President John Agyekum Kufuor broke his silence last Friday and laid to rest the ongoing media speculation to say that he has no intention of supporting any of the ruling New Patriotic Party presidential aspirants vying to succeed him after his exit in 2008. He also denied the allegation that he is financially supporting a particular aspirant. He again expressed the hope that the competition will be fair and devoid of animosity.

The President gave the reaction at a fundraising ceremony organised by members of the NPP in the Okai Koi North constituency in Accra.

According to him, he receives reports of the activities of the aspirants as they criss-cross the country to test their popularity, and urged delegates not to vote for any aspirant who go about accusing him of supporting a particular aspirant because "that aspirant has no message.”

“I get reports of aspirants and some are threatening but I'm not afraid. I appointed many of them as Ministers and have not collected anything from them,” he stated. There has been media speculation suggesting that the president has his preferred candidate among the about seventeen presidential hopefuls.

Giving his criteria for the NPP flagbearership race, President Kufuor said the NPP needs a presidential candidate who can unite the party, is God-fearing, Ghanaians will accept, and will be able to hold the country together.

Going down memory lane on the 1979 election experience where the Danquah-Busia front was divided between the main Popular Front Party and the dissident United Convention Congress, the President maintained that PFP would have won but for “selfishness” which sent the tradition into bitter opposition. He said it is not worth remembering the circumstances.

He reiterated the NPP belief in liberal democracy where individuals are allowed to express their views freely, saying that, "nobody could destroy the party because Rawlings could not destroy us."

Based on this belief, President Kufuor said the only expectation is that the party will unite and rally behind whoever is elected as the NPP flagbearer for 2008 election.

"If you don"t agree then you do not believe in democracy," he added.

Touching on the presidential race, the President pointed out that running for the highest office of the land is sacrificial, citing the difficulty in campaigning across the country.

He acknowledged that the activities of the NPP presidential aspirants are helping in reenergising and organising of the party at the grassroots nationwide and appealed to party supporters not to "insult" them.

President Kufuor used the occasion to tell the party rank and file that the governing party has not forgotten its foot soldiers. He acknowledged how they suffered to bring the party into power. He appealed to them to see the period as one of positive sacrifice and urged party followers to remain loyal.

He said the solid foundation and achievements chalked by the government commenced barely four years ago because according to him, for the first two years the country went HIPC.

He expressed the hope that within the next four years, things will turn for the better for the populace to appreciate.Some of the achievements he enumerated included "$8 million debt cancellation", NHIS, infrastructure development, and the rule of law.

John Owusu Afriyie, Okai Koi Constituency Chairman earlier in his brief speech, appealed to the NPP presidential aspirants to cease-fire and run clean campaigns.He frowned on recent anonymous text messages and letters which tend to attack some aspirants.

According to him, the progress or otherwise of the party will come from within and how these developments are handled saying, "as for the NDC they are no match."

Mr Afriyie declared that the President will serve as a campaign machine for the NPP in 2008 polls and, therefore, must not be drawn into the debate of which aspirant he is supporting. "The President needs peace," said he.

Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, outgoing Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing and Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey, former Deputy Minister of Interior, both presidential aspirants, were present.

Later on in the day, Mr Owusu-Agyemang introduced some leading party members, including B J da Rocha, to the NPP Club House that he has temporarily donated to the party as "a meeting place to share ideas and drinks in the spirit of development in freedom."