[ 2014-01-03 ]

What does Alan Kyerematen mean?
He has not, since 2008, been exactly a unifying
figure in the main opposition New Patriotic Party
(NPP), and so it is not clear what he means when
Mr. Alan "Quitman" Kyerematen rather smugly
asserts that whoever wins the party's presidential
race, and nomination, ought to be comfortable
leading "a united party and not a fragmented one"


Precisely how does Mr. Kyerematen intend to unify
the NPP beyond mere public pontification?

And here, we need to boldly and bluntly emphasize
the fact that on almost all occasions, such as the
Election 2012 Presidential Petition, when his
unifying leadership skills were most needed to
rally the party faithful together, the former
Trade and Industry Minister, under President John
Agyekum-Kufuor, was totally AWOL.

It also does not help his prime leadership cause
for Mr. Kyerematen to pretend as if he is totally
out of the loop, as it were, while Dr. Kofi Konadu
Apraku shamelessly and publicly schemes to blight
the image and reputation of Nana Akufo-Addo in
order to make himself appear winsome to the
delegates of the party, instead of more
constructively promoting his own leadership
qualifications and credentials.

Now, let's get this message upfront and center
right off the bat, as it were: Absolutely nobody,
whatsoever, is preventing Dr. Apraku and his
rough-and-ready seasonal opportunistic Orangeburg,
South Carolina, sharp-shooting sniper from venting
whatever views, grievances and frustrations they
may have.

What we are only saying is that the supporters and
sympathizers of Nana Akufo-Addo also have an equal
right to respond to any views which they may deem
to rudely and uncouthly cross that proverbial
delicate line between democratic decency and
obscene, cynical and reckless opportunism.

We must also bear vividly in mind that Mr.
Kufuor's first run against former President
Rawlings was a statistical disaster, albeit a
quite an impressive one; and also that even in his
2000 run against the now-late President John Evans
Atta-Mills, then-Vice President of our august
Republic, Mr. Kufuor emerged victorious by the
skin of his teeth.

And this was after nearly 20 years of the
effective grinding of the national economy to a
screeching halt, by the tandem Rawlings-led
governments of the so-called Provisional National
Defense Council (PNDC) and the National Democratic
Congress (NDC).

Indeed, party leaders - not necessarily party
stalwarts - like Mr. Kyerematen and Dr. Apraku
cannot - also pretend not to fully recognize the
fact of Nana Akufo-Addo's having worked like a
horse in all three electoral seasons to guarantee
the victory of his predecessor.

But the question of whether Nana Akufo-Addo has
been dealt an equally full-throated measure of
symphonic support during his two narrowly-failed
shots at the presidency, is what the movers and
shakers of the NPP ought to be talking about.
Because it clearly appears that those fanatically
and doggedly promoting a third Akufo-Addo shot at
the presidency are predicating their decision on
the foregoing state of affairs.

It is also rather lame for Dr. Apraku to use the
mere pro-forma expression of gratitude by Nana
Akufo-Addo to resoundingly imply that he couldn't
have worked any harder as campaign manager for the
former Attorney-General and Foreign Minister.
Whatever happened to the idiomatic expression of
"reading between the lines"?

Indeed, it goes without saying that Nana
Akufo-Addo ought to demonstrate savvy leadership
skills by, literally, staying miles apart from the
glaringly recognizable opportunists primarily
intent on using their intimate association with
him to feather up or wing up their own vaulting,
albeit wobbly, presidential ambitions in the
offing.

Which is not necessarily to imply that genuine and
dedicated service to both the party and whoever
its next flagbearer may be, ought not to be
constructively and progressively used to feather
the caps of those so deserving.

Source - Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.

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