Controversial but popular activist of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Hajia Fati Amadu, has taken her strong passion for the party to an extreme level, threatening to end it all if Alan Kyerematen steps down for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Hajia Fati, popularly known as Aliga, threatened to commit suicide if two-time presidential candidate of the party, Nana Akufo-Addo, agrees to the calls for his main contender in the flagbearer race, Alan Kyerematen, to step down for him.
The NPP strong woman bared her teeth when she walked into the Nima offices of DAILY GUIDE yesterday in the company of a witness, fuming with anger over the calls for Alan to back out of the race.
Hajia Fati, who has been at the forefront of NPP politics for the past 23 years alongside Nana Addo, Kweku Baako Jnr and Kwesi Pratt Jnr. during the ‘Kume Preko’ demonstration, said she would like to see the four remaining aspirants who were shortlisted at the recent super delegates’ congress, to proceed to the next phase of the competition with no one stepping down so that each of them will see where he stands.
“I am begging Nana Addo in the name of God that if anyone comes to advise him to talk to Alan to step down for him, he should not agree so that each of them will know his smoothness level.”
She rubbished the claim that when Alan stepped down it would foster unity in the party.
According to the NPP strong woman, “I will personally take a rope to Akufo-Addo’s house and hang myself on the tree if Alan gets out of the race.”
“We don’t want to see or hear what happened after at the 2007 Legon congress or a repeat of that because some people used and continue to use Alan’s decision to step down at the time as a propaganda tool to claim that Nana did not win decisively and that Alan was forced to step down for him,” she recalled.
In 2007 at the NPP Legon congress where Nana Akufo-Addo was elected standard bearer, Mr Kyerematen had stepped down ahead of the run-off after nobody crossed the 50%+1 required votes.
Fati further stated, “We don’t want anybody to come out with excuses and resign; they should let them all contest so that if Nana wins, he wins and if Alan wins so be it for the party to move forward.”
Aliga was of the firm conviction that the votes margin and percentage in the scheduled October 18, 2014 national delegates’ congress to elect a flagbearer of the party for the 2016 general elections would be wider than what was recorded in the recent special delegates’ congress in which Akufo-Addo won by landslide margin.
Among the seven candidates who contested in the first round of the game, Nana Akufo-Addo came tops with 598 votes, representing 81.81%; followed by Alan who had 59 votes, representing 8.28% and then Addai-Nimoh and Joe Ghartey who tied it up with 21 votes each, representing 2.85% out of 737 delegates who voted in the exercise.
Mr Osei-Ameyaw picked the last slot of the five tickets with 14 votes, representing 1.90% while his colleagues, Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, popularly known as Asabee, and Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, crashed out of the race with 13 votes, representing 1.76% and 10 votes indicating 1.36% respectively.
Joe Ghartey has since stepped out of the competition, leaving four—Akufo-Addo, Alan, Addai-Nimoh and Osei-Ameyaw—to slug it out on congress day for the eventual winner to be made the flagbearer.
After a week of consultations, Francis Addai-Nimoh has finally decided to contest Nana Akufo-Addo in the October 18 contest.
Mr Addai-Nimoh, in a statement issued on Monday, said he was “deeply moved by the trust that has been placed in him” and thanked the delegates of the Special Electoral College for short-listing him as one of the five persons to contest for the flagbearer position of the party.
Declaring his intention to contest, the Asante Mampong MP stated that “By the grace of God, I intend to lead our party into power when the delegates of our party give me the nod on October 18, 2014.”
This statement puts to rest doubts about whether the MP would indeed contest or not, uncertainties which were fuelled by his “I’m still consulting” response to all questions that were asked about his interest in the race.
For him, he is the best person to bring the NPP back into government after several years in opposition.
“Close to 60 years of Ghana’s existence as a nation, our party has only had the opportunity to be in power for about 10 years… and Ghanaians are yearning to see this great party back in the helm of affairs,” he stated.
Mr Addai-Nimoh, who was a debutant in the party’s presidential race, managed to place fourth by securing 21 votes cast to qualify him to take part in the October congress.
Considering Nana Akufo-Addo’s emphatic victory in the elections, several NPP supporters across the country have been calling on the other contestants to drop out of the race and allow Nana to go unopposed.
But Addai-Nimoh in response, said that “The democratic culture which our party believes in thrives on competition, the tolerance for divergent views and the willingness and ability to play by the rules.”
This, in his opinion, “ensures unity, the integrity and credibility of the party before the Ghanaian electorate, whose mandate we shall be seeking come December 2016.”
He ended the statement by thanking all who have “encouraged and supported” him and assured the party’s delegates of a “clean, ethical and successful campaign to deliver power to the NPP come December, 2016.”
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