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Politics of Friday, 29 August 2014

Source: Ghanaian Palaver

Apraku calls on delegates to reject Alan and Akufo-Addo

As the campaign for the Special Delegates Congress of the New Patriotic Party draws to an end, some candidates have drawn up their sleeves and are getting dirty. The race has thus far, been between the two-time failed presidential candidate of the party, Nana Akufo-Addo, and the man who never seems to win any election, Alan Kyerematen.

The campaign teams of both aspirants have traded a number of negative messages during this campaign period, with the Alan camp being more vicious. One can understand the reason behind their vicious attack, to wit, they have nothing to lose. As the saying goes, he that is down fears no fall.

The two leading candidates keep campaigning against each other whilst the other aspirants have taken advantage and are seeking to reach out to the imaginary floating voter. One such aspirant is the former trade minister under President Kufuor's administration and three-time Member of Parliament for Offinso North, Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku.

Earlier this week, a video was released on social media by his campaign team. The video, which went viral, within a few hours of it being shared on the most popular social network amongst Ghanaians, Facebook, compared Dr. Apraku with the two leading candidates.

The video, with a Hollywood-type theme music, started with a straight attack at Nana Akufo-Addo, who is likely to receive an overwhelming endorsement from his party on Sunday; if the results from the external branches are anything to go by, then we should see an Akufo-Addo victory.

The video described Akufo-Addo as someone who could not win national elections and that instead of increasing the votes of the party, Akufo-Addo has rather reduced the party's vote significantly.

Then the attacks turned on the gentle giant, Alan Kyerematen. Apraku's team sought to put out facts that the Kyerematen campaign has been suppressing for years - his resignation. The video focused on the events that took place in April 2008, when Alan resigned from the party.

Apraku's team hashed and rehashed Alan's disloyalty and lack of commitment to the party in recent years. With a clear agenda to paint Mr. Kyerematen black, the Apraku team emphasized that the pleas that came from party stalwarts like BJ da Rocha and the General Secretary of the party at the time, Nana Ohene Ntow.

According to the video, all the pleas fell on the deaf ears of Alan and he refused to rescind his decision to resign from the party. What is interesting to note is that Nana Ohene Ntow, whose advice Alan vehemently refused to accept, is now the spokesperson of Alan in 2016.

The video did not stop there. It attacked Alan's ability to win the presidential primaries and for that matter any elections held in Ghana or outside of Ghana. Apraku's team even referred to the WTO's top job, which Alan failed to win. Alan must be a serial loser, right? That is the inference to be drawn from Alan's section of the video is that the man can simply not win any elections. To put it aptly, even if you hold elections involving Alan amongst his friends and family, he will still lose.

The video went further and showered undeserved praises on Dr. Apraku. The video set out Apraku's record as an MP and as a person that people can easily relate to. It spoke of his experience in trade.

Apraku's team then sought to paint Apraku as someone who is very loyal and committed to the party, and some who has never left the party or even thought about leaving. The video emphasized the roles that Dr. Apraku played in Akufo-Addo's campaign in 2008 and 2012. With a good number of delegates on social media, there can be no doubt that this video from the Apraku camp will change the minds of a good number of delegates. In any case, Sunday is only a few days away.