Kwabena Agyapong is Primus inter Pares.

The New Patriotic Party is looking for a pivot for its engine house. All the contestants are equally qualified. But we must not forget the fact that it is not all palm trees that can be climbed by a hoop. It is equally true that not all rivers can be crossed by a canoe. A child that tells his father’s proverbs will have to pay his father’s debt. The fact that you are in the middle of the ocean does not mean you can call the crocodile father

We need a General Secretary to take effective control of our party secretariat. We need someone who goes out of his way to get things done. We don’t need a sit tight dictator who will surround him/herself with watch dogs to sniff out ordinary party men and women whose only crime is to go to the party secretariat for one thing or the order. We need a person who will listen to your complaints and suggestions and if he/she cannot solve it/them refer you to the appropriate person or quarters. We don’t need the one with an all-knowing mentality who thinks he/she is the repository of all knowledge.

We do not need the person with a “Shawcross in, Shawcross out” attitude who will dismiss you from the office with a mere wave of the hand without granting you audience as has been the norm since Honourable Daniel Kwaku Botwe ended his tenure as General Secretary of our Great Party.

I know what I am talking about because I have been there before.

Buabeng Asamoah has an analytical mind and is good at figures. He is carved in the mould of Honourable Kwaku Kwarteng, the youthful MP for Obuasi. Effah Dartey who has been waiting on the Lord for a very long time is yet to receive an answer. He too brings with him a calm mien which is likely to defuse any tension.

In Sir John, “I am humbled“ is a character who sometime ago was touted to match Asiedu Nketiah boot for boot when it came to providing comic relief. He ended up overdoing and out pacing “General Mosquito” in his own game. His antics landed him at the Supreme Court where he admitted he had lost steam because he had been humbled.

But, do we need a person with a 'humbled' personality to be in charge of our engine room? The answer obviously is a big “No”! The engine room is the fulcrum of our party. It is too hot for the uninitiated. We need someone who combines radicalism with gentility and could command his troops even when the odds are heavily stashed against him. This much, Kwabena Agyapong has. We need someone who can respond with equal venom and parry attacks and blows from our political opponents. We need someone who like Mohammed Ali, aka Cassius Clay can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.

And the person who easily comes to mind is Kwabena Agyapong, the firebrand and action oriented politician who combines youthful exuberance and aggression with temperance and matured judgment.

Yes, Kwabena Agyapong has qualities which will make his tenure as General Secretary of our Great Osono Party a never-to-be-forgotten experience. Yes, it is true Kwabena has the knack to tread at places where angels at times fear to go. He has dinned with the devil and the elephant, how much more an ant.

Have you watched the documentary on the 2008 Presidential Elections at the E.C.’s Strong room? The documentary was made by a white man. If you have not, please, I entreat you to do so and you will see the stuff Kwabena Agyapong is made of. He is no push over. Here was Kwabena Agyapong who, surrounded by political enemies stood his ground and did not allow himself to be intimidated.

He was not the only NPP person scheduled to be in the EC’s strong room. But the question is: “Where were the rest”? Kwabena, like the Biblical Daniel found himself in the midst of political lions because of his great faith in the New Patriotic Party. He remained calm, collected and calculating. In the long run, his strong belief in the virtues of the party kept him alive. Who can match such strong credentials?

Kwabena Agyapong is meticulous for everything he does hinges on that fact and when he returns a political jab, it goes straight to its target. He does not miss such opportunities when they present themselves.

I recall the hullabaloo that surrounded the information that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo had withdrawn from Oxford University during his first year of admission. Whilst the party apparatchiks were dilly dallying on the response to give, Kwabena came with his intervention which silenced the vociferous critics. Yes, it was the father’s wish and nothing more. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Kwabena laid bare the fact and that was the end of the matter.

From the forgoing analysis you will all agree with me that Kwabena Agyapong is the seer who could look into the seed of time and predict which one would germinate and which one will not. He can predict which egg will hatch into a chicken and which one will not.

We should not overlook the fact that for more than two years, Kwabena Agyapong gave his office near the Nima Police Station to be used by the Communication Directorate of the party for over two years without taking a farthing. What does this portray of the man Kwabena Agyapong? He is indeed a man who genuinely loves the party and believes in its ideology. He is indeed a bird, not a butterfly who calls itself a bird.

The argument making its rounds that Kwabena Agyapong is in a different camp and will use his office to thwart Nana’s effort to become the party’s presidential candidate should he (Kwabena Agyapong) become the General Secretary of the party is neither here nor there and must be discounted by genuine members of the party. He, together with Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo and others like Omari Wadie, John Buadu, Otiko Djaba and many others will form a formidable winning team which will be difficult for any political party to crack.

We are engaged in a titanic battle for control of the nation’s political destiny. We need all the accoutrements in our arsenals to enable us clinch a deserving victory over political enemies who have vowed to take us on the direct rout to Golgotha. This is not the time to talk of political camp or alignment.

Our unity as a political party lies in our diversity. Do we need to give ammunition to our opponents to be used against our party? The chicken that eats the worm forgets that the hawk is watching and is ready to pounce.

Those peddling such unfounded and illogical reasoning and argument have a mind of mischief. They see Kwabena Agyapong as a true party man, whose forthrightness and outspokenness they cannot withstand.

Do you recall that during the World Cup in 1974, Paolo Rossi was on suspension in Italy, but for the sake of victory, the Italian Soccer Federation pardoned him and recalled him into the Italian National Team? Paolo Rossi did not disappoint.

Kwabena Agyemang, like Paolo Rossi is the catalyst the New Patriotic Party needs to rekindle the fire in its dormant party secretariat.

To put the New Patriotic Party at the Jubilee House, vote Kwabena Agyapong as General Secretary of the party. Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The past is the best prophet for the future.

Daniel Danquah Damptey (Damptey_daniel@yahoo.com) 0243715297.