No matter what they say in the media what is on the ground is that the current contest for the NPP national executives is a straight contest for control of the NPP between Nana Akufo-Addo and Alan Kyerematen, who is ably supported by John Kufuor.
Don't ask me why the former president is so determined to work against his former foreign minister and presidential candidate. But, I am urging party delegates to vote for those they themselves believe can do the job but they should do so by being fully aware of the camps behind the candidates.
This is important because once the new national executives are chosen in Kumasi on Feb. 27, we have to now think about how we can have cohesion, peace, trust and efficiency at Asylum Down. We don't want to revisit the period where the National Chairman and the General Secretary had to disagree and work against anything that the other proposed. My prayer is that Nana Ohene Ntow should go quietly with his chairman. We don't have the luxury now to discuss which of the two was the cause of the conflict.
Yet, he has powerful people like the former President campaigning for him with the excuse that some of the old executives should be retained to give direction to the new team. Certainly not the kind of direction that we saw under Ohene Ntow. After all, John Boadu and Rita Asobayire are in the race but for different offices to what they now hold. Also, some of them could be persuaded to take deputy or other appointed positions, like Dan Botwe is doing now, to bring their experience to bear.
Recently in the Ashanti Region and elsewhere ex-President Kufuor has been campaigning for Stephen Ntim for National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party. Alan Kyerematen and his campaign strategist, Kwabena Agyepong, Dr. Richard Anane, Asamoab Boateng, Joe Baidoo Ansah, Maxwell Kofi Jumah, are all out there campaigning for Stephen Ntim.
Nana Akufo-Addo and his team, including Victor Newman, Boakye Agyarko, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Sheikh I C Quaye, Prof. Mike Ocquaye, Kwamina Bartels, Prof. Ameyaw-Ekumfi, Osei Ameyaw, Frema Osei-Opare and others are also out there campaigning for Jake Obestebi-Lamptey.
No matter what they say in the press, this contest for national officers, which takes place in Kumasi on Feb. 27 is all about which of the two camps will control the party from the headquarters. Period.
On Alan’s slate are Stephen Ntim (for Chairman), Nana Ohene Ntow (General Secretary), Alhaji Moctar Musa Bamba (National Organizer), Otiko Afisah Djaba (Women’s Organizer), Stephen Amoah, aka Sticker (Youth Organiser).
On Nana Akufo-Addo’s ticket are Jake Obestebi-Lamptey (Chairman), Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, aka Sir John (General Secretary), Alhaji Moctar Bamba (National Organizer), Christine Churcher (Women’s Organizer) and Anthony Abayifaa Karbo for Youth Organizer. The two most strategic positions are Chairman and General Secretary. But, all eyes are on the Chairman for obvious reasons. Majority of party opinion is for an early congress to elect the 2012 flagbearer. Those who support, including the Akufo-Addo camp, believe that the earlier they can get it over and done with the quicker the party can reconcile and focus attention on the NDC and the battle to win power in 2012.
Those who don’t want an early contest are of the Alan camp. They know that their candidate, Alan, is the underdog in the race for the flagbearership and hope that they if they can delay it even to next year then they can use money and bad press to wear Akufo-Addo down.
The army general to pursue this delay tactic is Stephen Ntim. It used to be his campaign message, disguised as a call for people to give priority to building party structures. Stephen Ntim and Jake are both attached to either one of the two main camps in the NPP. Ntim is dye-in-the-wool Alan man. When he travels across the country, wherever he gets to those who accompany him are Alan coordinators. Jake is not only a childhood friend of Nana but very much a part of Nana Addo’s 2012 agenda.
If the contest is between Jake and Ntim and both candidates are sponsored by one of the two leading contestants for the flagbearership then the party has a serious question to answer. What happens if the one who wins the chairmanship his candidate does not win the flagbearership? This should be a very important calculation on the minds of delegates on Feb. 27.
If all the candidates are equally capable to do the work then we should look for those who can work with the presidential aspirant who is likely to win.
You may say let us go for a neutral candidate. But, both Felix Owusu-Agyepong and Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobbey are with the Kufuor group. Sammy Crabbe, from what I hear, is nowhere in the race.
Ex-President Kufuor, the patron of Alan for 2012 campaign, tells delegates who bother to visit him not to vote for Jake because Jake has shown his hand for Nana. What he leaves out is that Ntim was a Kufuor man in 2005 and remains a Kufuor-Alan man in 2010.
Yes, the former President in the early parts of 2009 tried to get the party to agree on Madam Ama Busia going unopposed as National Chairperson. This project failed because MPs and other party leaders doubted Kufuor’s sincerity in that agenda. If this was to promote unity in the party then how come he did not also propose that Nana Addo be allowed to go unopposed?
I like Jake and I believe he would be the best man for the job. He knows how to win from opposition. Ntim is a Dadaba in politics, only winning power when the party was in power and there was no leadership struggle or risk of losing power in 2004.
