Alan Gets Set For NPP Battle

Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen 
Two leading members of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) yesterday filed their nominations to contest in the flagebearership race of the party.

They are Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen popularly known as 'Alan Cash' and the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for Mampong, Michael Addai-Nimo.

Long before he arrived at the national headquarters of the NPP, which is located at Asylum Down in Accra, several of Alan's supporters wearing T-shirts with his photographs boldly embossed on them, had besieged the place amidst drumming and dancing.

At the time, journalists from the various media houses had also started arriving for the event which was scheduled to take place at 9:30am.

Team
An hour later, the man himself arrived at the party headquarters in the company of two other leading members of the party, namely the Volta Regional Minister in the Kufuor Administration, Kofi Dzamesi, and former General Secretary of the NPP, Nana Ohene-Ntow, who now speaks for Alan.

Their arrival sent the supporters into wild jubilation amidst chants of 'Alan!', 'Alan!!', 'Alan!!!'

After exchanging pleasantries with his supporters, Alan walked straight up to effect payment for submission of the forms (the actual filing process) by issuing a cheque for GH¢75,000 to make for the GH¢85, 000 expected to be paid by each aspirant after which he was issued a receipt for the payment by NPP General Secretary, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong.

This added to the initial GH¢10, 000 as nomination fee.

Charge
General Secretary of the party admonished all aspirants in the flagbearership race to desist from doing things that would bring the image of the party into disrepute, saying, 'We wish that aspirants will hold their spokespersons, their assigns, their agents responsible for their conduct and we do believe that it should be conduct that will generate confidence for our party.'

He therefore asked all aspirants to show a sense of civility to each other since flagbearership contest was a family affair.

'The national executives will not hesitate to bring sanctions on anybody who goes against the guidelines governing the race.'

Mr Agyepong stressed the need for all those contesting the flagbearership race to work hard to kick the National Democratic Congress (NDC) out of power in 2016 when the country goes to the polls to elect a President.

Commitment
On his part, Alan stressed the need for unity in the party while committing himself to the building of party structures at the grassroots level.

In view of the challenges confronting the nation, he asked government to set up a bi-partisan economic reconstruction team to tackle Ghana's ailing economy.

'As a matter of urgency, government should put together a bipartisan team of advisors and experts to develop and formulate a new economic reconstruction programme for Ghana to find the solution to this crisis,' he noted.

The team, he said, should have at the centre of its agenda, the private sector, business interest and job creation as part of efforts to arrest the decline in the value of the local currency; significantly reduce government borrowing; reduce inflation on long term basis; and introduce policy measures that would lead to a decline in interest rates.

Enter Addai-Nimo
Barely an hour after Alan and his supporters had left the NPP headquarters, Michael Addai-Nimo and his supporters took over the headquarters with a brass band.

Addressing journalists after the process, he touted his credentials as a man who is selfless, credible and caring.

Though not too popular in the party, Addai-Nimo stressed the belief that he could pull a surprise at the end of the day, adding that potential will prevail over pedigree in the impending contest.

'I'm encouraged by what I'm seeing today and I can assure the national party that my campaign will be the cleanest, devoid of offensive or insulting language,' he said.

He therefore appealed to the leadership of the NPP at the various levels to ensure free, fair and transparent elections to enable those who graciously lose the elections to throw their weight behind whoever emerges as flagbearer of the party.

He decried the state of the nation, stressing the need for Ghanaians to go back to the days of 'operation feed yourself', a programme aimed at developing self-reliance in agriculture, introduced by the erstwhile Acheampong-led military regime.

 By Charles Takyi-Boadu