NPP Primaries: Showdowns And Stepdowns – A Commentary

In Hollywood, the birthday parties of cool and popular kids at school are always so popular with a jamboree of comments flying about the whole school. That is the same with the New Patriotic Party’s primaries, which has got the whole country talking.

In Ghana now the Osono(elephant) which is the most influential party (although some people do not agree) will go to the polls on November 4 of this year in search of a candidate to replace “so me hwe” meaning try me and see aka Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo Addo our President.

They have coined a mantra breaking the eight, meaning they are pleased with the current form of Addo Danquah, who recently just said in all honesty that he has fought a good fight; he has finished the race…

Ladies and Gentlemen, our President is done with his work and although he continues to say that we should trust his government to continue their service to the people. It is however safe to say insinuate that our President is done serving because according to him, he has finished a race which will end in 2024 in 2023.

Okay enough with fellow Ghanaians, he has finished his race let us not make him run further.

The NPP’s primaries this year is perhaps its most important primaries since the party’s founding, because the man who will be elected on November 4 is expected to make sure they win the 2024 elections and become the only party in the 4^th republic to go into a third term after serving two terms.

The story is out there and you all know already, that is if you follow Ghana’s “Politricks”. In view of the elections ten candidates picked the forms and all were given the go ahead by the vetting committee to contest. And so according the party’s constitution, if they are ten they should be reduced to five by a special electoral college called THE SUPER DELEGATES. They are the cool guys of the party basically the Ministers, Members of Parliament and the rest.

The election took place on August 26^th and the outcome has been interesting. There have been some showdowns which have resulted in some people bowing out of the race.

The conversation continues...
OSONO’S BIG LEAGUE CONFERENCE
The delegates conference of the NPP was an event of surprises. There were some missiles of words thrown at the President and Vice President whilst some other people got their faces bashed. A little bit surprising for an internal election to have ended on such a brutal note, but at the end of the day politricking wins.

_{THE SHOWDOWN RANT
Kennedy Agyapong, Member Of Parliament for Assin Central}

It turned out one man was not pleased with how one of his agents was treated and in anger he made some pretty daring comments.

“...President Akuffo Addo mema wo showdown, Vice President mema wo showdown se mo mo a chase me agent”… As usual Assin Central MP, Kennedy Agyapong had a lot to say blaming the President and Vice for how his agent was treated.

Our honorable MP had been doing well this couple of days; he was very much composed in all his interviews leading to the elections. But he could not hold it down anymore and then declared a ceasefire operation to all diplomatic ways, now whoever touches him will get a showdown- Kennedy Agyapong Has Spoken

Meanwhile whilst some people had swept more than 600 votes and others did their best to stay in the 100 mark, people like Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku had 0(zero). What happened! that we cannot tell, but what we know is that delegates did not see breaking the 8 in him.

At least they saw breaking the 8 in Bawumia, but some other people disagree. After the election they have been all over the place spewing a lot of words. Although they qualified into the top three, they do not seem to be happy with their position. And so they have gone ahead to do this;

ADURU ME SO HAS STEPPED DOWN, SO WHAT NEXT

^{Alan Kojo Kyeramaten, Former Minister for Trade and Industry}

Alan Kojo Kyeramaten known popularly in political circles as Alan Cash has decided to end his journey. He will not be contesting in the November 4 polls, and what are his reasons. He released a presser summing the details.

_{Alan’s Reasons}

• “After having carefully analyzed the results of the said elections, it is absolutely clear to me from events leading to, during and after the elections, that the Special Delegates Conference was strategically and tactically skewed in favour of one particular Aspirant. “

• “The level of intimidation of varying intensity, directly and indirectly unleashed on a significant number of Delegates at various Voting Centers across the sixteen regions, is unprecedented in the history of our Party. In addition, the fact that my Polling Agent in the North East region has suffered severe damage to his eye sight, arising from his bold and courageous effort to ensure compliance with the very rules and regulations for the conduct of the elections as approved by the Presidential Elections Committee, will forever remain a dark spot in the history of internal elections within the Party. This incident and various acts of violence and collusion, reported in other Voting Centers, are appalling, unconscionable, and despicable”…

HERE IS WHAT I CAN SAY
Well it seems Alan Cash is running away from more shame, because he performed miserably at the Super delegates conference. As a founding father Alan Cash could have done better, but maybe he himself is the cause.

Mr. Kyeramaten has always believed he is a politician, but I have always seen him to be a diplomat. His political run over the years has been disastrous.

As many have said, Alan Kyeramaten fell in touch with the party’s base a long time ago. Alan Kyeramaten contested for the party’s Flagbearer in 2007, but had to step down for Akuffo Addo to be the Flagbearer in order to prevent a run-off.

Reading meaning into this, it shows that Alan Cash at the time was the man of the moment. But what did he do he went to sleep. Let us say if Mr. Kyeramaten had went ahead to contest for even a party chairman, general secretary or even an MP would he be in this shameful situation now? I will answer it myself an absolute NO!

Losing control of the party’s base lost him a chance as the party’s Flagbearer a long time ago.

At this point all I can say is Alan Cash has chickened out of the real contest in November 4, he does not want to be overwhelmed by the loss as has happened in the super delegates conference.

For those of us who don’t know, Mr. Alan Kyeramaten would have lost, and the results would have been damming.

So I respect his decision because his is not different from someone I know in the person of Dr. Kwabena Duffour who also stepped down from his party’s primaries with similar reasons of irregularities associated with the party.

He Duffour, I and several other Ghanaians knew he would not make it so honorably he resigned just as Alan Kyeramaten has done. Alan Cash says he will be updating us on the way forward in his political career in the days to come. But there have already been some recommendations running around.

There are speculations riding on horses seriously mounting morale on the phrase independent candidate, some are even saying he will form his party.

Here is my take, as an independent candidate the brand Alan will sell, but as a political party the brand Alan will drown.

So we conclude...
As I draw down the curtain on this piece, all I can say is “I SHALL RETURN”.

The politricking continues…