Bagbin: Akufo-Addo can't be president

Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr. Alban S.K. Bagbin, has stated in no uncertain terms that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flag bearer, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, cannot be President of Ghana.

"As for Nana Addo, he can't be president. He didn't even win NPP flag bearership let alone national elections," he told The Daily Dispatch in an interview in Parliament.

This reporter asked Mr. Bagbin who is also National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Nadowli West in the Upper West Region why Nana Addo, who has done well in all the Ministries he had handled so far, cannot be the President of this nation.

Buttressing his point, the MP said Nana Addo has an uphill task ahead of him. Hear him: "I worked with him as a lawyer, and he is aware of the number of times he had struggled to be the President of Ghana Bar Association (GBA) and never got it. Why is it that after all these sacrifices and supporting Kufuor throughout, he went to support Alan Kyerematen?

Why is it that the NPP people who worked with him all these years and contested in 1998 and was second to Kufuor, now that it is getting to his time, at the Congress he didn't win one-touch? There must be something in him that convinces people that he cannot win and be a good leader. That is because of his violent disposition.

"In his constituency in 1996 during (Owuraku Amofa's time, a Minister in Rawlings’ government), there was violence. As at now the Constituency Vice Chairman of NDC is in clutches. This is as a result of the violence from him and his team. Do you think the people that were killed in the 'Kume preko' demonstration were members of the Alliance for Change? They were the cadres. I am saying Nana Addo cannot win," the Minority Leader added.

Mr. Bagbin maintained that high personalities in the country have confided in him that should the NPP win this year's elections, it will mean that what the government has done is good and an endorsement of the society.

He said "in the near future, the rate of crime, especially violent crime as a result of deprivation, will be on the upsurge.

"People are not born criminals. It is the society that makes people criminals," he intimated.

The Minority Leader therefore appealed to Ghanaians to reject the NPP government by voting massively for the NDC to create an enabling environment for all the people to enjoy but not as few as "we are witnessing under the NPP administration."