The name of the J.A Kufour will no doubt feature prominently when the history of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition is written. Ex-President Kufuor undoubtedly is the most successful leader of the UP tradition but not the most popular. His rejection of the NPP constitutional amendments is tantamount to putting his popularity to test once again, and it is clear that majority of the NPP executives at the Polling Station, Constituency and Regional level will go against him. I believe delegates to the NPP Delegates Conference will surely rebuff Ex-President J.A Kufuor by approving all the proposed amendments.
I wonder why the Ex-President is vehemently opposing the proposed expansion of the party’s Electoral College to give the party supporters
grassroots participation in the nomination of its candidates for various elections. But right from the day after the Ex-President's stance was made public, after the infamous meeting in his house to discuss the party's future with some party leaders, the overwhelming majority of the party stakeholders view this stance with suspicion. Their suspicion of the Ex-President is well placed. How can they forget the role he played in various elections within the party over the years? .
The agitation for the NPP constitutional Amendments did not start with the current Executive as some party members were told. It started long ago. At Cape-Coast in 2003 some amendments were done but the issue of the expansion of the electoral college was deferred. There was broad consensus that took place before the current proposals were put together. The proposals came from various sections of the party home and abroad, including NPP’s grassroots organisation. Members of the National Executive, National Council, and Minority caucus by consensus unanimously endorsed the amendments. In fact many groups within the party and individual members including me sent inputs.
The NPP constitutional amendment proposals are meant to bring about the desire of party members at the grass roots for change, modernisation and the general reform of the party's structures, organisation and operation. It is also aimed at ensuring that we have a unified party with a very good image, better organised, more disciplined and with effective mechanisms for resolving grievances and choosing the right candidates and leaders.
The amendments will keep the grassroots of the party more vibrant, ensure that potential office seekers work extremely hard at all levels of the Party especially at the grassroots and as well as ensure that only true blue party men fill all positions from the Polling Station level to the National offices. Added to this is the fact, am therefore surprised that the former President wanted the status quo to remain.
Ex-President Kufour's attempt to torpedo the amendments is ill-timed, ill-advised, miscalculated and simply uncalled for. He does not understand the pulse of the grass roots. Even after signs are clear that the anti-expansionist are fighting a lost course, his Special Assistant Frank Agyekum still went ahead to tell the whole world Kufour was against the expansion of the electoral college.
And this was even after some groups of polling station executives demonstrated at the NPP headquarters coupled with similar agitations across the country to get the NPP delegates to fully endorse the proposals.
I am of the opinion that Ex-President Kufour should have lent a lesson because starting from 2005, he has always taken sides on many issues especially elections within the NPP. He took sides in the 2005 National Executive Elections and got serious bruises after all but one of the people he supported won.
During the Party’s Presidential primaries, Kufour who was supposed to be a father to all the aspirants contesting the flag bearer position chose to throw his immense political and financial weight behind Alan Kyeremateng. This singular act, proved fatal to the aspiration of the Party from which it has never recovered. This ill-advised decision has, probably, caused an irreparable fragmentation within the party. Thanks to Kufour the Party now has Alan and Nana camps respectively, a situation that could have been avoided. Now that Kufour has been humiliated beyond description as one activist put it, I hope he will learn to remain neutral in future elections within the NPP.
With all due respect, Ex-President Kufour should be told the party would no longer allow him to dictate to it. It is now crystal clear to all that Kufour is only seeking his legacy and not the success of the Party. He has served his time and must move on if he has nothing positive to offer the Party. This Party made him what he is today. Party people toiled and sacrificed to make Kufuor bear the title, "His Excellency the President".
Kufour will only succeed in strengthening Nana Akufo-Addo's standing, clout and influence within the NPP if the amendment proposals are accepted.. Whereas he has kicked against the expansion of the electoral colleges with a mundane argument that what the NPP constitution needs enforcement and not amendment, Nana Akufo-Addo on the other hand has said the decision to get more than 115,000 people, including all polling station officers of the party to play a direct role in choosing the party’s leaders, as very much in line with the NPP tradition of deepening the democratic culture of the party. He also said a greater inclusion of the grass roots will strengthen the Party’s capacity to mobilise the people behind its programme.
