I'll campaign for Kufuor - Okumkom

That blood is thicker than water cannot be underestimated with the resolve of the former Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly’s (KMA) boss, Nana Akwasi Agyeman, one of the longest serving appointees of the Rawlings regime, to root for President Kufuor in the next elections.

Nana Akwasi Agyeman has stressed the need for the electorate to give the Kufuor-led NPP government another four-year term in office to turn round the economy. Positive change would be better manifested when the government has had ample time to implement its policies fully, he says. He has consequently announced his decision to personally join the campaign trail of the President to ensure a massive victory for his brother, the President.

According to him he has embarked on the education of the electorate on the need to give the mandate to President Kufuor the second time. He claims he has personally instituted a special campaign team to survey the chances of President Kufuor's victory in 2004.

Nana Akwasi disclosed that an interim report by the special campaign team following a nation-wide survey indicates that close to 80 per cent of the electorate the length and breadth of the country now understand the situation and would therefore given their vote to the President.

He said with the 23 years experience as the Mayor of Kumasi under various governments he was prepared to offer pieces of advice and play this advisory role effectively for the benefit of government and people of Ghana. "Kufuor does not only need a second term in office to turn the economy around. He needs the support and a massive one at that, to effect the desired positive change," Nana said.

Nana says he does not need an appointment to respond to a patriotic call to help in nation building, and stress that; "nothing can stop me from helping my brother win the elections and take the country out of the doldrums." The one-time die hard supporter of the Rawlings regime would not say if he had turned his back on the NDC but it was obvious that he had parted ways with his former party.

His flirtations with the NDC, as a party since the last elections, have reduced drastically. He claims he is not and has never been a card-bearing member of the party Hear him, "I no longer attend their meetings, and neither do I honour their invitations." He thinks it is better to keep the ties of blood than sway his support for a friend whose ambition to lead the country had come to an end.

"I helped the NDC government because Rawlings was my friend. Rawlings cannot be president again. Now it is my brother's turn and I have no alternative but to offer my services for the benefit of the people." Nana Akwasi emphasising his position, queried his critics thus: "If I did it for a friend (Rawlings) I can as well do it for my brother (Kufuor)."

He would not fault the NDC, except that some of his colleagues in the previous government were greedy and selfish and had contributed to the fall of the party. According to him this trend had rendered sacrifices made by him and a few NDC functionaries, to better the lot of the people, ineffective.

Against the background that some NDC ministers were looting national coffers left, right, centre, he claimed he did not take any salary all these years he served as Mayor of Kumasi, no matter the government in place.

In a related development, Nana Akwasi Agyeman has asked the electorate in the Kumawu constituency to do the right thing and vote massively for Lawyer Yaw Baah to strengthen NPP's support base in the Ashanti Region and ensure the party's hold on political power.

He urged the party to build structures to enable the party win the elections in 2004 and beyond when there would be no Kufuor, and to consolidate on the gains of the party. Five political parties will contest the Kumawu parliamentary seat on October 1, 2002 following the death of Reo Addai Basoah of the NPP. The contesting parties are NPP, NDC, GCP, DPP and the PNC.