I Can Lead NPP – Dan Botwe

DAN Kwaku Botwe, one of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer aspirants, has described members of his party as wonderful people who have more trust in him than in any of the other aspirants, because they had tested him and succeeded.

Mr. Botwe said he knows the members of the NPP and the way they behave, particularly when it comes to times like this; “they would receive everybody warmly and equally, but at the end of the day, they know who they want to vote for and that person is me.”

According to Mr. Botwe, a former General Secretary and Minister of Information, the delegates to the NPP December 22 congress at the University of Ghana, Legon, would surely give him the nod to lead the party.

“They have trust in me that if they give the green light, I can lead NPP to the promised land,” he said.

Referring to the Biblical saying – ‘Not all those who say Lord! Lord! will enter into the Kingdom of God, except those who do his will’- Mr. Botwe said he is the person who does what the people of NPP want and would surely be there after December 22nd.

The aspirant indicated that, come December 22nd, he would be elected as NPP presidential candidate.

He noted that among the 18 aspirants vying for the party’s topmost position, he was the only person who had won a national congress election before to become the General Secretary.

According to him, NPP members had never regretted voting him as the General Secretary, because as Chief Executive Officer of the party, he led it to power in the 2000 general elections and subsequently maintained power for the NPP.

He said, “Any presidential aspirant has the right to say he would win because no one goes into election competition to lose; so they can go ahead and say so, but at the end of the day, they would be laughing at the wrong side of their mouth.”

Those who wanted to drag the NPP presidential race into tribal politics, according to Mr. Botwe, were not helping the party, since NPP is a national party in which every member has the right to compete for any position.

He said the most important thing for the party was to get someone to win and lead it to maintain power in 2008.

He maintained that the ideal candidate must be someone who had risked his life for the party and could implement the NPP agenda.

He said the person should also be someone whom the broad base of the party has confidence in.

Touching on Appiah-Menka’s comment that only five presidential aspirants were marketable, Mr. Botwe said Mr. Menka was entitled to his opinion and that he had no problem with that.

From Simmons Yussif Kewura, Tema