... Agyarko Conducts Surgical Appraisal
One of the presidential aspirants of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Boakye Agyarko,51, says the party's strength was going down in the Central Region due to the neglect of the foot-soldiers who helped the party to come to power in 2000 and subsequently retained it in 2004 .

Speaking to The Chronicle in an interview in Cape Coast on Saturday shortly after the NPP Central Regional rally at Victoria Park, Agyarko, who had relinquished his lucrative position as Vice President of the Bank of New York Bank to vie for the NPP presidential slot, told the paper that judging from what he witnessed in Cape Coast last week, indication is that the party was losing its base in the region.

"The NPP spirit that I saw in 1996 and 2000 is not the same I have witnessed presently because the foot-soldiers who died for the party to come power have been neglected thereby weighing down their spirits and enthusiasm," he lamented.

According to Agyarko, politics was not about worshipping God and hoping to reap one's reward in heaven rather it was about receiving one's reward on earth therefore it would be wrong for a party to neglect its foot -soldiers without any kind of reward or recognition.

"Let us not beat about the bush, the energy we saw in 1992, 1996 and 2000 was borne out of fundamental belief of the people that if they struggled hard for this party and maintained the status quo, their lives would be better in several ways," Agyarko said.

Agyarko explained that whether NPP supporters were expecting freedom by then, they also had the hope that their lives would be better when NPP was voted into power.

"They worked hard and won power after 30 years in opposition but ask our foot-soldiers if their lives are better of?" he asked, explaining that the answer would be a resounding no.

Agyarko has toured all the 230 constituencies thrice and noted that the neglect of the party foot-soldiers was unpardonable. He ruled out the issue of money being dished out to them rather, he said a pragmatic

approach should be adopted to salvage the situation.

He said in his 690 trips across the length and breath of the country, he noted that most NPP constituency executives were unemployed and that those people serving the party needed something extra and recognition. "These executives needed qualitative lives to carry the message of the NPP across to the people, which is very tedious," Agyarko added.

Asked whether it was policies being implemented by the NPP government which were making the members poor, he answered in the negative, explaining that there was a difference between national policy and party policy.

He cited an example of the Ghana Army and Police Service, indicating that the moral in camps during National Democratic Congress (NDC) cannot be said at present to be the same.

Agyarko, however called on national executives of the party to find lasting solution the problem saying, "it's never too late to do so."