Kweku Baako 'Dumps' Nduom

Mr. Kweku Baako Editor-in-Chief of the Crusading Guide newspaper also a well-known member of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) has joined forces with the party's Member of Parliament for Ellembele, Mr. Freddie Blay to canvass support for the NPP presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo.

Mr. Kweku Baako who said his position is still consistent with the CPP/NPP alliance in previous elections, dared the CPP leadership to expel him. Whatever decision his party's executives take against him, "I will not lose anything" he declared.

Conceding that the CPP's presidential candidate Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom had made the party more attractive, he said his "conviction and conscience" indicate that the CPP cannot win the 2008 elections.

Speaking on a television programme yesterday, Mr. Baako noted that "Dr. Nduom even knows that I am supporting Nana he is not happy even though he has made CPP more attractive."

For this reason, he said, if Mr. Freddie Blay who is the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament is supporting Nana Akufo-Addo for the CPP and NPP collaboration to continue "then he has my support".

He said since his party is not in a position to wrestle power from the NPP, there is no way he is going to sit down for the NDC to come back to power.

He said he was still not convinced that the NDC is capable of defending, protecting and sustaining Ghana's democracy. He said he also feared the NDC would decimate further, the already disunited Nkrumaist front if it is voted into power.

"I have a strategic commitment" Mr. Baako said, "to ensure that the NDC does not win".

He appealed to the general Nkrumaist leadership to analyse critically the status quo of the country's politics based on "the balance of forces as they stand today, the nature of the forces at play and the strategic interest of the CPP You can't even aggregate your forces to become a more serious contender; now we are going for elections and you expect me, Kweku Baako to expend my energy on a divisive front for the NDC to slip through."

It is still not clear how this would play out because the CPP leadership has signaled its displeasure and intends to take disciplinary action. It is a Hobson's Choice: any decisive action against Messrs. Blay and Baako could lead to major rifts within the party; refusal to take any action to would open up the party to criticisms of weakness, which in an election year is a tag no party would want to wear.

The NDC faced a crisis when Mrs. Rawlings clashed with Professor Mills over the choice of running mate; the NPP's crisis came in the form of Alan Kyeremanteng's resignation; could the CPP be about to face its own now?