NPP candidate must respect their own rules

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I CALL TO ORDER – NPP CANDIDATES MUST RESPECT THEIR OWN RULES

In the past couple of days, I have read two painfully disappointing statements attributed to campaigns of aspirants for the NPP flag-bearership. The first was a quote in “the Ghanaian Chronicle” attributed to a Representative of Mr. Alan Kyeremanteng’s campaign in the Western Region to the effect that the Vice President was weak and must not be elected as flag bearer of the NPP. More so the quote continued, Alan could speak the local language and could communicate effectively with the people. “Whose local language?” I wondered. “Can he speak Dagbani, Gonja, Wali, Mapruli, Kasim, Kpenkpansili, Kusali, Buli, Ewe, Hausa etc?” I quizzed. Obviously not! So what is this gentleman talking about? Ghana is made up of many local languages, and if by circumstances of origin, one is able to speak or not speak a certain language that sounds like your own, that must not necessarily be an advantage or a disadvantage in a political contest.

I was bit relieved that that the statement was not made by Mr. Kyeremanteng himself, even though I had expected him to quickly and roundly condemn the use of such unsavoury language in his campaign. As far as I am concerned, his silence over the issue for almost a week might seem as an endorsement of such language and encourage more of his campaign staff to use such language either against the Vice President or against other candidates. The danger is that, with his characteristic peaceful nature you might get away with such insults against the Veep, but you may not necessarily be so lucky with other candidates. And that is where the campaign may descend into the gutters, with the resulting throwing of mud at each other.

Another statement that disappointed me, even much more in the campaign, was regrettably attributed to the respected former Foreign Minister, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo. He is reported on myjoyonline.com as having said that if the election of a flag bearer were held without fraud, he would emerge as the candidate for the party. I have great respect for Nana, but I disagree vehemently with him on this statement. Such statements coming from respectable mentors of a great party sow seeds of intolerance and create unnecessary tension. The statement was painfully reminiscent of Prof. Mills’ claim that if he does not win the 2008 elections, then the elections must have been rigged. (I don’t hope Nana was happy with that statement by Prof. Mills, especially when he is positioning himself against the Prof. So he must definitely be amenable to taking a second look at his own statement).

What are the statistical evidences to back such claims? And what was Nana’s statement meant to achieve beyond preparing the grounds for his supporters to claim fraud? But he also gets unwelcome bonus by unwittingly giving credence to the opposition’s claims that the NPP is in the habit of rigging elections. It is an unfortunate slip which one would hope would be the last one from any one of the candidates.

The party went to great lengths to draw up a code of conduct for all candidates. So far the conduct has been largely decorous. There is nothing wrong with boasting among your supporters, that you are the best candidate of the lot, even if you have no evidence to back it. But to make such dangerous and sometimes insulting statements about other candidates, does nothing more than muddy the waters. As the contest gets down to the wire in December, tired legs and tired minds are likely to slip, but when they do, they must learn to steer clear of muddying the waters.

As for the “Kyerementeng campaign” who think they can insult their way to victory let them know that even if you succeed in discrediting the Vice President, because you think he is the Candidate to beat, you would still have 18 other candidates to contend with. Are you going to keep insulting each of the 18 candidates? And what good would that achieve? Please make it a duty to refer to your copies of the code of conduct before you open your mouths on the campaign platforms and for goodness’ sake if you don’t have a campaign message, please get one, because an insult is not a manifesto.