Saturday November 4, 2023, will determine who will pick the flag of the New Patriotic Party and lead the party into battle to break-the-eight in the 2024 General Elections which is slated for Saturday, December 7, 2024.
A tough five-man race was reduced to four when frontliner Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen dropped out and left the NPP to contest as an independent candidate.
The four remaining giants are Addai-Nimo, Agyapong, Akoto and Bawumia and the attacking comments on these coming from the NDC, underline a spirit of fear in that party.
Francis Addai-Nimo: A rather quiet and gentle fellow, who is determined to present a new face on the 2024 ballot. There is nothing much on him from the NDC even though in August 2016, he had attacked the opposition party of being the cause of Ghana’s economic woes after been in control of the country for twenty-seven years, from the PNDC to the NDC.
It is very obvious that what he said was true and the NDC could not find themselves defending it. Such a fellow could certainly take Ghana to the skies, when elected president, because he identifies problems and can come out with solutions.
Kennedy Agyapong: A fire-brand and no-nonsense fellow, which is also the type needed to quickly react to issues and even throw away friendship and relationship and deal with the wrong-doers. Such a fellow does not ‘tuu-sebi.’ Considering the way things have been going on in this country, with corruption, irresponsibility, mismanagement and other vices reining high, Kennedy is the one much needed to whip people in line.
Recently, the NDC came out saying Kennedy Agyapong will introduce lawlessness when he becomes president. This is one point which shows the fear for Kennedy. For Kennedy is a slight reflection of the Rawlings the PNDC/NDC produced and presented to Ghana as head-of-state. Who can be said to be more lawless a leader we ever had in this country, than Jerry John Rawlings?
He who beat up his vice during cabinet meeting, he who overturns vehicles in the street, he who could come out of closed-door meetings with other presidents and tell the whole world how he blasted some of his colleagues, he who could order that a parish priest of Christ the King Catholic Church be disciplined because he heard noises coming out from the nearby church when he was making a speech doing an anniversary celebration of his revolution at the Revolution Square.
I suspect that the NDC members are feeling jittery, just imagining how they will live under a Rawlings figure again. Yes, Rawlings could whip the party members in line and discipline them. This is what they do not want to live through again. With Kennedy Agyapong as president, woe betides anyone who drops down his guard.
Afriyie Akoto: One thing that has directly hit the opposition NDC in the face and dislodged the thinking of its members is this Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ). This project, masterminded by this agriculturist/politician, has proven that food production can become a fortune earner for the poor farmer and food can become very cheap for the ordinary Ghanaian.
Readers, ignore the high cost of foodstuffs in the capital. Only last Monday, I placed an order for yams and fish from Ejura and paid GH¢50.00 to Accra. I had nine very big tubers of yam for GH¢100.00. Selling on the streets of Accra, smaller tubers of yam are going for GH¢20.00 – GH¢25.00 each.
Assuming the transportation cost of my yams was GH¢ 25.00, then the starting price for each tuber, which is almost one and a half times the size of those being sold on the streets of Accra, will be less than GH¢ 14.00.
A God-fearing former NDC MP for Ejura-Sekyere-Dumase, Alhaji Mohammed Issifu Pangadu, who greatly benefited from the PFJ, came out to give glowing testimonies. The NDC made him take a sacred oath of silence, never to talk in public again, especially on matters concerning farming.
The NDC knows that it will be doomed if Afriyie Akoto becomes president, because the poor farmer are always deceives, and will see the light of salvation and abandon the party.
Mahamudu Bawumia: This is one person the NDC will never want to be president. In short, he is much disliked by the opposition party for many reasons. One was the fact that immediately after becoming vice president, BoG governor Addison, halted a deal with Sibton Switch which would have made the NDC steal over $1.1 billion from the state, even when in opposition. Bawumia came along and got the deal through with a more superior company at only $45 million, clearly exposing the NDC on its gross and reckless corrupt practices.
As for calling Bawumia, a liar, if failed campaign promises can be said to be lies, then it is more like pointing one finger at him and the other four pointing at the NDC members.
Like any of the above three, the NDC will feel very uncomfortable with Bawumia as president, since their insincerity with Ghanaians will be exposed.
With the polls coming on Saturday, I only pray that no violence, erupts at the 276 polling stations, so that whoever is elected flag bearer will have a united will of party members behind him. Good luck to all the gentlemen.
Hon. Daniel Dugan
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.
