Kufuor has no favourite in NPP race – Frank Agyekum

Former President John Kufuor supports no faction in the main opposition New Patriotic Party nor does he support any of those vying for the flagbearer slot, his Spokesperson Frank Agyekum has said.

According to him, Mr Kufuor will back whoever emerges winner of the flagbearership race after the party’s presidential primaries.

The NPP is perceived to be split between two factions – Kufuor/Alan group and the Akufo-Addo group. Mr Kufuor is perceived to be Alan Kyeremanten’s mentor and has allegedly, tacitly, supported the former trade minister’s flagbearership bid since 2007.

A recent overhaul of the entire national leadership of the NPP brought to surface, once again, the perceived division in the party. The newly elected Chairman and General Secretary, Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyepong, are both perceived to be pro-Alan persons.

They defeated incumbents Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey and Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie who are both perceived to be pro-Akufo-Addo persons.

Hours after the party’s national elections, Mr Kyeremanten was quoted by the Daily Graphic to have said the overhaul in leadership signaled the coming change in leadership at the flagbearer level.

The former Ambassador to the US also told Paul Adom Otchere on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana programme on Tuesday that the party needed to do serious soul-searching and be bold to interrogate why it lost two consecutive general elections, which in his opinion, should have been a walk in the park for the NPP.

In his opinion, the party cannot achieve different results without doing things differently.

In that same interview, Mr Kyeremanten rebuffed claims that former President John Kufuor has, since 2007, attempted ‘coronating’ him as flagbearer of the of New Patriotic Party. “…It has nothing to do with President Kufuor trying to bestow or have a coronation process for me right from the beginning, now or for the future.”

Mr Kyeremanten’s comments courted salvos from a staunch Danquah-Busia-Dombo intellectual, Dr Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, who wrote in an article that Mr Kyeremanten cannot reap from where he didn’t sow.

Dr Ahoofe said: “In sum, a brazen political AWOL like Mr. Kyerematen cannot so cavalierly presume to be smarter than the rest of his party colleagues and associates.”

“This is the one case in which the baboon has absolutely no right to enjoy the sweat and toil of the monkey”, he added.

According to him, ‘had he any remarkable sense of shame or dignity’, the former Ambassador, whom he tagged as “Quitman” Kyerematen, would not be advising the leaders of the NPP to do any introspection.

Dr Ahoofe said: “Mr. Kyerematen has every right to presume his faction of NPP supporters and sympathisers to be entirely composed of twerps and clinical idiots. Unfortunately, the rest of us forward-looking Danquah-Busia-Dombo scions do not have that luxury.”

The internal sparring notwithstanding, Mr Frank Agyekum told Asempa FM’s afternoon political programme, Ekosii sen that Mr Kufuor is not backing any of the perceived factions in the party nor is he backing any of the flagbearer hopefuls.