The presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Akufo-Addo has assured party supporters that the internal wrangling which has plagued the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition will be over soon.
Party supporters ganged up against the national chairman Paul Afoko and general secretary Kwabena Agyepong last Thursday in the Upper East region over allegation that they are sidelining elected executives who are not in their camp.
The police had to intervene to restore order.
Akufo-Addo told party sympathisers in Europe over the weekend that Ghanaians still have a lot of hope in the NPP, despite the challenges the party is going through.
“However, I want to assure all of you, and Ghanaians back home, that all these internal wrangling will soon come to an end. We will elect our parliamentary candidates on June 13, and thereafter we will announce our campaign team. We will then have one objective after that, which is to win the election of 2016,” he said.
Nana Akufo-Addo urged Ghanaians to continue to have faith in the NPP, adding that Ghana’s predicament can be turned around, citing the case of Cote d’Ivoire – a country that was ravaged by civil war and yet has managed to turn its fortunes around.
“Because they got a strong and competent leader, they have turned everything around, and today Cote d’Ivoire is rediscovering itself. It is again the engine of growth of Francophone West Africa, because they have found a competent, strong leader,” he said.
He continued, “If a man, Alassane Ouatarra, who is three whole years older than me, has been able to change the destiny of Cote d’Ivoire, all I am asking God and Ghanaians is to give me that same opportunity to bring back our country onto the path of progress and prosperity.”
Nana Akufo-Addo asked for the full support of the membership of the NPP towards ensuring victory in the election of 2016, and by that “build the free, democratic and prosperous Ghana that our founding fathers dreamed about. That dream is very much alive in me. I have the hope and confidence that we can be the beacon and the Black Star of Africa.”
The NPP Presidential Candidate will move to Berlin on Monday, where he will participate in a series of events organised in his honour by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the development foundation associated with the German governing CDU party, a sister party of the NPP.