Is Kwabena Agypong Serious?

With a campaign office and team in place, dailyEXPRESS can say that the former Press Secretary to President Kufuor, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong is damn serious about becoming a president, not in the future but in 2008.

It's not just the office, but foot soldiers have already been deployed and are visiting party delegates who hold the key to who gets elected to lead the party. And he appears to be enjoying the required financial support to push through his ambition to succeed President Kufuor.

A visit to his soon to be outdoored campaign office, an impressively huge structure at Kanda, a suburb of Accra revealed a flowery of activity with lots of supposed sympathizers trooping in and out. Independent pollster and election analyst Benjamin Ephson however says the former Kufuor hatchet man should not be taken serious.

“It would be a huge joke. He is too young and should not expose himself to such a game. Kwabena does not have a constituency which is very crucial in elections” he said in an interview with this paper.

But Mr. Agyepong is very positive. According to his aides, his impressive record since the formative days of the New Patriotic Party, contributions to the party's campaign in 2000 & 2004 and as Press Secretary to the President are enough to prove his ability to lead the party.

“This is no joke at all… I can tell you the old men have begun shaking. He is very well known and firmly represented on the ground. We are currently softening the grounds for the train to take off” said an aide at the Kanda Campaign office.

Kwabena's sudden and still unexplained resignation in May 2006 as spokesperson for the president brought out many issues, including allegations that he was probably going to be dropped, was on the way to be nominated as a deputy minister which he considered a demotion and that he probably wanted out to join the campaign team of Foreign minister Nana Akuffo Addo, who he supported and campaign for prior to the 2000 elections.

According to his onetime foe, Victor Smith, spokesperson for former president Jerry Rawlings, the mystery surrounding his resignation can weigh heavily against him. “Even the circumstances surrounding his resignation are still doubtful to many within his party and this could affect him” he says.

A former Mfantsipim boy who snatched a distinction at the GCE O'level and later became a civil engineer, his aide says he has also played a key role in national politics since 1992. Mr. Agyepong was not only a key member of the NPP's Young Executive Forum when it was formed in 1992 but has played other very leading roles culminating in him becoming the voice for the Ghanaian president both home and abroad.

Mr. Ephson however says that role whilst important does not bring him any major advantages as far as his presidential ambitions are concerned. “Kwabena Agyepong is not known to the majority of electorates who are rural dwellers. The fact that he was the press secretary of the president does not mean he is known to the entire country, he may be known in Accra and a few other cities but that cannot make him win an election.”

Mr. Smith on his part thinks Mr. Agyepong is perceived rightly or wrongly as arrogant and cheeky even within his own party, adding that a presidential material must have a personality which appeals to everybody regardless of which party he/she belongs to.

He noted that despite Kwabena Agyepong's extensive exposure as press secretary to the president, his personality would negatively affect his chances. “He should carve a better image for himself first before considering thoughts of becoming a presidential candidate for the NPP” he concluded.

The public perception and views about their candidate is not lost on his managers, who agree that the personality of Mr. Agyepong beyond what people have known him for must be promoted.

“He does not have a constituency which is very crucial in elections and as I said earlier, Kwabena should not expose himself to such a game” insists Mr. Ephson who does not believe that any massive PR work will necessarily work in favour of Mr. Agyepong.

He also thinks that Mr. Agyepong like Captain (Rtd) Nkrabeah Effah Dartey will forget about their ambitions and throw their weight behind a far better candidate weeks to the primaries.

Mr. Agyepong's aides however say, they'll not waste all that money, effort, time and logistics for the sake of it.

A profile handed over to the dailyEXPRESS at his campaign office says Mr. Agyepong was recently in the US to deliver a lecture at the Africa Foundation on Leadership and Public Accountability in Africa.

An ardent sports enthusiast, the former press secretary is married with three children and professionally has worked on several projects “ranging from geotechnical investigations for the construction of a new Ball Mill for GHACEM, to the design, supervision and construction of a 150-unit housing complex and all related external infrastructure for the then Ashanti Goldfields Company.”