ABOUT a dozen, and still counting - there appears to be no end to the number of candidates vying for the position of flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, which party strategists say is poised for a hat-trick in the 2008 elections. Perhaps this is the clearest indication yet of the NPP’s democratic credentials. The ‘new kid on the block’, bent on slugging it out with the ‘old titans’ in the NPP, is Nkrabea Effah-Dartey, former Deputy Minister of Interior, and currently in the news for attracting the flak of Ghana Bar Association bigwigs for his bold ‘craving’ to offer legal assistance to suspects nabbed for drug-related crimes.

His vision, he stressed in a statement released to The Statesman, is to immobilise the National Democratic Congress in every way, and play a pivotal role in creating a dynamic post-2008 party machine with stronger grass-roots appeal.

In the next few days therefore, in the glare of the media, party faithfuls and the general public, the Berekum MP, retired army officer, party man and former Deputy Minister will descend from his law chambers in Asylum Down, Accra to the ‘streets’ to launch his campaign.

Names of prospective candidates already out there include Kwame Addo Kufuor, Minister for Defence; Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama; Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and NEPAD; Hackman Owusu Agyemang, Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing; and Korle Bu CEO Frempong Boateng.

Others are Yaw Osafo Maafo, MP for Akyem Oda; Mike Oquaye, Minister of Communications; Kofi Konadu Apraku, Offinso North MP; Arthur Kennedy a US-based medical officer, and New York banker Yaw Boakye Agyarko.

Capt Effah-Dartey (rtd), the 53-year old Jinjini-born lawyer, made history when he stood up to the NDC in particularly unfriendly territory, defying all odds to wrestle the Berekum seat in 2000 from J H Owusu Acheampong, then Minister of Agriculture under the NDC administration.

An exceptional, first class student of Achimota College, University of Ghana and Sandhurst Military Academy, and the Ghana Law School, he has promised to give the perceived frontrunners a good run for their money at the Congress that will elect a flagbearer for the NPP in 2007. According to his footsoldiers, he has already begun striking the appropriate political chords (or discords if you listen to him on Joy FM on his post-ministerial law practice) and, apparently, making n-roads into the various constituencies nationwide.

He came out of government and straight into controversy by giving notice that, freed now from his ex-officio job as chairman of the Narcotics Control Board, he was now going to defend alleged drug barons.

His intention to run for President is further evidence of the abundance of ambition and dreamers in the NPP.

“He has a strong personality on the campaign platform, in office as a political appointee, on the grounds as an activist and former Minister for Local Government. He is a good mixer and affable leader. These are some of the resources he has brought and will continue to bring on board the campaign machine in the interest of the party and nation at large”, according to one of his aides, Promise Ofori.

“Brong Ahafo is becoming an electoral headache to the NPP, some of us have started strategising to redeem it…our moves are paying off…and I want to prove that I can reverse the trend when I get into the driving seat. I have done it before…and I can do it again,” the prospective candidate told The Statesman Wednesday.

Capt Effah-Dartey was called to the Bar in 1986 and, after a ten year stint with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, left to form his law firm, Nkrabeah and Associates. He served as Deputy Minister for Local Government in the first Kufuor administration and until the recent reshuffle, Deputy Minister for the Interior.

“He is an all-round personality, the kind of leader the nation needs to move people, industry and institutions in the effort to attaining our all-round developmental goals,” one of his boys insist.