Honorable Kennedy Ohene Agyapong for President?
Until now, this was the mental picture I had of the Hon. MP,Ken Agyapong: a rich and an arrogant "nut" whom, without his money, would never have been elected to Parliament. I had never met the man and knew nothing about him except a handful of audio sound bites of him on the various media websites and a few news items I had read about him. None of these painted a pretty picture.
One time, he had threatened to fight his District Chief executive. Another time, he had said he would give the extra cash he earned to his girlfriend and not the party after he had taken care of his family. Yet another time, he had called politicians from the Ashanti region as "confusionists",adding that he could also choose to act as such since he possessed that trait; due to the fact he was half Asante who hailed from Manpong. Not long ago, he bought a Rolls Royce as a 50th birthday present which I criticized in private as unbecoming of a public servant, since public servants were supposed to portray a sense of modesty.
To make matters worse, he had recently claimed that he would not campaign for Nana Addo because of the way Alan's men insulted him during the party primaries; that his car tires were worth more than MP's salaries; and that some MP's wore "obroni wawu" suits; not forgeting his constant reminder of how he was indispensable to the party because of the amount of cash he had spent and continues to spend on party cars, offices, campaigns etc.
Anytime I came across his "shenanigans" in the media, it re-enforced my belief that this man was a cancer, a divider, a sore, a disgrace to our party, the parliament and the nation; until now.
As far as the Hon.Ken Agyapong was concerned, I had bought into and fell for the media practice of highlighting and sensationalizing the negatives with sound bites, and out of context quotes and dimming the "boring" positives. Until I came across an in-depth video interview of the Honorable, he was definitely on my Sh*** list.
The NPP UK Youth had posted clips of the Hon. Ken Agyapong's appearance on a local show called "Time with David" on their website and had invited members to view the clip in order to get a different perspective on the Member of Parliament from Assin North in the Central region. As usual, I was expecting another politically incorrect "performance. Boy I was to be disappointed and greatly so. In fact, I could not help but applaud after I had finished watching the interview. It would be unnecessary to reproduce the entire interview of the MP with the host David Ampofo. But I can assure you that it's worth watching and one would come away with whole different idea about Ken Agyapong after viewing (The interview is 40 minutes long and broken down into a four sections; ten minutes per section.)
After viewing I felt I could move Mount. Afadjato to Kumasi, if I so desired. Ladies and Gentlemen,that was how inspirational the man was and is. There was not a single word, sentence, statement or an ideal the Mr.Agyapong uttered, made or shared that I found disagreeable. During the interview, Mr. Agyapong was sober, reflective,very statesman-like, very polished and much mature. All the preconceived notions I had formed of the man, with the help of the media sound bites, evaporated. He rekindled a hope in my heart that our country indeed has a bright future as long as men of his caliber existed in our land. I felt that he was the kind of man the county would need at the helm of affairs in the future, if he was groomed.
Folks, the man have vision, the fire, the determination and the gumption to succeed at every venture he undertakes. And I can categorically state that if he were to run for the highest office in the land in the future, he will surely get my vote and it would not bother me at all to live under his presidency.
But the honorable MP has a few kinks to work on. I know politically, he is not mature – being an Mp for only ten years and only fifty years old. He would have to tone down his "rhetoric",especially when speaking in vernacular, avoid non essential interviews, appear on politically mature shows- such as the one I watched-, shun "reactive"interviews, rebrand his image, and surround himself with politically savvy managers and the sky would be the limit.
For ladies and Gentlemen, we have a political superstar, a hidden gem, in our midst. But do not take my word for it. Seek the aforementioned interview and find out for yourself.
The Hon. MP for Assin North, Mr. Ken Ohene Agyapong ended the aforesaid interview with this quote: "we need dreamers, we need thinkers and we need doers." And He is indeed a dreamer, a thinker and a doer.
Akwasi.A.Afrifa.Akoto
