of Alan Kyeremanten, the Professor said would strengthen the campaign of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and would also fill the gap he left as the one charge of "Identifiable groups". In a related development, Mr. Alan Kyerematen will lead Nana Addo's campaign team in the Western Region today.

Meanwhile an articled titled "Thank God that Spio, Iddrisu and Eddie didn't pull an 'Alan-K' on Atta-Mills" by Kobina Ebow & Bayijan Fuseini , Co-Chairs of the Nkrumahist-Rawlings Alliance (USA) made available to ADM, the authors say "Members, sympathizers and well-wishers of the NDC should register their deep gratitude to Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu (and his wife Betty Mould-Iddrisu), Eddie Annan and Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah for not having succumbed to the 'Alan-K' temptation to defect from the NDC following their loss to Professor Atta-Mills at the NDC Congress in December 2006."

In an obvious swipe the NPP the authors conclude that: "It is general knowledge within the NDC that many in the Mills Team have a "Oh, let them go" attitude to the possibility of various people leaving the Party. The NDC has a strong chance of winning the 2008 elections. But, lacking the finances of an incumbent government and the charisma of a Rawlings-type candidate, it must work harder on such basics as party unity and not take disaffected former candidates for granted. Even where such candidates do not resign, they may not be motivated to put in their fullest effort if the Party's leaders and Mills in particular treats them with aloofness-as is his penchant. Wining an election requires many elements, but it is not about how many people you can quarrel with or encourage to leave your party.

"The NDC, and Prof Mills, should take useful lessons from the Alan-K fiasco. High handedness only leads to defections; and Akufo-Addo's choice of a running mate may lead to yet more NPP defections, improving even more the chances for an NDC victory in 2008."