Dr Kofi Dsane Selby, a founding member of the New Patriotic Party, has cautioned Kwame Mpiani to refrain from making public utterances that seek to provide political capital for the party’s opponents.
The one time Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Progress Party and Ghana ’s Ambassador to France during the Busia regime says he does not expect an elderly person like Mr Mpiani to make utterances that could prove inimical to the collective interest of the party.
Speaking in an exclusive interview, Dr Selby particularly condemned Mr Mpiani’s “idiotic comment” and attribution of corruption to all the presidential aspirants of the NPP, apart from his idol Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
“I don’t expect Mpiani to behave like Rawlings who is always campaigning for the NPP by providing us with arsenal to attack our opponents. How can you say only one person among the five aspirants can do the work of a president, and that the rest are idiots and corrupt? In that sense when your candidate does not win, how could not campaign for the elected candidate you describe as corrupt and idiot,” he wondered.
According to the retired medical doctor who contested the party’s flagbearership for the 1992 elections, any of the presidential aspirants has what it takes to become a good president for the nation.
“What is most important in making a good president is to select the right kind of people to work with,” he added.
In the view of Dr Selby, however, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the party’s 2008 presidential candidate, offers the best prospect in the party’s determination to return to power in 2012.
“All of them are good, but I think Nana Akufo-Addo stands the best chance of securing victory for the party. This is because is well-marketed; he is well-known; he has been in government before; and selling him to the electorate will not be difficult,” he explained.
Dr Selby urged the aspirants and their supporters to refrain from campaign of attacking personalities and concentrate on attacking issues to ensure civility and decorum, a condition required for unity after the contest.
He was optimistic about the prospect of the NPP returning to the corridors of power in 2012, in view of the fact that the electorate feel let down by the non-performing Mills-led National Democratic Congress government.
“Since the NPP lost power, they people say they are suffering more than before; taxi drivers are apologetic that they did not vote for the NPP. The NDC did not appreciate the magnitude of the problems of the nation while in opposition, and that was why they made lots of promised in their manifesto. And now that they are confronted with the realities, they are confused and do not know what to do,” the NPP guru told this reporter.
In his view, majority of the people feel deceived by the Mills administration, and have seen through their lies, stressing “the people are now very discerning and so would not allow the NDC to take them for a ride again.”
On the way forward for the NPP, Dr Selby stressed the need for the party’s leadership to take steps to strengthen polling station structures, train and empower party activists well to monitor the polls and to prevent any attempt by the NDC to rig the elections.
“We also have to train our boys reasonably to face them boot-for-boot and resist any attempt they will make to intimidate our supporters at any point in time,” he added.
To ensure a united formidable front, Dr Selby further called for discipline at all levels of the party’s organization, stressing “when people are disciplined they will follow the party’s constitution in all their activities, especially when seeking redress for their grievances.”
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