body-container-line-1
22.02.2007 General News

Addo Kufuor seconds JH`s ‘No Beauty Contest’ motion

22.02.2007 LISTEN
By : T he Chronicle

Defence Minister, Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor is reported by The Chronicle newspaper as expressing appreciation for and commending former Senior Minister Mr. J. H. Mensah, on his declaration that the flagbearership for the New Patriotic Party was no beauty contest.

“Let's give credit to Hon. J.H. Mensah for his comment passed in Koforidua that the NPP Presidential race is not a beauty contest,” he commented in an interview with The Chronicle over the weekend.

According to the Defence Minister, who is one of the NPP presidential aspirants and also MP for Manhyia, since Mr. J. H. Mensah made the declarations, delegates and members of the elephant party had shifted their minds from personalities to issues.

Dr. Addo Kufuor noted that the remarks of the former Senior Minister and now Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) were helping him and he could boldly say that he was among the leading contenders in the NPP Presidential race.

The Defence Minister disclosed to the paper that since J. H. Mensah's declaration, wherever he went to campaign, the delegates saw him as someone who could lead the party to victory, come 2008.

He said, “Now, the focus of our kingmakers is on issues and not on cash, handsomeness or 'It is my turn,” adding that the theory of dynasty, which was being used against him had been eroded in the minds of delegates and members of the NPP.

The Minister said that everybody in the party had now realized his performance and achievements at the Defence Ministry over the past six years.

“What the people are now saying is that we need someone like Hon. Dr. Addo Kufuor to lead the party, since his role as a Minister of State has no question marks”, he said.

The Defence Minister, now doing his tour of the Ashanti Region only on weekends, told the paper in Wenchi after he had held a campaign meeting with the delegates from Ahafo Ano North at Tepa that he believed things were working for him, since he received standing ovations and commendations from delegates during and after his campaign activities.

Dr. Addo Kufuor and his campaign team were in Wenchi to mourn with Nana Atta Fena, National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) Regional Coordinator in Brong Ahafo, during the final funeral rites of his late father.

He maintained that the belief by Ghanaians and a section of the NPP that the Ashanti Region was a stronghold of Alan Kyeremanten had disappeared.

Dr. Addo Kufuor therefore urged other regions not to look at money or handsomeness, but performance, because the NPP needed to continue with its good works currently spread all over the country.

In a related development, the Defence Minister advised his colleague presidential aspirants not to use their working hours to travel around the country to embark on their campaign activities at the expense of the nation.

“We need to work to suit Ghanaians, but stealing time from our working hours will mean disservice to the nation.”

The Minister made the appeal at Wenchi when speaking to The Chronicle on how he does his campaign.

He said that he preferred using only weekends to do his campaign and gradually he would cover the whole nation. He therefore encouraged other aspirants to do same, so that they could move the country forward.

Source: T he Chronicle

body-container-line