Countrymen and women, loyalists and opponents,

I was very pleasantly surprised (for me it was an Independence Day surprise) when I heard and read that another Wayo has left my party. The latest Wayo to leave my New Promises Party is not as garrulous and self-conceited, even though he is as power-hungry, as the first one who wanted Paa Kwesi?s job so badly. This Wayo is of a different breed all together. He is intelligent, very soft-spoken and he was once a very high ranking member of my party. I will call him Wayo S.

He helped formulate some of the difficult promises we have not been able to fulfill for the past four years. He was a very loyal member of the party until I refused to choose him as my running mate for the elections in 2000. As soon as I chose Maliu over him, Wayo S developed an unusual talent, which made it very easy for him to find fault with everything I did. Whenever he heard me singing, he would say I was coughing too much. If he saw me dancing he would criticize me for hopping like a frog. Things got out of hand when some cruel barbarians assassinated the King of Dagbon, Ya Na Yakubu Andani. Even though he was not technically a member of the party at the time of the Ya Na?s assassination he remained sympathetic to our course until that fateful day in Yendi.