RE: "Alan Kyeremanten, What Are You Doing to Nana Akufo-Addo?"

Forgive me if my response appears disjointed because I am responding to Mr. Pryce’s article paragraph by paragraph.

It is quite repulsive for one to say that “Alan Kyerematen wants to become the next president of Ghana” and deliberately leave out the rational behind the man’s ambition. I take issue with Pryce’s statement because the implication by that statement is that Alan has an empty and unbridle personal ambition.

I was not Alan’s supporter to begin with. I met and spoke with the guy and I came out totally convinced that he is a Presidential Material and would make a Good President. He solicits for support telling people that their support should be based on their trust in him that he has the vision to lift Ghana up. In essence he is not running for president because history says it is his turn (to borrow Pryce’s words)

Mr. Pryce and all Nana Akufo-Addo supporters are quick to invoke the successive run by John Fiifi Mills in 2000, 2004 and 2008 as the reason why Nana should be accorded the same. The fact, which these supporters fail to acknowledge, is that Mills ran against opponents in all but one NDC primaries. The one and only primary that he was imposed on NDC was the infamous Sweduro Declaration. We all made mockery of NDC when the Father and Founder single-handedly imposed Mills on NDC. When we condemned the imposition as crude and undemocratic, what and how do we look like when we turn around and try to impose a candidate on NPP? HYPOCRATES! We all knew why ex-President Rawlings was stuck on candidate Mills: In fact we gave then candidate Mills a name of our thoughts.

Politics is said to be all about numbers, thus one must have the numbers if one were to be successful in politics. Mr. Pryce claimed that, “Nana Akuffo Addo undoubtedly, has the largest following in the NPP” To me large following means large numbers (unless I slept in my basic math class). If and I emphasize on the word ‘if ‘ Mr. Pryce’s claim is true that Nana has the largest following then I believe that Nana has no problem winning. Now having gone through this simple logic, my question to Mr. Pryce and all Nana’s pseudo-democratic supporters is, WHY THE FUSS?

Mr. Pryce’s call on NPP leaders to forget about 2012 if Nana were to be defeated at the primaries sounds ‘Chicken Little” if you ask me. Let it be known to all the doomsayers that the sky would not fall when Nana is defeated at the primaries. It would only confirm the perception of many of the silent majority that Nana is notand has never been a winnable candidate, Period.

“Nana Akufo-Addo has served the NPP faithfully for many years” wrote Mr. Pryce. Why Nana’s supporters cannot let go this weak logic is beyond me! Mr. Pryce went on that; “Nana stepped back in 1998 for Kufuor to become president both in 2001 and 2005.” Please Mr. Pryce, it is not yet dark to confuse us with the fork road, as the saying goes: Many of us were not children in 1998. No one asked or pressured Nana of 1998 to step aside for Kufuor. Kufuor won the primaries on his own merit. Perhaps your history has a different take on that too huh?

Mr. Pryce lamented on ex-President Kufuor’s unwillingness to endorse Nana as a betrayal. Betrayal? If Kufuor did or said anything; implied or expressed in any shape or form privately to Nana that he would support his candidacy and subsequently flipped, then he was as guilty as charged otherwise we should use the word sparingly. I dare say that there were no elements of “You too Brutus” here.

I’ve got to hand it up to these Nana supporters! It is amazing how on one hand they are quick to bolster their argument with western facts, but fail to go all the way.In his article entitled “Ronald Reagan’s Legacy” John Miller wrote and I quote, “Two days after his death, the Wall Street journal ran a lengthy editorial tribute to Ronald Reagan, in the editors' estimation the most important president since FDR. In their paean to the fortieth president, Reagan gets credit for everything from winning the Cold War to renewing a sense of optimism at home. Oh, and he gets extra kudos for doing it all with that famously sunny disposition.

On economic policy, as the journal tells the story, by tying the hands of meddlesome government bureaucrats and cutting taxes, Reaganomics ignited an episode of miraculous economic growth that restored prosperity to the U.S. economy. But like much of what Reagan had to say while he was president, what the journal offers is just so much happy talk that masks a mean-spirited, economically unsound, and socially destructive policy agenda” unquote. I quoted Mr. Miller not in an attempt to degrade President Reagan, but to show that he was not all that as Mr. Pryce would like to make us believe in an attempt to compare Nana with Reagan. Besides, Nana is no Reagan.

