Time they say goes in a circle. But while some people are vindicated by even time, others are miserably disowned by their own history. And Hon. Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku,a presidential aspirant on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), may be one of the ‘unfortunate’ people in the latter category.
The former Economics Lecturer’s assertion in Tamale recently that he single-handedly drafted the party’s constitution and gave it its name has not only incurred the wrath of activists, but independent investigations have also revealed that the claim was completely false.
Delving into the archives, The Chronicle now armed with documentary evidences can say that the forerunners in the party, who were neck-deep in its formation, cannot fathom where the former minister was domiciled at the time, let alone play a vital role such as drafting the party’s Constitution.
In a statement read to National Executive Members at the Kokomlemle headquarters of the party in 1997, Mr. BJ da Rocha, former National Chairman and Founding Member of the party gave out a list of people who drafted the Constitution.
Conspicuously absent from the list of Members of the Professor Folson Committee was any name with the semblance of KK Apraku, the paper can say.
Speaking as if with the eye of faith nine good years ago, da Rocha – known within party circles as ‘Aboa Kessie’ – noted that many activists and followers seemed oblivious of the party’s history.
“An unnecessary debate is developing within the NPP about its own internal Constitution which may end up destabilizing and weakening the party. It seems from the way some prominent members of the party are talking portrays that they either do not know or have chosen to forget the rationale behind the present NPP Constitution,” he cautioned.
The former National Chairman further pointed out that the present Constitution was painstakingly put together by a group of nine eminent experts, adding that work on it started long before the ban on political activity was lifted in early 1992.
“Our present Constitution was not a hastily contrived and drawn up document. Work began on the Constitution long before the formal ban on political parties was lifted and the NPP was formally registered.
A powerful committee comprising the late Professor Folson as Chairman, with Mr. Akenten Appiah-Menka, Kwadwo Antwi-Agyei, Dr. Atta then of ISSER, Dr. Wayo Seini, Kwesi Spio, Mr. Kakra Essamuah, Dr. Kwame Amoako-Tufuor and Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, as members was commissioned to draw up a draft.
According to him, the general house was satisfied with the Folson Committee’ report, and thus accepted the draft as a permanent Constitution of the party, which he described as the best under the circumstances.
Da Rocha stressed, “It was on the basis of these considerations that Prof. Folson's Committee produced the draft that is now the party's Constitution.
There was the general consensus among those who may be described as the Founding Fathers of the NPP that given the party's roots and traditions, and the nature of the national Constitution, Prof. Folson’s draft was the best we could have”.
PROTEST FROM AN ACTIVIST Few hours after the paper’s first publication, in fact on the same day (Wednesday June 28), rejoinders started flying into the offices of The Chronicle, contesting that the aspirant’s claims were completely false.
Mr. Oppong Kyekyeku, a Kumasi-based NPP activist and one of such fuming people, seems to have deflated Apraku’s ‘burrowed ego’ when he attributed the naming of the party to da Rocha, and the elephant symbol to Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey.
“Certain NPP presidential aspirants, in their unbridled desire to assume the leadership of the party, resort to lies and in some cases, reaping where they did not sow, which does no good to the party. In the circumstances, I deem it expedient that certain truths are made public so that posterity will be able to sift the truth from the lies when the history of the great NPP comes to be written”, he stated.
He stated categorically among other things “Some of us, who have been closely researching into the history and activities of the NPP, can say without the slightest contradiction that the people who were tasked to draw the Constitution for the party didn’t include Hon. Apraku”.
Mr. Kyekyeku tutored that contrary to Mr. Apraku’s claim, the name, New Patriotic Party, was suggested by Mr. B.J. da Rocha, while the symbol (elephant) was suggested by the current Minister for Tourism and Diasporan Relations, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey.
“Apraku, in his overly ambition for the flagbearership of the NPP, must not claim credit for what he did not do and by so doing distort the true history of the party,” he concluded.
Another London-based activist also debunked the claims, saying, “Apraku seems to have conveniently forgotten that when he left the US to go to Ghana, NPP had already been formed”. He recalled that the Offinso North MP left the shores of the US to team up with Mr. Kofi Amoah in the formation of the Ghana Democratic Republican Party (GDRP); a dream that did not materialize.
“So Apraku should stop making claims and claiming credits that do not belong to him. In any case, even if this were true, so what?
Didn't JB Danquah propose the name ‘Ghana’ for the Gold Coast, and what did it entitle him to?” he concluded.
It would be recalled that the Offinso North MP was reported in the media as saying at the launch of the Friends of Kofi Konadu Apraku (FOKKA) in Kumasi that he single-handedly drafted the NPP Constitution and gave it its current name.
A few days later, his 2008 campaign coordinator, Mr. Edward Oduro, also repeated the same statement at the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale.
