Alan "Cash" Walloped

There were four clear winners who emerged from Saturday’s competition for national officers of the main opposition party, the New Patriotic Party.

The first, of course, were the individual winners, namely, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Fred Oware, Sheikh T B Damba, Sophia Honer-Sam, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, Otiko Afisah Djaba , Alhaji Mocta Musa Bamba, Esther Dzifah Ofori, Anthony Abayifaa Karbo, Abubakar Sulemana.

The second winner was the beauty of the team. It is strong on regional balance, with the exception of Eastern Region. It is also an exciting mix of experience, competence, energy, dynamism and youthfulness.

The third, which is perhaps the most telling, is Nana Akufo-Addo, who is the frontrunner for the NPP flagbearership race. This victory, coming on top of similar victories from the constituencies and regional executives’ elections, has sent a louder message to his competitors and the party, at large, that there is very likely to be no change from retaining the man who lost the 2008 presidential race by less than 0.5 percent of the total votes cast.

There are two main camps in the New Patriotic Party – the larger Akufo-Addo camp and the respectably smaller Alan Kyerematen camp. Both sides had a slate of contestants for Saturday’s National Delegates’ Conference.

Alan’s slate received what can only be described as a thrashing. So resounding was the defeat that, Alan and his team, including Kwabena Agyepong did not wait for the final results before making an exit from the Baba Yara Stadium around midnight. Their star candidate, the devastated Stephen Ntim, had to be helped to walk out of the conference. He, also, did not stay for the Electoral Commission to officially declare the winners.

Akufo-Addo’s slate had Jake Obestebi-Lamptey as National Chairman, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie (aka Sir John) as General Secretary, Moctar Bamba as National Organiser, Christine Churcher for Women’s Organiser, Anthony Abayifaa Karbo, and Abubakar Sulemana.

For the three positions of Vice Chairpersons, Nana’s slate had Fred Oware, Sophia Honer-Sam, Rita Asuobayire, and Amadu Kaleem.

In the end, Nana’s slate won seven out of the nine places of the competition. For the National Treasurer position, our sources confirm that Nana had persuaded Kofi Osei Ameyaw, who works in Nana’s office, to step down for Esther Ofori to run unopposed in order to guarantee a spot for the Volta Region.

The only person exclusively from the Alan ticket who won was the younger, prettier, energetic Otiko Afisah Djaba. She beat Christine Churcher for the Women’s Organiser position by a narrow 20 votes.

Observers believe Ms Churcher, known over the years for her outstanding inspirational public speaking, lost the contest on the conference platform. She was the first to speak and her speech was very flat – she spoke in English and not a word in fante. “It was as if she couldn’t careless either way. She looked tired and disinterested,” one radio journalist from an Accra-based station observed.

Alan’s complete slate had Stephen Ntim (who came in second) as chairman, the incumbent Nana Ohene Ntow (who came second) as General Secretary, Alhaji Bamba as Organiser, Otiko Djaba as Women’s Organiser, and Stephen Amoah (who came second) as Youth Organiser.

Their Vice Chair slots were confusing. Baaba Otoo and Collins Boateng were Alan’s choices for Vice Chairpersons. Initially, the list had T B Damba as the third person but his name was last week dropped and replaced with that of Fred Oware, who was already featuring prominently on Nana’s slate. T B Damba, a very close aide to former Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama, ultimately won the 2nd Vice Chairperson position.

Fred Oware initially filed for the National Treasurer position but, our sources say, he was convinced by Nana Akufo-Addo to step up to pave the way for Ms Ofori. “If this contest was all about Nana, he would have allowed Osei Ameyaw, his aide, to contest. But Nana was more concerned about the party having a strong semblance of regional and gender balance than just a team to push his personal agenda,” an aide, Samuel Abu Jinapor, told GO.

Nana Akufo-Addo had persuaded former Deputy Minister Western Regional Minister, Sophia Honer-Sam to contest when he noticed to his awe that not a single one of the 32 contestants for the 8 national executive positions was from oil-rich Western Region. Thus, Nana’s slate had each of the 10 regions represented, with the exception of his own home region, Eastern.

With new national officers in place, expectations are strong that the new chairman will fulfil his campaign promise to have the National Congress to elect the 2012 flagbearer held in June.

Over 115,000 delegates will elect the next flagbearer of the NPP. With 105,000 of them being polling station officers, this makes it difficult for any national, regional or constituency officer to manipulate the process.

The NPP constitution states that the congress shall be held not later than two years before the next general elections. In 1998, the last contest while the NPP was in opposition, congress was held two months after the new national officers were elected.

Saturday’s competition also showed the superior strategic prowess of the Akufo-Addo camp. They were rumoured to have a lesser financial muscle but the greater grassroots support

In the end, the NPP was the fourth and main winner Saturday. The conference, the largest in Ghana’s history had 4383 voting delegates. The NDC had less than 1,200 delegates for their conference last month.

This was the end of a marathon of competitions, which according to the immediate-past Chairman, Peter Mac Manu, saw to the election of more than 120,000 party officers in more than 21,000 elections nationwide.