But, I am afraid Jake compromised his own well-deserving reputation in the party when he came out early last year to campaign for Nana Addo when Nana himself was yet to make up his mind on running for 2012.
I worked with Jake in Nana’s strategy team last year, especially during the important campaign to expand the party’s electoral college against efforts from the Alan;Kufuor camp to stop the expansion. At NEC, Jake and I campaigned for one-man-one-vote but agreed to this important step of giving the vote to all polling station executives. I worked with him during the campaign and I know he is the best man to chair the party.
You will notice that Alhaji Bamba appears on both tickets for National Organizer. Such are the dynamics of internal politics. Whilse the Alan camp has a second choice in Isaac Eduosar Edumadze, John Boadu is preferred by the Akufo-Addo camp.
The same goes for General Secretary position. The Alan Camp, with the prompting of J A Kufuor, flirted with the Yaw Buaben Asamoa project. They abandoned Ohene Ntow, who got Kufuor’s support in 2005, because they had concluded that Ohene Ntow was ineffective, incompetent and simply lazy, spending too much of his time quarrelling with his chairman rather than running the party. Ohene Ntow simply was not able to protect and promote the Alan-Kufuor agenda as was hoped.
Buaben Asamoa, a lawyer and former special aide to Vice President Aliu Mahama, offered an exciting option. So, he was given the money and resources to go out there and try his luck. But, it soon became apparent that he was not known in the party and would at best split votes. Even in his homebase, Ashanti Region, he was no match for Sir John. Now, it is calculated that Ohene Ntow can at least depend on his incumbency factor to pull enough votes to upset the others.
Also, importantly, Ntow is from the Eastern Region, where Nana Addo hails. If Ntow wins and Ntim wins then it means no Ashanti holding any high office in the party! So, why not the flagbearership going back to the Ashanti Region!
A similar thing about options happened in the Akufo-Addo camp. Both Sir John and Obeng Busia were first associated with that camp. It soon became obvious that Obeng Busia had very little to go on except his family name. He was not flying. His message to delegates were most uninspiring. The news in party circles is that Nana Akufo-Addo dispatched Gabby Otchere Darko to persuade the former Consular General to New York to step down or risk splitting the votes. But, Mr. Busia would not listen and in fact felt very insulted by the gesture.
The news is that, Nana Akufo-Addo has even abandoned him and be secretly supporting Capt. Nkrabeah Effah Dartey, the dark horse.
Nkrabeah and Bamba have something that appeals to NPP rank and file – militancy. For the Women’s Organizer job, it is a straight fight between the experienced and motivational speaker, Madam Christie and the younger but beautiful newcomer Otiko. The Central Region, would be a very important battlefront for 2012. To have a strong respectful woman from there like Christie doing for the NPP what Ama Benyiwa Doe did for the NDC in 2008 is what the NPP needs.
There should be nothing stopping Otiko from working under Christie as one of the two deputies if she indeed has something to offer, which I believe she has.
Otiko is heavily sponsored by former President Kufuor. Christie, a diehard Nana loyalist is firmly in Nana’s camp and she is even said to be a member of Nana’s strategy team.
The Youth contest is narrowing down to a straight fight between Sticker (Alan) and Karbo (Nana). Stephen Amoah and Michael Kwabena Ampong were both of the Alan camp. But in the early part of 2009, Ampong threw his support behind Nana. Yet, he complained of not getting the needed support to pursue his ambition from Nana and when he went back to Alan had lost the trust he enjoyed as Alan’s spokesman in 2007.
I like Michael Ampong and I hope he gets the logistical support to make a good run for the job. He is respectful and hardworking. His Central Regional background and Accra links can also be useful.
Sticker who enjoys a close relationship with former Chief of Staff Kwadwo Mpiani is Alan’s man and has been bankrolled for the contest. Alan, who is seeking to capture the youth wing of the party is said to value that position more than even the National Organizer job. Pius Enam Hadzide’s candidacy is not making waves, even though he enjoys the support of Peter Mac Manu, the current National Chairman of the NPP.
For the Vice Chairperson positions I will urge delegates to be guided by the need for regional balance at the party’s national office. Here, there is an opportunity to have a strong woman from the Western Region, Sophia Horner-Sam, Edward Collins Boateng from the Volta Region, Sheikh T B Damba for Moslems, Amadu Kaleem and Rita Asobayire from the northern parts and Fred Oware and Baaba Otoo from my own region, Central.
For the Treasurer position, I hope what they are saying about Nana Addo impressing upon Osei Ameyaw to drop for Esther Ofori for the sake of regional balance is not true. While I believe in regional balance I believe the treasurer position is more strategic than what the party has made it seem like. If Osei-Ameyaw is the one who can lead the charge to make the position assert itself especially during campaign time and in the control of campaign funds then we should allow him to contest and let the delegates decide.
Long live the NPP! Let us move forward to victory in 2012!
ARTHUR KOBINA KENNEDY
by Arthur Kobina Kennedy