Opinions of Wednesday, 17 March 2010

Columnist: Acheamfour, Baah

My Major Reasons Of Supporting ‘No Change’ Campaign

I wonder why and how the New Patriotic party will sacrifice a candidate who pulled over 49% of the total vote for any other candidate. The question that keeps on ringing in my mind is when would my dear N.P.P. stop repeating a wrong doing to avoid mistakes because there is an adage that first fool is not a fool and if a wrong doing is repeated it becomes a mistake. After reading my reasons, faithful Kukrudites would understand why I made such statements.

It is an undeniable fact that forgetting the past is a recipe of disaster and a repetition of mistakes; therefore, I want my fellow Kukrudites to cast their mind back to 1996 campaign when former president Kuffour was our candidate. Readers would bare with me that in every corner of the country that we toured, the then candidate Kuffour was cheered, hailed and called by our numerous supporters as Adu Boahen. It took the campaign administrators a whole lot through Television, Radio, Sign post advertisement and what have you to make the less educated ones who are the majority during voting to know that our candidate was no longer Adu Boahen rather Agyekum Kuffour. By the time the name Agyekum Kuffour became popular, elections were over which the N.P.P. lost. Do we want to repeat this same error?

The point I want to raise here is that if any other candidate is chosen besides Nana Addo, supporters in various villages would be cheering Naanana Na shoo, thinking that Nana is Still the candidate, by the time they get to that Nana Addo is no more the candidate elections might have been over.

Secondly, if any other candidate is chosen, Ghanaians would be made to believe that all rumors and allegations made against Nana were true, therefore, a fresh page and chapter of allegations and rumors would be opened for the newly elected candidate which may take a couple of months to defend instead of using all those months to market the candidate. In my candid opinion all allegation peddled against Nana Addo are well defended, therefore, the Party has all the time to marketing him rather than defending as to whether he did this or he did not do that.

Every faithful Ghanaian will bare with me that marking Nana would be much easier and less costive for the party than any other candidate base on the fact that sign boards and bill boards of Nana Addo are found everywhere in the country, with this, the party needs less financial support in adding a few to the already existing ones in whipping him up. In my view it is not financially prudent to waste all these resources unless I€™m made to believe and understand that despite all the social capabilities and political insight of Nana Addo, he is still not well cooked to lead NPP and for that matter Ghana as a whole.

Last but not the least, in the history of our party, Since Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition, no presidential candidate has been able to pull such a huge percentage in his first appearance on the ballot paper even as compared to other political parties, non of their presidential candidates pulled so much votes as Nana Addo did except Jerry whom we all know how he won his elections. Therefore, I don€™t see the plausibility of sacrificing such candidate. Unless we come into compromise that we all want to start from the scratch instead of topping up the 49 percent that we had.

I reason in line with the opinion that, even though the NPP has always welcomed competition for office as a bedrock principle, It is thus imperative to ensure the return of Nana Addo in 2012 to continue with the enduring legacy Kufuor left behind. Ghanaians truly deserve good governance and a Better Ghana not a Bitter Ghana shown by Atta Mill€™s led Government.

I therefore entreat all delegates to vote for Nana Addo Danqua Akufo Addo to bring NPP back into power.

By Baah Acheamfour.

danop200@yahoo.com