By Nana’s own campaign message and the kangaroo dance, the emphasis is on going forward so why would we look back to Reagan years for inspiration? If we are in love with anything western, then the ‘in’ thing now with regards to the political preferences of the western world is the concentration on youthful leaders. Nevertheless, I happen to believe that age is a number; what matters is rather the perception of the electorate of that person in question. It was unfortunate that Nana had given the answer that he gave in 2007 when the question of age came up. We must acknowledge that perception is everything in politics.

We must not be like the ostrich, for the perception that Ghanaians have about the man Akufo-Addo is not that stellar. Want to try? Ask any stranger on the street (randomly of course) to give you some adjectives that come up in mind when Nana’s name is mentioned. You’ll be amazed at the perception out there.

Mr. Pryce wrote and I quote, “Alan Kyeremanten is approximately 12 years younger than Akufo-Addo and seems to be in sound health, too. If Kyeremanten declares his support for Akufo-Addo to become the NPP flag-bearer this year, and assuming that Akufo-Addo wins the next presidential elections, then Kyeremanten could look forward to either the 2016 or 2020 presidential elections. (Kyeremanten will be 60 in 2016.) If Akufo-Addo does not win the elections in 2012, he will graciously bow out of future contests – as Akufo-Addo would have known that, in 2016 and at age 72, he may just be a tad too old to seek the nation’s highest office. And here is another scenario: If Akufo-Addo is elected NPP flag-bearer this year, he could appoint Kyeremanten as his running mate for Election 2012! ” Unquote.

Statements like the above quote of Mr. Pryce’s are what make me wonder when the same people deny that Akufo-Addo’s quest for Ghana’s presidency is shrouded in a sense of entitlement or some kind of long-service award. The implication is that, “hey Alan Kyerematen step aside for our man, because he has not that much time left.” How pathetic! How insulting to Ghanaians’ sensibilities! Mr. Pryce's argument paints Nana as weak and spineless. I believe that is not the image Nana would like to project. If the notion is that Nana cannot win the primaries in contention unless Alan hands it over to him just like 2007, what makes anybody think that Nana can win 2012 if President Mills does not step aside for him?

I hate to see grown-ups cry. All these “please Alan, please Alan” is a pathetic sight unbecoming of candidates of our great party. I guess it would be better to ask all the NPP presidential aspirants to step aside for Nana, and while we are at it we must as well send a delegation to the castle to ask President Mills to step aside come 2012, for it is Nana’s time.

Mr. Pryce wrote and I quote, “Nana Akufo-Addo deserves a second shot at the Ghanaian presidency, more so because he believes in multiparty democracy, human rights, free enterprise and freedom of expression, among a litany of other society-improving and egalitarian ideals. Of course, the other NPP candidates for Election 2012 believe in the aforementioned ideals as well, but Nana Akufo-Addo has an advantage: the largest following in his party: a requirement for winning a national election.” Unquote. Mr. Pryce, “Nana Akufo-Addo deserves a second shot at the Ghanaian presidency” only and only if he wins the NPP primaries. Get it? A word of caution to the electoral commission: that the vigilance at this NPP primary would be like never before. I’m ever hopeful that nothing like what happened at Legon in 2007 would be repeated or allowed to happen.

Mr. Pryce took a swipe at Dr. Arthur Kobina Kennedy for his candid observation of the 2008 NPP campaign. He belittled Dr. Kennedy’s effort to mere disloyalty. I had hoped we would have learnt something from the doctor’s book, but it is obvious that we did not, for Mr. Pryce is advising Nana to surround himself with the same or like-minded sycophants of 2008 should Nana get the nod to lead NPP in the 2012 presidential election.

Mr. Pryce concluded his shameful public humiliation of Nana Akufo-Addo by stating that his, “yearning “ was “that Election 2012 will produce the better of the two candidates” from either NDC or NPP. I do not think that Mr. Pryce sincerely meant what he wrote, for the ‘better’ or in my case the best candidate that Mr. Pryce was alluding to would emerge only from a free-spirited competition, something that some so-called NPP bigwigs are fighting vehemently to prevent. Mr. Pryce and his ilk should be all ashamed in stifling a healthy democracy. The article, “Alan Kyeremanten, What Are You Doing to Nana Akufo-Addo?” is a desperate cry for help from Nana’s camp. Indeed when it rains it pours: “Maarta yaazo” my Hausa friend would say.

Fiifi Bannerman, Toronto, Canada