I thank ex-President Kufuor sincerely but I am no traitor – Arthur K

The New Patriotic Party's communications director for Election 2008, Arthur Kobina Kennedy, says he is no traitor to the party and his only intentions for writing his controversial book, Chasing The Elephant Into The Bush, The Politics Of Complacency were to bring attention to some shortcomings in the manner the party ran its election campaign so a better campaign would be run for 2012.

He said anybody who called him a traitor would be an ignorant person, given that the Ghanaian society always boasts of being a modern society. That being the case, he said Ghana has no choice but to do what modern societies do.

“My primary concern in writing the book is how we can win in 2012, so all these things are things we can learn from so that in 2012 we can run a better, victorious campaign….The only way we're going to learn to become modern is by learning from our mistakes. People want to cover things up. All those who are talking about you are this you are that, they are doing all this because they are scared that the things they did might be exposed to light of day. How does exposing the fact that the campaign was badly run make you a traito?”

Arthur K' was responding to questions posed by Adakabre Frimpong Manso on Hot FM's morning show on Monday.

The author expressed gratitude for the former President J.A. Kufuor for acknowledging the work he had done in writing the book and also drawing his attention to aspects of the contents he thought might be corrected. Arthur Kennedy said ex-President Kufuors views would certainly be considered in his future review of the book.

“I appreciate President Kufuor very much, he, unlike other people who didn't read the book, he took time to read the book and he commended me for it and he has raised substantive issues, enti first meda n'ase paa so I do not have any problem with him expressing his concerns. Actually I have responded to his letter he sent to me and I have assured him that as I revise the book for future editions I will be guided by the concerns he has raised.”

Responding further to issues he wrote about in his book and specifically on ex-President Kufuor's alleged role in why the NPP failed to show up for the Tain constituency 'outstanding' poll to determine which of the party's candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and that of the National Democratic Congress' now President J.E.A. Mills had won the presidential race, Arthur Kennedy said then President Kufuor, in the palace of the Wenchihene, openly declared that “Okyena yεnto aba wo Tain,” (to wit, tomorrow there will no election in Tain).

“Of course once he said that… I and a lot of people who were with him, had the impression that he may have been privy to some information on the basis of which he made that assertion. He does explain in his communication with me that, you know, the Electoral Commissioner, I know all those things about the Electoral Commission's powers but I think that when the President says something like that then people have reason to assume that he knows something that is why he is saying that but I don't want to quarrel with that.”

Story by Isaac Yeboah/Myjoyonline