Afoko, Agyapong must not surrender mandate - Arthur Kennedy

A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Kobina Arthur Kennedy, believes the opposition party has still not readied itself to regain power and bases his reasons on the fact that the NPP leadership has till date not delved into why it suffered two electoral defeats at the hands of its bitterest rival, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Commenting on the just ended National Economic Forum consensus, Dr. Arthur Kennedy stated that though the Finance Minister had already given indication of what government’s next line of economic action will be, even before the forum was held, the NPP should have taken advantage of the forum to give alternative measures to salvage the economy.

To him, the ruling NDC has lost touch with the people of this country yet surprisingly, his party (NPP) is yet to show any seriousness of wrestling power from the incumbent.

“NPP should not brush aside the message of the voters; they want change in the party and they are tired of losing elections and I think the new executives will make a mistake if they don’t read the message of the voters. It does not mean Nana Addo will be put aside, but it means he must change as people want to know what he has learnt from his two defeats, about the things he will do differently; what he regrets having done?” he averred.

Speaking in an interview on Okay Fm’s Ghana Decides program, Dr. Arthur Kennedy cautioned the current crop of executives not to repeat the mistakes of their predecessors as they sold their mandate to Nana Akufo-Addo as the Flagbearer.

“I don’t think doing the same thing again and expecting different results is reasonable…..I have never felt that those who were defeated (Jake and Sir John) were bad people. I think they are good people who made a cardinal mistake by surrendering their mandate to somebody else, and so I will advise that the current executives (Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyapong) should never surrender their mandate to anybody (Nana Akufo Addo). They have the mandate and they should do the best they can in the interest of the party. I think that was the key mistake Jake and Sir John did…it was obvious they left their mandate to Nana Addo; the Flagbearer and the executives have their respective roles to play in the party,” he pointed out.