Kwame Addo-Kufuor For President

A lot has been written on the Ghanaweb about most of the NPP Presidential aspirants and a lot more will be written between now and the congress on 22nd December 2007. Unfortunately not a lot has been written on Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor because people wrote him off even before he officially launched his campaign. His only ‘sin’ for suffering such a fate is because his elder brother HE John Agyekum Kufuor is the current President.

It is rather sad that such a competent, unassuming, well-meaning politician in his own right is being persecuted in this day and age for being related to someone he wants to succeed! Even though we as Ghanaians do not have to follow any country in our quest voting for our next President, we can nonetheless take heart from countries around the world where children, siblings and spouses have done so without fuss and with success. A person seeking elected office should be judged on his/her own merits; using any other criteria will be short sightedness and show signs of political immaturity. There is no law preventing Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor to stand, as President and he should be accorded the necessary respect and right.

From the US (George H. W. & George W. Bush, 2000); India (Indira & Rajiv Gandhi, 1984); Jamaica (Norman Washington & Michael Norman Manley, 1972); Argentina (Juan & Isabel Peron, 1974) it has happened successfully. As I write now, Argentina has elected Cristina Kirchner to succeed her husband Nestor who has come to the end of his term this month. Since last year Poland has identical twins, Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski as President and Prime Minister respectively. When it comes to siblings or relations doing the same or similar job(s), it should not be a problem in this day and age when there are checks and balances with accountability high on the political agenda everywhere. By all means let us examine Dr Addo-Kufuor’s programme but not his uterine relationship with the President. Will people still be complaining if the medical doctor is succeeded in the same hospital by his brother/son medical officer? The answer is a clear and emphatic NO! If so then why the hullabaloo? In 1999, Bishop Donald E. Pelotte of the Catholic Diocese of Gallup in the US ordained his twin brother, Dave F. Pelotte as a Priest and everyone saw that as a happy occasion then and now.

If at the 2000 elections a different party had Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor as their Presidential candidate would that have counted against him (the Dr)? I am sure not. He would have been considered as a politician in his own right and would have been judged on his agenda and not on the fact that his brother was also standing. Lets do the same now. He is his own man who entered Parliament in 1997 and is still the MP for Manhyia. He is a founding member of the PFP, APP, Danquah-Busia Club and the NPP. He was not disqualified to be a founding and continuing member despite his brother also being a member so why is it a problem now? Please let us be realistic and acknowledge the good works Dr Addo-Kufuor has done and wants to continue to do.

When you get the opportunity to listen to him, you see that he talks about his agenda and not what others have done or promise to do. He has the experience, deportment, recognition, value and the vision to lead Ghana into the next decade and please let us not miss the opportunity to give him the mandate. We have the opportunity to show the world that Ghana is now a matured democracy, that we can have peaceful elections and we elected people on MERIT. Let us remember that he was the Minister for the Year in 2003, the position of his brother, the President. notwithstanding.

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