I’m The Finest Owusu-Adjapong

MR. FELIX Kwesi Owusu-Adjapong, a leading contender in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearership race, slated for December 22, 2007, has said he possesses one of the finest track-records and is well-positioned for the presidency after the tenure of President John Agyekum Kufuor in January, 2009.

He also reiterated his earlier stance that he was not joining the race to buttress someone else’s chances and promised to win the much needed political hat-trick for the party.

According to him, judging from the civil nature of his campaign, there is every reason to state that he is currently one of the few personalities around capable of unifying the party.

The aspirant, who is referred to as the original unifier of the nation’s ruling party, said he had won the admiration of many in the NPP and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), adding that he very often prefers to maintain a low profile in the scheme of events and allow others to blow his horn for him.

Speaking on Radio Gold’s ‘Platform Africa’, the former Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, said he did not create the name ‘unifier’ for himself, and that it was bestowed on him by friends in the NPP, the way his colleagues in the NDC preferred to call him ‘the great leader’.

“Like every human institution, there are bound to be disagreements here and there, but when you are able to solve the problem by talking to both sides and eventually win power like I did in 1998, definitely they will refer to me as a unifier who is capable of unifying the country in any circumstance.

They say my presence means we are getting closer to finding a solution,” he said.

The Akim Swedru MP said even though the reason why people chose him as a unifier was obvious, the onus falls on any presidential aspirant in the party who tries to lay claim to the name, to prove himself.

Asked if he was not a dark horse in the primary race, Hon. Owusu-Adjapong said, on the contrary, he was one of the few aspirants who had more than the required number of party people to endorse his nomination form.

“Owusu-Adjapong is one person who does not like undue publicity. There are a lot of things which I have done for the party and the country, but which I always package to look like collective achievement.

I always try to settle things behind-the-scenes, and that is why some people say I am a bully. It is probably because they have not worked so closely with me. Yes, it’s good to blow your horn, but not too much,” he contended.

On the rumours that he joined the race as a dummy for Alan Kyerematen, Adjapong said the assertion should be treated with the contempt it deserved, stressing that it would not make any political sense to dummy for someone less experienced than him.

“I am older than him, and perhaps I have had more working experience than him. I wouldn’t like to talk about paper qualification, but if anything, is it not the bigger fish that swallows the smaller one? That should have been good logic,” he said.

He explained that by being a Member of Parliament for all this while, he had an added advantage over the former Trade and Industry Minister, and assured the public that he would not resign his position as a minister, pick up a form, pay his filing fee of ¢250 million, go for vetting, tour the entire country, and meet the media several times all with the mission of boosting someone else’s chances.

“They never expected me to come this far in the race. Perhaps it is because people are now becoming frightened at my presence and qualities or probably because nothing negative has been said about me.”

He also debunked assertions that he could be hatching plans to join Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

At the end of the two-hour programme, a number of callers, some of whom are die-hard NDC activists, said they were impressed with his presentation and wouldn’t mind voting for him should he be picked as NPP candidate for the 2008 general elections.

It would be recalled that the aspirant had always maintained that the ruling party would have to sing a different song from the one they sang in 2000 and 2004 to the electorate if it hoped to win the next election.

He also promised his government would be a pragmatic one. Calling it ‘from research to implementation’, the aspirant said his programmes would be Ghanaian-centred.

Two months ago, when he submitted his forms and launched his campaign in the ongoing flagbearership race, a number of MPs openly stated that the long search for a successor to President Kufuor should be declared over as the right person had now been discovered.

By Bennett Akuaku