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Press Release6
September 24, 2014
ALAN KYEREMATEN, GET REAL
On Tuesday 29th July, 2014, Nana Akufo-Addo
officially kick-started his campaign to be elected
as the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic
Party for the December 2016 presidential election.
At this event, which took place at Akwei’s House in
Odododiodio, in the heart of Accra, stalwarts in the
NPP declared their support for the candidature of
the 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate of the
party. Members of Parliament, regional executives,
constituency executives, amongst others, pledged
their strong support for Nana Akufo-Addo. These
declarations were only reinforcements of the pledges
they had given to Nana Akufo-Addo, prior to his
6-month break from frontline politics, in the
aftermath of the infamous August 29 Supreme Court
verdict on the election petition.
What, however, caught the attention of the
gathering, and subsequently the attention of the
media and Ghanaians at large at the campaign launch,
were the declarations of support made by persons who
had previously supported the candidature of Alan
Kyerematen, the man who was the main challenger to
Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2007 and 2010 primaries of
the NPP.
Bernard Antwi Boasiako, alias Chairman Wontumi, the
Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman; Archibald Cobbina,
Greater Accra NPP Regional Organizer; Hon. Maxwell
Kofi Jumah, former Member of Parliament for Asokwa
and a former Mayor of Kumasi; George Kofi Agyei,
alias “Geo Kad”, Nhyiaeso NPP Chairman; Kwasi Nti
Asamoah, Fomena NPP Chairman; John Kumah, the 2010
spokesperson for Alan Kyerematen; and Stephen Amoah
(“Sticka”), another spokesperson for Alan Kyerematen,
publicly endorsed Nana Akufo-Addo as the man to lead
the NPP to victory.
Whilst in the Ashanti Region, campaigning ahead of
the Special Electoral College, on Friday, August 15,
2014, Nana Akufo-Addo again received endorsements
from some former supporters of Alan Kyerematen. This
time, Ashanti Regional NPP Organiser, Kennedy Kankam;
Mr. Asare Bediako, NPP Chairman for Asokwa; Hon.
Emmanuel Akwasi Gyamfi, MP for Odotobri all publicly
endorsed Nana Akufo-Addo’s bid. Indeed, the only
constituency in the Ashanti Region won by Alan
Kyerematen in the 2010 presidential primary was
Chairman “Geo Kad’s” Nhyiaeso constituency.
Lest we forget, another influential party figure,
Alhaji Mumuni Musah, the Chairman of the Dormaa
Central Constituency who, prior to the holding of
the Special Electoral College, had never supported
Nana Akufo-Addo, also declared his support for him,
when Nana Akufo-Addo took his campaign to the Brong
Ahafo Region on 17th August, 2014.
As though this was not enough, during the Thank You
Tour undertaken by Nana Akufo-Addo, in the aftermath
of the overwhelming 80.81% margin of victory some
740 delegates gave him in the Special Electoral
College, 3 stalwarts of the NPP and, in what has
become a norm in the party, former allies of Alan
Kyerematen, again declared publicly their strong
support for Nana Addo. In the Northern Region, Brong
Ahafo Region and Ashanti Region, Hon. Mohammed Amin
Anta, former MCE for Tamale, Hon. Razak Awudulai,
former DCE for Kintampo, and Chairman Robert Yaw
Amankwah, former Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman,
respectively, publicly declared their support for
Nana Akufo-Addo’s “winning team”.
Fellow presidential aspirants, Hon. Kofi Osei-Ameyaw,
who had previously supported Alan in 2007, and Hon.
Joe Ghartey, who was firmly behind him in 2007 and
in 2010, and both of whom made the shortlist of 5,
have not only decided to stand down from the 18th
October contest, but have also declared their
support for Nana Akufo-Addo’s candidature.
These last declarations, by the 5 gentlemen, proved
to be the proverbial straw which broke the back of
Alan Kyerematen’s camel forcing him to issue a
statement, through his spokesperson, Philip Longdon,
stating that “Akufo-Addo is luring my boys with
money.”
For a candidate whose campaign slogan has always
been “jobs for the boys, cash for the people”, it
was a very ironic development that the “cash man”
was complaining that Nana Akufo-Addo was inducing
his supporters with cash, the reason for the
declarations of support by people who used to be his
staunch allies.
In as much as this fallacy was dealt with on Oman
FM’s Boiling Point by Chairman Yaw Amankwah and Hon.
Razak Awudulai, this statement by Alan Kyerematen is
not only laughable, but is also an insult to these
fine gentlemen who had supported him previously.
As aptly stated by Chairman Amankwah, “When we
supported Alan in 2007 and 2010, did he also induce
us to support him by giving us money? He is
insulting our intelligence. We supported him out of
our own volition, and now we are supporting
Akufo-Addo out of nothing but love for the party
because he is the best candidate to deliver victory
for the party in 2016.”
For a man whose vote share in internal contests in
the NPP consistently keeps dropping from 32% in
2007, when he had the whole state machinery behind
him, to 19% in 2010 and now 7.97% in 2014, Alan
Kyerematen is failing to realize that he has
credibility issues in the NPP. He has so far failed
to come to terms with the fact that the NPP wants
nobody but Nana Akufo-Addo to lead it into the 2016
elections. Everywhere one goes, it’s the same old
message “No Nana, No Vote”, which I am confident
Alan Kyerematen himself has heard.
He should ask himself why his supporters, who were
once considered his trusted allies, from all parts
of the country, are now jumping ship and swimming
away to join Nana Akufo-Addo’s. He should listen to
the reasons being adduced by them and face the
realities of the time, and spare us such absurd
effusions as “he is luring them with money.”
It is Nana Akufo-Addo’s time, Mr. Kyerematen.
Failure to realize and accept this simple fact will
be your downfall come October 18, and subsequently
the doom of your political future in the NPP. Get
real, Alan Kyerematen!!
Mohammed Alhassan
Builsa South Constituency
mohammedalhassan2016@gmail.com
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