[ 2014-07-24 ]

Boakye Agyarko responds to Alan K's claims of being sidelined
I have read the news coming from Alan
Kyerematen’s Greater Accra tour with utter
disbelief and amazement.

He has made false claims in his attempt to
discredit Nana Akufo-Addo and the 2012 NPP
campaign team, all in his bid to explain his
relative absence during the said campaign, as he
contests for the party’s flagbearership once
again.

As the Campaign Manager for the 2012 NPP National
Campaign, I am compelled to set the records
straight.

With respect to not being invited to join the
campaign, the truth of the matter is, Mr.
Kyerematen left town for an international job
after losing the primaries. As he proudly boasts,
he is an international man! In February of 2011,
Mr. Kyerematen, Nana Addo and I had a brief
discussion in Nana's office about his role in the
campaign. Later that morning, I had another
meeting with Mr. Kyerematen to discuss his role.
He intimated he wanted the discussion to continue
after his return from Addis Ababa and he promised
to stay in touch. In the whole time he was away,
he never called ONCE to even check on the progress
of the campaign. And of course, he did not return
in April as he had indicated.

Were we to wait twiddling our thumbs?

What is it that Mr. Kyerematen wanted to offer the
NPP in its presidential campaign that he was
prevented from offering? If Mr. Kyerematen had for
instance mentioned we were losing our grip on
Brong Ahafo and that he wanted to spend three
months there working with parliamentary candidates
on the ground, I do not believe anyone would have
stopped him! If he had told us he knew how to
identify and attract floating voters, no one in
the NPP would have scorned his efforts to help the
party win power.

In Mr. Kyerematen's mind, following Nana Addo
around the country and speaking just before him
was his idea of participation in the campaign.
Unfortunately, there is much more to campaigning
for an election than that. After the 2010
presidential primary, Nana Akufo-Addo visited all
the aspirants in their homes in Accra and invited
them to join his campaign. Mr. Isaac Osei and Prof
Frimpong Boateng were all members of the Manifesto
Committee. Mr. Kyerematen was also invited to join
that Committee.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng and Dr. Nsiah Asare rewrote
our manifesto on Health. When Nana Addo began his
speaking tours on Health, Education, Trade,
Defence and so on, several experts in various
fields presented unsolicited draft speeches to the
campaign to help with these events. And not one of
them asked to be seated on the platform whilst
Nana made these speeches around Ghana. Those, in
my estimation, were solid contributions!

Dear Alan, following Nana Addo around Ghana and
speaking on a platform was only a minute part of
the hard work needed for the campaign.

I am a bit tired of hearing Mr. Kyerematen’s
constant refrain of not being allowed to speak at
the Mantse Agbona mammoth rally. The NPP is
blessed with party stalwarts whom our supporters
cherish and at rallies many of these people are
called to speak. Alan Kyerematen is one of these
people. For the Mantse Agbona rally, we arranged
our speakers ahead of time and assigned them their
roles, focus etc. Was Mr. Kyerematen expecting an
assigned speaker to be dropped to make space for
him to speak when none of the organisers knew he
was going to show up at all? I must add, for the
very few occasions that he had come from Addis
Ababa and showed up at an event, Akufo-Addo always
insisted he be allowed to speak.

Mr. Kyerematen claims he went to some
constituencies and they did not recognize him.
Strange that he would blame these party members.
It will help if he can name just one such
constituency. I certainly do hope he is not
suggesting that somebody spent precious time going
round the country lobbying for Alan Cash not to be
recognized.

That is so far-fetched it is unbelievable!







Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanten
With regards to the Supreme Court hearings, I am
extremely surprised that he keeps going on about
not being given accreditation. For someone who was
called and convinced by Mr. Asare Bediako, NPP
Chairman, Asokwa Constituency, to show up at least
once at the Supreme Court since people were
beginning to notice his loud silence and
detachment from the petition, it is ironic that he
has made this an issue on his campaign.

After all, aside from appearing at the Supreme
Court to show one’s support, there were many
other activities involved in putting the petition
before the Supreme Court. Lawyers of Alan’s ilk
spent their precious time, free of charge, poring
over books, cases and files to help build a case
to take to court. The Minority in Parliament were
among those who donated money towards the case.
Hundreds of people, some of them much older than
him, spent months collecting pink sheets,
sometimes at their own peril.

Others spent months entering and analyzing data.
Many of these gallant party members, including
Martin Adjei, the Director of Electoral Affairs,
who went around the country collecting pink
sheets, etc, did not get accreditation when the
court began sitting. Is Mr. Kyerematen suggesting
they did not deserve to be in court?

It is a matter of public record that the entire
NPP received only 25 accreditation cards per
sitting. Our one hundred and twenty-three Members
of Parliament had to share 5 cards. They quickly
devised a system where, on any given day they
would select five Members who would attend. The
party did not assign me accreditation I made
arrangements with someone who could not attend on
Thursdays and used his card as such.

Was Mr. Kyerematen, the ‘international man’,
expecting the party to specially reserve a card
out of the 25 for him so that on any day he felt
like flying in, a card would be waiting for him?
That would have been grossly unfair to those who
hung around the court house daily, devising clever
ways to enter. Several other members of the party
found ingenious ways to at least be present for
one sitting.

Mr. Kyerematen claims he was finally given
accreditation by one of the Supreme Court judges.
This is UNTRUE. Sir John is the one who
facilitated Alan’s entry into the Supreme Court.
No Supreme Court Judge was involved in such a
mundane matter. After all, protocol duties are not
one of the roles assigned any distinguished
Supreme Court Justice of this land.

I wish Alan Kyerematen the very best in his
campaign. I would however encourage him to stick
to the facts as much as possible whilst on the
campaign trail. After all, the Bible says:
Truthful words stand the test of time, but lies
are soon exposed (Proverbs: 12:19).

……signed……




Campaign Manager for the 2012 NPP National
Campaign

Source - Boakye Agyarko

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