A good politician is the one who is able to study, know and feel the pulse of the majority. Yes, the future of the Party belongs to the grassroots. This is the reason many of our party's leaders are for the amendments. The Party’s Electoral Colleges must be expanded.
Ex-President Kufuor indeed has every "right" to participate in the shaping of the future of the NPP, but it is clear he wants a stranglehold on the party even in retirement and that is what the delegates will reject. His perspectives and insights as to how the NPP should be runned has always been based on selfishness and ego.
He should have been aware by now that the Danquah-Donbo-Busia tradition is not the bona fide property of anybody and it is not for sale. Unlike the NDC which has a Founder, Owner and Sole Proprietor and ceremonial President, the NPP has no Founder and has no permanent leader. Ex-President Rawlings is always ranting and raving, beating and sacking people from the NDC because he made all the current NDC leaders what they are today. In fact there is no single member of NDC Rawlings did not make. He indeed plucked some from obscurity, groomed them and today they are playing various roles for the party.
For instance President Atta Mills was a nonentity in politics until Ex-President Rawlings appointed him Vice-President. Vice-President John Mahama was an unknown person until he was appointed Deputy Minister of Communication by Rawlings and that is how he came into limelight. This is not so in the NPP. Some members were even popular than J.A Kufour before he became President.
In fact Ex-President Kufour is so loathed by some NPP members that, a friend told me if Kufour had supported the amendments, he will have kick against them. The former Presidents mistakes were just too many and he continues to make them.
Mustapha Hamid once told me that Ex-President Kufuor in 2005 told him, the Hon. Isaac Asiamah, MP for Atwima Mponua and John Boadu the National Youth Organiser to wait until another President who will like them comes and reward them for their efforts? According to him, the ex-President said this on Thursday 12th May 2005 at about 4:30pm in his office at the Castle in the presence of the then National Chairman, Haruna Esseku and Kwadwo Mpiani his Chief of Staff after they went there to lobby for positions.
Why tell then hardworking Youth this?
The NDC has always worked to bridge the generation gap by including its Youth in the governance process of this country. The party believe the effective role of it's youth in national development in the future depends on their development today and has therefore always seen the need to build a party that would consider and involve it's youth when it comes to decision making. This is sharp contrast to the way Kufour handled the Youth of the NPP. He believed the Youth lack the capacity to engage in any meaningful decision making.
Also from day one of Kufour's rule, he divided the NPP into two. NPP gurus who played significant roles for the party but supported Nana Akufo-Addo during the 2008 Presidential Primaries were sidelined in terms of appointments when the party won in 2000. A few months after being sworn into office in 2001, Kufour brought down Alan Kyerematen from his high ambassadorial perch in the United States to supplant Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku as Minister of Trade and Industry. The rumour then which later turned out to be true, was that Alan had been brought down to understudy and succeed the President when he finally bows out.
To compound his problems, some Ministers deemed unsympathetic were later either reshuffled or booted out and loyal but ineffective and incompetent ones brought in. Worse was to follow with the outright dismissal of some DCE's some of whom were not supporting the 'anointed candidate'.
Today the ruling NDC seem united because those who supported Obed Asamoah, Ekow Spio Gabrah and others and as a result said all sorts of things against Proffesor John Atta Mills have been given appointments based on their competence, loyalty, commitment and contribution to the NDC but not their contribution to Atta Mills' success during the NDC primaries that elected him as flag bearer.
Many NPP members believe Kufour has confirmed that he does not care about the party. At the conference grounds I overheard an NPP activist shout; "We shall continue to punish him. Yes, we shall punish him and anybody associated with his weird moves to impose unacceptable things and people on us. Our party as he well knows now is not for him, neither is it subservient to him".
Finally, Bill Clinton once said: "We should be remembered by the power of our example, rather than the example of our power".
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