George Kufuor Speaks Out

An activist of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has challenged NPP presidential aspirants to recheck and advice themselves before December 22 to avoid disgrace and embarrassment. "During a beauty contest, you sometimes ask yourself why did this person decide to join the contest; and wonder whether she has no brother or sister to advice her".

Using the above analogy, Mr. George Addo-Kufuor, affectionately called Uncle George seemed genuinely amazed about some of the individuals vying for the most important office in Ghana.

Due to his relationship with President Kufuor and former Defence Minister Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor, (he is their junior sibling) George Kufuor usually shies away from the media. It was therefore an exclusive of the rare kind that he agreed to speak to ADM.

Speaking to the ADM in his office yesterday he said some of the aspirants should thank President Kufuor whose deft handling of the presidency has made it so attractive for them to think it is easy to occupy.

"Some people don't check themselves", he said, "J. H Mensah has said 'check yourself'. I am sure if you have a daughter and somebody comes to marry her you will ask him a number of questions. Some of these people have never done anything substantial in their lives, yet they feel that it is so cheap to rule a nation like Ghana. H. E. John Agyekum Kufuor has created a situation for them to come and hop, jump and join."

George said to be president, an aspirant should be somebody who is an achiever, credible and academically wise; he should be good, be a visionary and disciplined.

"As a president" he explained, "you should be able to think on your feet because you will be meeting so many people of different character, some are highly brilliant." He said it would be a disgrace to the country, if after all the successes chalked by his big brother President Kufuor on the national and international scenes, the nation failed to elect a capable person to take up his mantle.

Uncle George however admitted that some of the numerous aspirants could lead the NPP to win the 2008 elections but said his other big brother Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor stands tall among all of them.

He described him as an achiever and said based on his track record, both as a politician and in his private life, should any credible opinion poll be conducted today, he believed Dr. Addo-Kufuor would be leading the pack.

He said his message and power point presentation about his works are available and credible for everyone to judge him.

He disagreed with the claim that, Dr. Addo Kufuor was able to achieve all those feats because he stayed long at one ministry.

"It is not because of that; for instance, he constructed the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre within two years in office"

When asked whether his brother could not serve the country in any other way except being a president, George replied: "He has reached a stage where God has helped him to achieve almost everything.

He thinks there is still something to give to mother Ghana; so it is not just greed and ambition, the man feels that he has something to propel Ghana from a third world to a second world within ten years, so his 8 years in office would almost get us there."

He said the nation also needs somebody who can infuse discipline into the youth because "without discipline you can have everything under the sun but the system won't work."

He said that was one of the reasons why under the leadership of Dr. Addo-Kufuor, most national service personnel would pass through the military to get some training. He said the youth would be disciplined enough to stop the way they dress and carry themselves about.

George is also big brother's campaign manager.