General News of Wednesday, 11 December 2013

Source: Roland Afari - Freelance

Akufo-Addo dumps Jake for Oware

Poor Jake, he must be feeling very lonely now. After having done all the dirty work for Nana Addo and carried a lot of the insults in Nana Addo’s failure to win the Presidency a second time, he all of a sudden finds himself an outcast in the Nana Addo camp.

Word out on the streets is that Nana Addo has dumped Mr. Jake Obetsebi Lamptey the current National Chairman of the party for his immediate subordinate, Mr. Fred Oware, First Vice-Chairman of the party, as his choice for the National Chairmanship slot in next March’s national executive elections.

Jake is blamed by Nana Addo’s henchmen for his inability to run down the throat of party faithful the reforms that would have seen Nana Addo go unopposed as the NPP presidential candidate for the 2016 general elections. Nana Addo’s kitchen cabinet that had kept Jake at arm’s length all throughout the campaign have also accused him of allegedly squandering some campaign funds which he is unable to account for. There is even talk about a confrontation between Jake and Nana on one occasion about the whereabouts of some monies that Jake was unable to account for.

But Jake is not taking all this lying down and has sent word round that he is going to contest for the national chairmanship position on his own steam in defiance to his former master. Moreover, Jake is not the only one to have been booted from Nana Addo’s camp, also shown the exit is Yaw Buaben Asamoah, a former spokesperson for Alan Kyerematen who had found a comfortable haven in Nana Addo’s camp. YB as he is affectionately called, has been seen as a fore-runner for the post of General Secretary, but a miscalculation paid to his favourite status.

Now, Nana Addo’s camp has gone for the raucous Sir John who has brought so much embarrassment to the party and is abhorred by many right-thinking members of the party.

Another shocker in Nana Addo’s list is the preference for the violent Hopeson Adoye instead of the more balanced and politically savvy John Boadu, one of the former youth organizers of the party. The reason for this switch is not very clear, but Hopeson with his penchant for violence seem to have warmed himself into the Nana Addo camp through Sir John.

He was one of the leaders who led a gang of misguided youth to demonstrate in front of President Kufuor’s house and tried to prevent him from attending John Mahama’s inauguration in January 2013 after the NEC has agreed to that decision.

The group had the active support of Sir John who went round polling stations condemning President Kufuor for attending the ceremony and the tacit support of Jake Obetsebi Lamptey and Nana Akufo-Addo who refused to condemn the act, but quietly urged them on.

Nana Addo is still in London weighing his options under the pretence of waiting for the voice of God to direct him. It appears however that not all is well in his camp as some of his once ardent supporters seem to be finding solace elsewhere.