Sakara wins CPP slot
By: Stephen Odoi-Larbi
Dr. Foster Abu Sakara
After close to thirteen hours, the curtains of the delegates Congress of the Convention People Party (CPP) were drawn at the Essipon Stadium on Saturday, with the son of Gonjaland, Dr. Foster Abu Sakara, winning the presidential slot of the party, after overcoming Bright Akwetey’s threat.
The two had entered into the closely contested battle for the flagbearership of the cockerel family amidst high hopes of outwitting each other, but the odds favoured Dr. Sakara, who now joins the heavy weights – Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) – in the 2012 race to the Castle.
Dr. Sakara polled 1,130 votes, representing 55.2 percent of the total votes cast, while Mr. Bright Akwetey polled 917 votes, representing 44.8 percent, making the election a closely contested one.
About sixteen votes were rejected in an election that was supervised by the Electoral Commission.
Internal bickering and the struggle for power delayed the CPP congress to elect a flagbearer. This led to the breakaway of some party big wigs, including the 2008 presidential candidate, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, to form the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP).
With Dr. Sakara now at the helm of affairs, it remains to be seen whether he could unite the party and turn around the ever-dwindling fortunes of the cockerel party.
Currently, the CPP has one representative Parliament in the person of Samia Yaba Nkrumah. Party offices, especially, those in the other regions apart from the capital, are also said not to be properly functioning.
It is, therefore, a heavy responsibility on the shoulders of the Sakara to join hands with leading personalities in the party to resource the CPP adequately, and make its structures function properly, in order to attract the youth into its fold.
In his acceptance speech before leaving the congress grounds, Dr. Sakara urged the delegates to have in them the can do spirit, and work hard to ensure victory for the party in the 2012 general elections.
“This day is a victory for us. Let us believe we can win. Let us leave no stone unturned in our quest for victory,” noted the great, great grandson of the late Ndewura Jakpa, founder of the great Kingdom of Gonjaland.
He told the party faithful to always remember their roots and embrace the ideals espoused by the late Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in all their doings.
Mr. Bright Akwetey, in a brief remark, said the victory of Dr. Sakara “marks the revival of the beginning of the CPP.”
Raising high Dr. Sakara’s left arm, the legal practitioner urged the Nkrumaist family to solidly rally behind the Agronomist, and give him all the cooperation he needs to enable him perform better for the party.
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