Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, a founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said that Alan Kyerematen, the outgoing Minister of Trade and Industry cannot extricate himself from the sins of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration.

Four days after he announced his resignation from government, Alan Kyerematen on Tuesday, January 10, 2022, officially declared his presidential ambitions.

Kyerematen in a statement that was broadcasted on some media platforms conceded to some ills witnessed under the Akufo-Addo administration.

Assessing the candidature of Alan Kyerematen, Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe told Accra-based Joy News that Alan should have walked away from his position a year ago.

He explained that by choosing to stay with the Akufo-Addo administration, Alan Kyerematen lost the right to absolve himself of any blame.

He is convinced that the former Trade and Industry Minister would have been the ideal candidate for the party had he stepped down earlier.

“Alan Kyerematen would have been the next person but he failed in the short political career under Akufo-Addo. The government was going and corruption was at its highest level and there were a lot of infractions.

“If Kyerematen thought about his future, what he should have done was to have taken the thing and resigned at that time. If Alan Kyerematen had done that, he would have become the automatic leader of the NPP but he couldn’t do it. The performance of this government will not only affect Alan, but it will also affect anyone who served in this government,” he said.

Nyaho-Tamakloe’s position is supported by pollster Ben Ephson who holds that Alan Kyerematen should have resigned earlier than he did.

Ben Ephson questioned why Alan Kyerematen did not resign as Trade and Industry Minister over the disagreements he mentioned in his statement.

“If you are a minister and the President is exiting and you want to campaign and in your speech, you say that certain things that were done could have been done better, maybe in the coming days he’ll want to go further. But I thought that it was a bit unnecessary, maybe he has his own campaign strategy and so that is the only part that I was a bit surprised about.”

“You are not going to run a campaign on you, Alan Kyeremateng. You are going to campaign on the record of the NPP government for the past six to seven years. I’m sure people are going to ask him to give examples of what has not been done right. If he disagreed vehemently with what had not been done right what prevented him from resigning? If you thought it was so bad that in your first address announcing your desire to contest you are taking the President on, you have not been sentenced by any court to be a minister, he could have just said because of a few things, Mr. President I can’t take up your job.”