Lens: Kufuor Dumps Aliu

Supposed Move To Scrap The Veep Position Was Just A Ploy

The revelation by the pro-NPP newspaper, The Statesman, that President Kufuor is giving serious thoughts to proposing a constitutional amendment to scrap the position of Vice President and replace it with the position of Prime Minister is being seen as the clearest signal yet from the President that all is not well between him and his Vice President and that the President is opposed to the candidature of his Vice.

Most political analysts that this paper has spoken with since the news broke have expressed the belief that the President has no intention of making any such proposal and that the publication of the said intended proposal from the President was only a ploy to send a strong signal to the NPP supporters and delegates that the President does not in anyway support the candidature of his Vice.

This analysis was given a huge credence when the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Hon. Kwamena Bartels, categorically refuted the existence of any such plan to propose a constitutional amendment to scrap the position of Vice President as currently exists under the 1992 constitution.

Obviously unable to hound his Vice as is being done by his mentor, Obasanjo, in Nigeria, President Kufuor has apparently resigned himself to using subterfuge and shenanigans to thwart the ambitions of the man who aided him to become president by securing a sizeable proportion of the Northern and Muslim votes to enable Mr. Kufuor be elected as President for two terms.

Unlike Obasanjo, who obviously feels confident to hound his Vice, Atiku, in his effort to thwart the latter’s presidential ambitions because the Nigerian opposition is so fragmented as to represent no serious challenge to the ruling party, Mr. Kufuor is disenabled from hounding his Vice because he is aware that by doing so, he would play squarely into the hands of a very agile and alert opposition.

Some political analysts find it most significant that President Kufuor apparently chose The Statesman newspaper, a paper with very close and really strong links with one of the persons who have declared their intention to challenge the Vice President for the flagbearership of the NPP, as the conduit to relay his supposed intentions.

“Just do the deductions for yourself,” one political analyst urged The Ghanaian Lens, “Vice President Aliu and Nana Akuffo-Addo are the two frontliners in the race for the NPP’s flagbearership. Between the two of them, Kufuor obviously would be a lot more comfortable with Akuffo-Addo than with Aliu Mahama. So, The Statesman, which is really close to Nana Akuffo-Addo, is used to send a strong signal that the President does not approve of the candidature of his Vice, obviously in the hope that this signal would spur the supporters and delegates of the party on to reject Aliu.”

“But, give it to them; it was so cleverly done that it is not that obvious to the untrained, and therefore guaranteed not to, as it were, rock the boat,” the political analyst applauded.

“I can guarantee you that the President would not make any such proposal for constitutional amendment. The purpose of the publication has been achieved; the signal has been sent and received. But as to whether it would have any impact, the NPP congress in December would tell,” the analyst predicted.

“But I wouldn’t be too surprise if Akuffo-Addo himself also gets dumpe d along the way. Mr. Kufuor has shown that he thrives on intrigue and manipulation so if it happens, it would not surprise me at all,” our analyst friend concluded.