Defection Hits CPP

By Kweku Segu, Elmina

The 2008 Parliamentary Candidate for Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem (KEEA) on the ticket of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Joachim Bruku Eshun, has defected to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) ahead of the December elections.

Joachim Bruku Eshun, who contested the current Member of Parliament (MP) and Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Dr J S Annan, made the declaration at a funeral ceremony organized recently by executives and members of the NDC at Amisano, Elmina in the Central Region.

He was the candidate that succeeded the then MP, Dr Paapa Kwesi Nduom from the same party, who now has founded the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) which is gearing up to cause upset in the December polls.

Mr Eshun told a gathering of mourners in the Central Region that his defection to the NDC was premised on three main reasons.

According to him his decision to join the NDC is premised on the sheer hypocrisy exhibited by members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who after the demise of President Atta Mills spoke pleasant things about the late leader, describing him as someone who served his nation well.

To him, that admission by the NPP was surprising because until the President’s death, the NPP spoke ill, vilified, insulted, denigrated and portrayed him as the devil incarnate. Mr Eshun could not fathom how all of a sudden the NPP would turn round to praise him and use all kinds of eulogies adding that the inability of the largest opposition party to speak the truth is worrying.

This, he stated, exposed and betrayed the NPP’s huge deficiency in matters of objectivity, honesty, describing them as a group of people who lack respect for the people of Ghana and so does not deserve the highest office of the land.

Again Mr Eshun said the persona of the current President, John Dramani Mahama, motivated him to join the winning team, adding his age will appeal to a lot of the youth who have reached the voting age.

In his view, picking a fairly young leader is the way to go as evidenced in the Prime Minister of the Great Britain David Cameron and United States of America’s Barack Obama.

In his estimation of the two main contenders of the December elections, Mr Eshun stated that he preferred President Mahama to a 68-year-old Nana Akufo-Addo who, according to him, has passed his retirement age and must retire from active politics.

Comparing the ideologies, principles, and values of the NDC, Mr Eshun said there was no difference between the CPP and the NDC and so as a strong believer of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the NDC’s ideology of social democracy was in line with the CPP long-held beliefs.

He said it was only a social democratic party like the NDC that was familiar with the developmental agenda of Ghanaians who could salvage their plights unlike the property owning democrats, like the NPP which since the overthrow of Ghana’s first President Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, had failed to bring any meaningful development to the country.

In his view, the majority of Nkrumaists who are presently in the NDC gives him high confidence that he is still a member of the Nkrumaists family.

Joachim Bruku Eshun entreated all Ghanaians to vote for President Mahama in order to ensure that Ghana continued on the path of development.

He asked all Ghanaians to immortalize the late Prof Mills in their hearts, assuring that President Mahama and the NDC will win the December elections which President Mills worked so hard towards it attainment.