Arthur Kennedy to NPP Delegates

Open Letter To Npp Delegates

As you know, I am one of the seventeen guys contesting the NPP flag-bearer race. I have been asked repeatedly whom I would vote for if I was not contesting. My answer has always been that since I am running and expect to win, I have not considered any alternatives to myself. Last week, a delegate said with frustration ? A lot of them sound very knowledgeable and I do not know who to vote for?.

Here is how I would make my choice if I were a delegate: First, here are some factors that should not matter in the choice. Whether an aspirant is handsome or not should not matter. Americans found out how misleading looks could be when they voted for Harding in 1920 based mainly on his looks and later realized they had elected perhaps their worst President.

Next, age should not count for or against a candidate. There have been very good leaders who were young and a few good ones too who were old. Nkrumah was only forty-seven when Ghana became independent and yet has been perhaps our most visionary leader to date. Teddy Roosevelt and John Kennedy were in their early forties when they became Presidents and they were both very good. Ronald Reagan was sixty-nine and he too was good. What matters is the quality of the person?s mind and his energy level.

Furthermore, some consider a candidate?s wealth and/or how lavish his/her campaign is. Fact is that we should ignore campaign spending in picking a President. While money is needed to succeed in politics, how it is raised and spent gives voters very useful insights into a candidates character and values. A candidate who spends too lavishly may not be a good guardian of the public purse. Advanced democracies have mostly disregarded money in picking leaders. If wealth had mattered, His Excellency J. A. Kufuor would never have been President of Ghana. In the same vein, Americans would never have had Presidents Lincoln, Nixon and Clinton and they probably would have elected Rockefeller and Forbes as President. Also, some consider experience to be very important. While that may be so, we must be careful not to confuse being around with experience. Some have been around for a long time without much to show. To make the picture more complicated, there have been very successful leaders who got into office with very little or no experience. Examples of these are Mandela of South Africa, Trudeau and Mulroney of Canada and Arnold S. of California.

What then should delegates consider in picking a nominee? I respectfully suggest that there are four factors:

First, ask yourself which of the candidates will make the best President. A good President is knowledgeable about issues and people. He is a visionary with good judgment. Indeed, in the long term, judgment matters more than intellect. Judgment is about getting the big questions right. Mandela?s greatness owes more to ending apartheid without war and finding ways to bridge the gap between whites and blacks than to his undoubted intellect. He must be a uniting force, for our party and our country. Regardless of his other skills, a man who will pit party against party, tribe against tribe and faith against faith will not be a good President. Finally, he must be able to execute his agenda. Regardless of his plans, a man who cannot get his agenda done will not be a successful President. How does a delegate know which aspirant has all these qualities? By asking party elders who have been around leaders for a long time. Ask the Appiah-Menkas and Donkor Fordjours of Ashanti, ask the Agenes of Upper East, ask the Pianims, ask the da Rochas of Central Region, ask the university students, the teachers and the priests who have listened to the interviews and in the end, make up your own mind. One caveat: be careful of what others tell you; they may be influenced unduly by tribalism, friendship or money.

Second, which of these candidates will build our party? Who will make our party and its ideals the driving force and guiding light of his government? Who will make our party more democratic? Who will make the priorities of foot-soldiers the priorities of his government and the party?

Third, which candidate is most likely to win the general elections in 2008? Indeed, this question is the one that makes all the others pale into insignificance. As a party elder and a mentor told me ? Regardless of how competent you are, if the electorate will not vote for you, it does not matter.? As an astute political observer told me, ? The question is who the independent voters will vote for?. These voters are young, live in certain regions and make up nearly a third of the electorate. Some will tell you that because a particular candidate is a household name, he is popular but that is not necessarily true. Indeed, the Popular Front Party learnt that lesson the hard way when the relatively unknown Dr Hilla Limann defeated the very well-known Victor Owusu in the 1979 elections. The lesson from that election is that an unknown name with no baggage will be a better candidate that a known name quite often. In the United States, well-known Senators losing to relatively unknown Governors is fairly routine. To test this ask your friends and neighbours about their attitudes to our party, government and our candidates. Those people will be voting in the general elections. Think of which candidate you can urge them to vote for with enthusiasm.

My fourth criteria is which candidate is most compassionate? A majority of Ghanaians are poor or live in poor regions. I believe one of the most significant causes of our under-development has been the inability of our leaders to genuinely relate to the struggles of the poor to make ends meet; to feed and educate their children, to care for their sick and to feel secure about their future. Therefore ask yourself which of these men will be a voice for the voiceless and a passionate advocate for the causes of the poor.

Finally, pray for Allah/God to give you guidance and read the book of Samuels as God chose King David, for in the end, your vote is work that you will do on behalf of God and your country. May your vote be a blessing to our country, our NPP and your children. Travel safely to Accra and back and have a Merry X?mas and a very Happy 2008.

Arthur Kobina Kennedy 12/17/2007