The Mistake JAK is making ...

THE MISTAKES JAK IS MAKING AND THE PROBABLE DOOM IT CAN SPELL FOR THE NPP IN 2008 ELECTIONS.

It is not wrong for a sitting president to have his favorite among a group of candidates who want to succeed him when he leaves office as the president of the nation, however, president Kuffour has taken his love and support for Alan Cash to the extreme. The lavish campaign Alan is running is questionable and surprisingly awkward but the president does not care about that. Where is Alan getting all these millions of Cedis from? No one knows, except to suspect that, some monies were stashed somewhere and have just been released for his campaign purposes.

Why are most of the sitting ministers openly campaigning for Alan and the president is mute about that? If the ministers have openly campaigned for Nana Addo or Aliu, would he have equally turned deaf-ear to that as well? How can JAK explain the orders he gave to all the aspirants who held ministerial positions to resign before starting their campaigns because that would interfere with their ministerial duties yet turns blind eye to current ministers who have left Accra to the north to campaign for Alan? Are such ministers not neglecting the job of the people to serve at the table of Alan Cash?

Information reaching us here in New York indicates that disgraced former minister Anane (The minister who attended AIDS conference and got a baby out of the conference for Ghana after having unprotected sex with a staffer at the conference) and a couple of others are going round the country dropping people who are perceived to be loyal to Nana Addo from the delegates lists in the constituencies and replacing them with Alan’s loyalists. This is not only stupid move but dangerous for the health of the party. It is important that whoever wins should be perceived to have won fairly so that losers would have no legitimate bases for complaints. Whoever came up with this cruel inferior tactics of rigging the election of flag bearership is not only sowing seed of discontent and hatred but also laying the foundation for dividing the party.

I have heard from a number of reputable sources that, JAK has commented that if NANA emerges as flag bearer and continues to win the presidency, the jobs of most of the current ministers would be at stake, that, he Nana would not be easily approached. This is stupid and counter intuitive. After serving efficiently under president Kuffour for such a long time since 2000, it is now that the president has realized that Nana is not easily approachable? If JAK wants somebody he can easily manipulate and bully around, then he should endorse his own brother(Addo Kuffour).

THE DANGER AHEAD If Alan and the president get their way, there is the likelihood that the NDC would return to power in 2008. I strongly believe that the Akyems would consider that they have been strong-armed and robbed of the chance to capture the presidency yet again. They would likely breakaway from the party to form another party as we witnessed in 1979 when Paa Willie broke tradition and formed the UNC. The end results, I believe we are all privy to it. Limann won that election.

Another scenario is that, the Akyems would not break away but may be so peeved and shun the pools outright or vote for NDC instead. That alone would have the potential of swinging the election in favor of NDC. It is believed that JAK robbed the presidency from NANA in 1999 and he is trying to do it again.

Ashantis, the president must remember, are not ethnocentric as others are, they are more objective and may not vote for a candidate because he is of Ashanti descent. History is full of examples to this effect, General Acheampong was an Ashanti, but when he brought his idea of UNIGOV, it was Ashantis who led the campaign for its defeat. President Kuffour cannot count on Ashanti votes if Alan wins. Ashantis would equally be peeved and may refuse to vote NPP.

HOW ELECTIONS ARE WON Basically, there are two ways of winning an election: either the candidate is voted for or he is voted against. In the U.S. the democrats won the 2006 midterm elections not because voters liked them. They won largely because voters voted against Bush and his party. In 1999, Kuffour won not because Ghanaians liked him so much, but because Ghanaians at that time were fed up with NDC and wanted change. Any other candidate that was presented by NPP then would have won that election.

Similarly, people may not want Atta Mills come 2008, but mass disapproval of NPP has the potential of returning NDC to power when people vote against NPP en masse.

WHY IS JAK DOING THIS?

Your guess is as good as mine. I would not like to speculate on this issue neither would I want to buy into the numerous speculations nor rumors going around. Whatever his motivations are, he must be careful and think of the larger interest of the party instead of trying to protect himself in a selfish way. If the president goes ahead and sacrifice the party’s interest for his personal interest, he may end up losing both with a disastrous consequence. Let us put our fingers crossed and see what the future holds for us.

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