BACK-OFF, DCEs! Owusu-Adjapong warns them not to interfere in selection of NPP delegates

Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives across the country have been cautioned to stay away from the ongoing process leading to the selection of the flagbearer of the governing New Patriotic Party for 2008 general election.

Felix Owusu-Adjapong, a presidential aspirant of the NPP and MP for Akyem Swedru, gave the warning yesterday when he addressed the media after filing his nomination at the party headquarters in Accra.

He said the warning has become necessary because oftentimes DCEs, who ought to know the remit of their job, out of exuberance overstep their bounds and meddle in active politics of the NPP.

He stated categorically that DCEs have no special role to play in the NPP flagbearership selection and therefore should not allow themselves to be used to influence who become delegates in their respective districts in the forthcoming delegates congress.

"DCEs have no role to play when it comes to NPP, indeed they are the grandchildren of the party and the President is the son,” he stressed. Known to be a very strong loyalist of President Kufuor, the former Majority Leader could still not hide his anxiety. On allegations that the President may use DCEs to push through his preferred candidate, Mr Owusu-Adjapong remarked: “I still treat him [the President] as the gentle giant who will not deceive me.”

The former Parliamentary Affairs Ministers noted that it is the party which makes a President and that NPP is not a one man's party.

“It is not for nothing that NPP has no founder or a leader,” he said. Instead, the presidential aspirant pointed out that what the party has is founding members.

He also charged constituency executives to live up to expectations and be bold to ensure fairness and transparency in the selection of the delegates. Touching on the allegation that President Kufuor supports one of the nineteen presidential aspirants, Mr Owusu-Adjapong said the president has on three occasions, one in his presence, denied backing one of them and urged potential delegates to resist and remind any of the aspirants who uses the President"s name to campaign to desist.

His warning comes after reports of undue influence exerted by some DCEs in last month’s selection of delegates in some constituencies. The exercise was later nullified by the party leadership as contrary to the instructions of the NPP National Council that the delegates must be selected and the full list presented to all candidates two weeks before the December 22 congress. Though the selection of the 2,300 constituency delegates will begin November 27 and end on December 8, The Statesman can report that most of the 19 aspirants are genuinely anxious about the integrity of the process.

The prospect of DCEs throwing their weight in the congress hall on December 22 to ensure delegates from constituencies under them 'behave’ and vote ‘accordingly’ is sending nervous shrieks through the aspirations of several candidates.

The argument against the DCEs, who are appointed by the President of the Republic is that, they may feel compelled to exploit their huge influence at the local level to favour a particular candidate. Their role assumes the constitutional fiction of the non-partisan nature of the district assembly concept. While one school argues that this means they cannot even put themselves up to be selected as delegates for the NPP congress, others argue that their constitutional role does not bar them from being ordinary card-holding members of the party. A similar criticism faced the NDC when in power they attempted to make DCEs party delegates, a project the ruling party then was forced to abandon. While some of their critics may not be in principle against the selection of DCEs as delegates, the major concern revolves around the ‘control’ and authority their position grants them over delegates from their area of jurisdiction. This, it is feared, could see them ‘conducting’ proceedings not only at the selection of delegates stage but ultimately in the hall when delegates will be nominating the next presidential candidate of the NPP. Mr Owusu-Adjapong’s warning is, therefore, a reflection of a common concern. He also admonished, “As a former member of the Steering Committee and consequently member of Executive Committee, and the National Council of the NPP, my pieces of advice to the executives of our party is that they should continue to avoid enacting rules and regulations they cannot enforce and continue to make laws that can stand the test of time. This is because the moment they enact laws that become applicable only to a section and not all, because they cannot ensure total enforcement, it will be indicative of ineffectiveness and suggestive of open display of biases.” Yesterday, the former Majority Leader became the fifteenth aspirant to file and just like the style he adopted when he picked his forms few weeks ago, there was no fanfare. Though the press was duly invited to attend in their numbers. On why he joined the NPP race, Mr Owusu-Adjapong,63, said, “The current circumstances and indeed 2009 and beyond demand someone of the calibre of Felix Kwasi Owusu-Adjapong, a development-oriented person to lead the NPP and ultimately Ghana.” The former Parliamentary Affairs said he reached the decision after wide consultation with ‘kingmakers’ of the party. He adds, “General theories will not be tolerated in 2009.” He debunked the rumours that he was fronting for a colleague aspirant in the race and assured his supporters that he was in the race for real and will contest to the fullest. Describing himself as a “Unifier”, the presidential aspirant stated that he has done it before when a crisis within the party became imminent in 1998 saying “I have the proven track record and as the leader of the party, I will not be found wanting to do same in future when the need arises.” He maintains that his conviction that only Ghanaians can develop Ghana remains unflinching and notes, “Ghanaians want to be challenged and in fact Ghanaians come out with their best when we are challenged.”

He gave four criteria the NPP delegates are looking for and they are; a good party person, a good party who can unite the party and the country, who is liked by floating voters, and a party person with reasonable qualification and experience.

He charged pollsters to adopt these criteria when they are conducting surveys on the chances of the NPP presidential aspirants. Asked whether he supports the Busia-Danquah-Dombo, Mr Owusu-Adjapong claimed to have mooted the idea and that if Chief Dombo had been selfish Busia would not have become the leader of UP.

According to him, it is important we keep accurate history and disclosed that NPP mainly originated from the North and is therefore not appropriate to describe it as an Akan party.