Feature: Kufuor likes Alan, so what?

In The Statesman edition of 09/07/2007, this column featured a 'controversial' piece which carried the title "Kufuor, don"t do it". It started: "There is a discomposing development in the heightening contest to select a presidential candidate for the New Patriotic Party in December. A posteriori, the feeling is that President Kufuor is on the verge of launching a blitzkrieg in support of Alan Kyerematen." Words were, apparently, not minced in that article: "[Alan] would be modest enough today to admit that the perception, real or manipulated, has helped enhance his image as one of the top three candidates, if public opinions can be trusted." Having the support of the President in a congested contest can be a strange mélange. In Ben Ephson’s analysis, a guaranteed run-off place. It can also be a poisoned blessing, so to speak, unless you are sure of a ‘one-touch’ victory. Alan attracts a lot of comments. His detractors say he is not yet the complete leadership material and that he does not even qualify per the succession criteria set out by his own godfather: "

The choice is not about who is more knowledgeable or better-resourced than the other. The search is for a leader who appreciates our time-tested traditions and values as a party; a leader who can hold all of us together as a party; a leader who has the humility to hold himself accountable to the party and the nation and above all, a leader who will be acceptable to all Ghanaians." [Kufuor said to NPP delegates Saturday, 6 January, 2007] How a candidate of Josephian favouritism can be trusted as the one best placed to quickly unite the party after December may take some convincing. His campaign must learn to deal with negative stories better.

Qanawu’s advice to Alan is not to feel compelled to respond to every piece of ‘negative’ story written about him. He’s paying a lot for PR but that only confirms the saying that the worth of money is in how it is utilised not how much of it is spent. As to who advised Alan to use a slogan like ‘Cash for the People’ should be recommended by the NPP to become Prof Mills’ PR consultant for Election 2008. Frankly, Alan is of potential presidential material. Though on the current pecking order majority of Ghanaians would be hard-pressed to place him at the very top. He still has some more pulled-sleeves, dirtied-hands politics to do to convince the masses of his consummate political leadership. An experience in losing an election would certainly do his image some good. To not have even contested and won a district assembly election and expect to be trusted to beat Prof Mills in a presidential contest appears too ambitious for the conservative taste buds of the New Patriotic Party. Perhaps, he should not have listened to his godfather but gone for the Bantama seat when the opportunity came in 2004.

After all, in eight years time Alan, born in 1955, will be 60, still younger than the current ages of Aliu, Akufo-Addo, Hackman, Addo-Kufuor, Jake, Osafo-Maafo, Oquaye, and others. Dr Apraku, 53, who is in fact the ‘senior prefect’ of the generation after Dr Addo-Kufuor, can give him free advice on this. In Qanawu’s view, Mr Kyerematen is fundamentally suffering from the Josephian syndrome - where a father chooses a younger son for special favours out of many, generating disgruntlement among the rest. But why so? Has he become a common target of opprobrium simply out of sheer envy or because people think he has not done enough, in terms of political leadership, sacrifice and maturity, to merit such presidential preferential treatment?

Well, the Presidency is known for occasionally backing the wrong horse in the past, archetypical of these was George Weah for the Liberian presidency. But, Qanawu would be most unfair to put Alan in the same low category as Weah, even if the Castle, trusting in the often sound judgment of D K Osei, was at one time prepared to, albeit discreetly, put the illiterate soccer star ahead of Mrs Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Qanawu, naturally, got a lot of stick for his July 9 piece. He was accused of insolence (insulting the President), hurting Nana Addo’s campaign, providing free ammunition to the opposition and even fomenting Ashanti-Akyem divisionism! Yes, Qanawu, an Ayokuo dehyia (royal of the Ayoko clan from his matri-lineage), whose father (also a royal from the clan) is Ayokohene and a Juaben Mmrontuohene is, because of politics, now seen as anti-Ashanti?!?

Today, people will buy newspapers hoping to hear tit-bits from yesterday evening’s crunch meeting of the aspirants, the President, Francis Poku, and some party elders, with exaggerated anxiety. When the meeting was postponed last week, some people were quick to interpret it as a sign of protest. But, really, why should any candidate begrudge the President for having a preference which is not you? In fact, nobody in his right mind should have a serious problem unless that support is stretched to offend the party’s own guidelines and the integrity of the nomination process. Mr President, support who you may, just stay above the fray, that’s all.

Such is politics that departing presidents always have illusions of possibilities of still controlling affairs from retirement. Qanawu feels that as much as President Kufuor may wish his boy gets the nod to succeed him, the President has in essence no problem if any of the leading aspirants from his party gets it. Indeed, he has repeatedly told those he knows may not exactly share his choice that the race may be between two people and he would be happy if any of the two gets it. Well, he may not be exactly elated by the outcome but his individual elation is not really his party’s concern. The concern is for him to be succeeded by a person who can lead, command respect and admiration, unite, motivate and win. That ‘offensive’ Qanawu article referred to above gave an advice to the President which remains valid: "The first thing that the Presidency must constantly bear in mind between now and December 2008 is that the only contest that all forces and logistics must be marshalled against losing is the contest to beat the National Democratic Congress." The article emphasised, the "December 2007 contest should not be mistaken for the December 2008 one. Therefore it does not require the kind of Mephistophelian machinations that are being allegedly engaged to be deployed." You did not need to be a Nostradamusian seer to foresee what Qanawu observed three months ago, at a time when eight strong cabinet ministers were reluctantly preparing to resign to contest: "… The last thing President Kufuor should be doing now is to give them any feeling of being doubly whammed by him. Some are still testing the waters, believing in what they wish to believe in. Don’t let them think that it was you who blew them out of the water." Qanawu went further, "… [A]s it is happening now, whether justified or not, camps are, at least, uniting for the common enterprise of showing resentment against the alleged favouritism from the incumbent."

In sum, Qanawu urged, "President Kufuor should play his cards very maturely or risk turning the weight of a heavy majority of his own party needlessly against himself. The field is too much of a minefield to attempt any obtrusive side-stepping and hip-hopping strategies. Qanawu may sound finicky and pernickety about this but the truth is that President Kufuor is the only one with the potential, albeit inadvertent, to cause a split in the party. No split, however, can be permanent in the NPP. Yet, it may be deep enough for the length of its healing process to frustrate the speedy post-congress coherence required for the December 2008." President Kufuor’s record as the most successful leader of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition is cast in stone. His image is bound to grow, in Qanawu’s view, more so even if he does not have this his particular way on December 22nd. But so fluid is internal politics, and so shrewd is Kufuor that Qanawu expects him to wash his parti pris hands off this contest from now on. The odds are stack against his boy and he feels it.