SLAMS ‘AGED’ ASPIRANTS

One of the Presidential aspirants in the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Alan Kyeremanten, has urged delegates of the party who would be voting to choose a presidential candidate to lead the party during the 2008 elections, to ignore old presidential aspirants.

Sources close to The Chronicle revealed that Kyeremanten, who is the Minister of Trade, Industry and President’s Special Initiative (PSI), hit the campaign trail in Cape Coast, the nerve centre of Ghanaian politics, to test his popularity among delegates of the Central Regional branch of the party at a meeting held at the regional capital last Friday.

It was at the said meeting that he admonished polling station chairmen and constituency executives to ignore old aspirants who would be approaching them to seek their votes. “We don’t want old people, who would collapse during their campaigning activities, to retain the party in power.”

Mr. Kyeremanten, widely known among keen observers of the presidential race as the darling boy of President John Kufuor, contended that it was time for the party to elect a young and energetic person like himself, who would rove throughout the country to garner votes and secure victory for the party in the 2008 elections.

He said the old aspirants should sit behind and offer advice to the younger ones like him, who would be capable of absorbing the heat from all angles.

Though he did not mention names, considering his age, other aspirants like Nana Akufo Addo, Hackman Owusu Agyemang, Yaw Osafo Marfo, Prof. Mike Oquaye and Dr. Addo Kufuor, the President’s brother who is fighting all odds to secure the position, can be described as relatively older, and perhaps those Kyeremanten’s advice was meant for.

Mr. Kyeremanten, who will be in the competition with his wife’s brother, the US-based banker, Boakye Agyarko, has until few months now been quiet on his presidential bid. He decided to associate himself with the legacy of President Kufuor by observing that the NPP government had done a lot for Ghana, citing numerous roads under construction and urged party members to be proud of the gains of the party and government.

His message went down well with the people when he told the constituency executives that the Central Region, his mother’s home region, was dear to his heart. The people at the meeting also urged him to keep his word.

The Minister started his campaigning at this year’s Bakatue festival held in Elmina last month when he called on the people at the durbar to consider the good works of the NPP and retain the party in power in 2008.

The Minister was transferred from his ambassadorial designation in the United States a few yews ago for what was speculatively said to be an attempt by the President to locally groom him for the Presidential position.

And now that he has declared his intentions for the presidency, it is yet to be known whether President Kufuor will be giving him the sack as he said he would, during a presidential press conference at the Castle in August last year, with any Minister who declared presidential intentions while in office.