In a reaction to speculations that he and Nana Akufo-Addo are at loggerheads, Mr Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, a presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has stated that they relate to each other just like brothers.

According to him, there is no rivalry between them and that they even sit together and share jokes after a hard day’s work whenever the opportunity comes.

“Nana Addo and I are like brothers, you will be surprised if you see how we relate to each other anytime we meet. I smile when people say we are at each other’s throat because we both want to lead our party for the 2012 election,” he stated. Mr Kyerematen said this on Wednesday when he was addressing polling station and constituency executives in Cape Coast to solicit for their votes in the upcoming delegates congress of the party on August 7.

He claimed the speculation was a ploy by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to create disaffection within the NPP as the next general election approaches.

The former minister of trade and industry under ex-President John Kufuor’s administration was however worried about the way some members of Nana Addo’s campaign team have been dragging his name in the mud just to score cheap political points for their candidate.

He described as unfortunate the way some of members of Nana Addo’s campaign team have been maligning his activities and calling him all sort of names to discredit.

“In 2007 after I conceded defeat, I toured the whole country with Nana Addo and for a whole year I abandoned my work to help Nana Addo in his campaign all in the name of unity,” he said.

“Where were all those people who are now criticising me when I made that sacrifice to tour the country with Nana Addo? Today these same people who were nowhere to be found are claiming to be Nana Addo’s allies and are on my neck for following tradition by contesting Nana Addo,” he lamented.

Mr Kyerematen, who is also the former Ambassador to the United States of America, stated that the attitude of the so-called Nana Addo’s allies are creating enmity, tension, division and making the party unattractive to Ghanaians. “This is a competition and it is natural and acceptable for people to choose sides but they should not entertain violence and inflammatory speeches which have the tendency to breakdown our great party,” he advised.

He therefore implored the executives to have faith in him and vote massively for him since he has the ability to unite the party for victory in the 2012 election.

Mr Kyerematen observed that the NPP has become so complacent after it lost the 2008 general election and were relying on the abysmal performance of the ruling government to persuade Ghanaians to vote for them, indicating that the party needs to work harder in order to beat the NDC decisively in 2012.

He added that there was the need for the NPP to adopt the door-to-door and house-to -house campaign strategy by the NDC to win more votes for the party to come back to power.