...refuses to be compared to Professor Mills
Mr. Alan Kyeremanteng, a presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), is widely rumoured to be the preferred candidate of President J.A. Kufuor. No proof has been adduced yet, though it’s caught the fancy of the public.

So deep-seated are these rumours that Alan has become the target of some of his aspirant colleagues.

President Kufuor has been at great pains to distance himself from the rumours and has always insisted that his support would lie with whomsoever gets elected by the party’s national delegates conference and Mr. Kyeremanteng also has been careful about holding himself up as the president’s anointed heir, but the rumours still persist.

In a quickie telephone interview with ADM last week, Mr. Kyeremanteng disputed the rumour that he is the “darling boy” and the favourite of the president. Even if the rumours were true, President Kufour would not run the affairs of a Kyeremanteng government, he promised.

He was reacting to a question put to him comparing him with Professor Mills who was similarly anointed by NDC leader Jerry Rawlings. Would Ghanaians not have, under his presidency the hands of a retired President Kufuor pulling the strings?

“You can’t compare President Kufour to ex-president Rawlings, neither can you compare Atta-Mills to me...If Atta-Mills will allow ex-president Rawlings to interfere in his government, I will not allow that to happen to my presidency”, he told ADM.

Mr. Keremanteng said retired President Kufour would have the right to share his views on issues pertaining to his government since he had the experience of governing the country, “but for his views to be applicable in my presidency, it would depend on me.”

He said president Kufour would have the democratic right after his 8-year term as president of Ghana to comment and give his opinions about everything concerning the progress of the nation as any other citizen “but for him to take total control of my presidency, that I will not allow…I don’t even think it is fair and proper for the sitting president to allow himself to be controlled by the ex-president. President Kufuor will not do that because he did not allow ex-president Rawlings to control his presidency, neither would he control mine too”.

Mr. Kyeremanteng said the speculations are calculated to thwart his ambition of becoming the presidential candidate of the NPP and consequently the president of Ghana.