By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Garden City, New York

May 11, 2014



He is a Member of Parliament from the very town of Asante-Mampong in which I was born. But until he recently declared his intention to spoil for the flagbearership of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), I had never heard of Mr. Francis Addai-Nimoh (See Addai-Nimoh Urges NPP Leadership to Remain Neutral" Graphic Online / Ghanaweb.com 5/10/14). At 48 years old, he is also a tad younger than yours truly.



Mr. Addai-Nimoh is also described as a civil engineer who graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and styles himself as one who has carved a significant niche in the area of "infrastructural development." That may just well be the case, except that, generally speaking, the level of infrastructural development in the country still leaves much to be desired. This means that however impressive his own achievements in this field may have been, there is still much more room for improvement.



For instance, nearly 50-percent of the country's roads are in dire need of upgrading, as is also nearly 70-percent (it could actually be higher) of the country's residential facilities which direly lack modern toilets and sewer systems. In other words, if Mr. Addai-Nimoh wants to make himself even more useful and professionally significant to the Ghanaian people across all political divides, one would expect that the best way to do so, is for him to remain in his chosen profession and further establish and creditably acquit himself as the go-to-man on national policy in this critical field of endeavor.



Already, the number of aspirants gunning for the flagbearership nomination of the New Patriotic Party is becoming as bizarrely farcical as it was in 2008. And the mere invocation of the name of former President John Agyekum-Kufuor as a magical formula would simply not work. Yes, having managerial skills in the field of civil engineering would be a plus at the seat of the presidency, but at this moment what Ghana needs most is one with remarkable economic-management skills and the practical experience to back the same up.



That leader also needs to be politically astute and with a proven track-record on the national front. And so far, at least based on the little that I have gleaned vis-a-vis the professional and political background of Mr. Addai-Nimoh, the latter clearly does not seem to be a prime candidate for the presidency at this time. He ought to, however, be commended for having carved out a quite remarkable niche for himself at the grassroots. The latter achievement, in due course, will serve as his strong back wind, should Mr. Addai-Nimoh, down the pike, as it were, decide to go for the presidency.



What fascinates me here about the man, though, is the fact that he would so shamelessly presume to lecture his fellow NPP leaders to remain neutral in the lead-up to the election of the party's flagbearer for Election 2016, even while he, himself, cavalierly ignores his own advice by not only taking up the gauntlet of the party's presidential nomination fisticuffs, but also going to the rather presumptuous extent of calling himself "the David of the moment in the NPP who will rise from [being virtually] unkown to [literally becoming a household name]."



Or maybe Mr. Addai-Nimoh had in mind Mr. Agyekum-Kufuor's widely alleged favoring of one particular candidate in the lead-up to the party delegates' election of its flagbearer for the 2008 presidential election. Either way, Mr. Addai-Nimoh is apt to be far more effective in preaching neutrality as a non-flagbearership contender than as one among the pack.



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