ALAN CHOKES

…Under NPP plot

He was a loner at the last presidential nomination of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). The ostracized Alan agenda became somewhat a joking mantra: “All But Alan”.

The decision by all other 16 presidential aspirants to cajole Alan into accepting the first round result, albeit short of the NPP’s constitutional requirement, indeed convinced Alan Kyerematen that the demonization was after all not a joking hymn from peripheral foot soldiers.

Events preceding the 2007 presidential race at the University of Ghana, Legon, clearly gave up the intention of the party machinery to outmuscle Alan as the party’s candidate for the 2008 presidential election. If for nothing at all, the Lord Commey faux pas at the last hour underscored the plot.

Notwithstanding the obvious plot, Alan acquiesced to the mounted pressure to let go a second round which, although might have changed the entire complexion of the NPP presidential race, saved the tired limbs of delegates of another tiresome bout of the nomination process.

Close to some two years after, a similar grand plot is being re-enacted by the new set of leadership of the NPP with the help of some party big-wigs whose age and involvement in the NPP since 1992 suggest that they are allies with a preference for the old order being represented by Nana Akufo-Addo.

Their stance has no scientific basis but a clutching-on grit to what has become more of a norm than the exigencies of the times. So since the announcement of the filling of nomination for the NPP presidential nomination, the plot against Alan thickened.

It became obvious from the outcome of the NPP’s national conference early this year that most of the elected officers of the party would be doing the bidding of Nana Addo.

In the run-up to the conference, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey was touted as the Akufo-Addo’s man to pick up the leadership position of the NPP. The obvious campaign waged by the Nana Addo campaign team in favour of Jake gave credence to that assertion. There was no disclaimer from Jake’s end.

The first setting of the Nana Addo bidding process was played up North at Wa, the Upper West regional capital, during a funeral of a former leading member of the NPP. Party Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey made a funeral donation on behalf of the party, former President John Agyekum Kufuor and indeed, Nana Akufo-Addo.

Short of convincing party faithful, a reaction from Jake on the issue only served as an afterthought of a well-intended mistake made to promote a parochial cause although in the words of Jake, the donation was well intended and that explains why he even donated on behalf of the former president.

The Jake explanation can only be considered a façade and well calculated move to colour his action to gain a measure of legibility with the Kufuor involvement. That meant it was not ill-motivated or intended and that it was done with no malice.
Observers believe if Jake’s action was well intended, then there was no need to offer any apology. After all the mark of a good leader is to take actions, no matter how unpopular it might seem to some, and defend it in the promotion of the cause that the action was intended to.

Today, however, has it on authority that former President Kufuor had no prior knowledge of the donation and has only remained silent on the issue because he wants to promote party unity and cohesiveness at this critical period and any reaction from his outfit might stoke further the volatile posture that the NPP presidential campaign has assumed.
A similar reaction from a top official of the Upper West branch of the NPP again suggests that Jake did the donation on behalf of Nana Addo because as the immediate past presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana remains the de-facto leader of the NPP.

By the fact available, the NPP constitution recognizes the party chairman as its leader and although that arrangement might temporarily change in an election year, where the party’s presidential candidate assumes the leadership role, the situation is reversed when the candidate fails to assume the Ghanaian presidency.
So there is nothing like a de-facto leader in the NPP constitution.

But what is shocking to many is the stone-silence of the party’s leadership on the issue. It is as if to suggest that Jake’s apology on the matter was enough to calm down nerves. It might be conjectural though, but the murmuring and other concerns raised by some party members on the subject offer an indication that they are not happy about what looks to be the de-facto dominance of Jake in the NPP and the effect that posture is likely to have on the NPP.

It has been the conviction of many of the party’s faithful that the NPP leadership would have acted on the Jake issue with the same level of swiftness and the alacrity it handled the misconduct of the party’s Ashanti Regional Secretary who said the prosecution of top NPP functionaries was being masterminded by some top NPP members of the Nana Addo campaign.
A deduction from the swift reaction of the party’s leadership on the unguarded statement of the Ashanti regional secretary and the inaction of the party’s leaders on a similar statement by a member of the Akufo-Addo campaign team on the same subject give cause to worry.

The Member of Parliament for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, P.C. Appiah Ofori, is on record to have told potential NPP delegates that the party risk running a paralyzed campaign, if they made the mistake of electing Alan Kyerematen as the NPP presidential candidate for the 2012 election.

He told an NPP gathering in the Central Region that Alan was likely to be prosecuted by the NDC if he was chosen as the party’s presidential candidate. This writer is privy to machinations by the Akufo-Addo camp to stoke up the obvious chicanery to discredit Alan before the August 7 National Delegates Congress of the NPP.

Indeed serial callers who support the Nana Addo candidature tested the plot almost a month ago, but it just would not fly. Yet there are still some vulnerable groups within the would-be NPP delegates who were likely to fall to the Appiah Ofori machinations.

Intelligence signal picked up by the paper suggests that P.C. Appiah Ofori’s campaign is part of the orchestrated move by some members of the Nana Addo campaign team to derail Alan’s presidential bid.

And perhaps with its silence on the issue, many in the party believe notwithstanding the disquieting jitters the Appiah Ofori statement brings, it was done in tandem with the blessings of officialdom.

According to the intelligence report, one top member of the Akufo-Addo campaign team has maintained an informal relationship with the NDC since the Mills’ administration assumed the reigns of power where he has been meeting various NDC officials at late hours of the day.

And it is suspected that he gave out some vital information that led to the prosecution of five top officials of the former administration of J.A. Kufuor. The five are believed to be staunch supporters of Alan Kyerematen’s candidacy.

It is equally baffling the way Akufo-Addo himself, and others from his campaign team, is not offering solidarity support like what former President Kufuor is doing for the five ex government officials in their trial.

The said official even started courting the NDC when the NPP lost the 2008 election when he boldly criticized then President Kufuor for increasing salaries just before he handed over power and has been advising the NDC on various economic matters like the budget statement.