Kofi Adams’ campaign in trouble

Powerful forces within the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) are aligning against Kofi Adams in his bid to become the party’s next National Organiser as his loyalty to the collective interest of the party have come under serious scrutiny.

Kofi Adams, the current Deputy General Secretary of the ruling party is seeking to unseat the incumbent National Organiser, Yaw Boateng Gyan, but key party members have expressed their doubt about Kofi Adams' loyalty to the party given his past activities.

Kofi Adams has often been accused of playing too close to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), a situation that culminated in the damning exposé when he was secretly recorded on a tape strategizing with some NPP bigwigs on how to scuttle the presidential ambition of the then incumbent John Evans Atta Mills.

He was suspended from the party for several months as the party investigated his alleged betrayal. Even though he was eventually reinstated, some party gurus are still skeptical about his commitment to the party.

His campaign is said to be expending huge funds that has raised the curiosity of party members as to where he got those funds from.

It is an open secret in the NDC that Kofi Adams and the party’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia (General Mosquito) do not see eye-to-eye, a situation that puts Kofi Adams at a disadvantage given the General Secretary’s overwhelming influence in the ruling party.

Sources have told the Republic newspaper that Kofi Adams’ bid to wrest the National Organiser position from Yaw Boateng Gyan, a close ally of General Mosquito, is to weaken General Mosquito’s significant influence in the ruling party.

Even though several candidates are aspiring for key positions, General Mosquito, who has steered the NDC through two major electoral victories appear to be rooting for Yaw Boateng Gyan and the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, as a few of the most committed to the cause of the NDC among their peers.

Indeed, the party’s highly influential General Secretary who is re-running his position unopposed has threatened to resign if anybody other than Yaw Boateng Gyan and Dr. Kwabena Adjei are elected to the positions that the two incumbents are aspiring to retain.

According to him, a number of those running for national executive offices in the party are not committed to the cause of the party, alleging that some aspirants who already occupy executive positions of the party have shirked their responsibilities in the party and hardly attend strategic meetings in the party.

“Let me tell you, the best gauge of a person’s conduct in the future is his conduct in the past. That is why it is important to review the backgrounds of the various candidates and to find out how loyal they have been to the party and that will tell you how loyal they will continue to be with the party moving forward,” Mr. Asiedu Nketia (General Mosquito) stated during the campaign launch of Dr. Kwabena Adjei last week.

There are several members of the NDC featured on radio talk shows daily projecting the party, but the General Secretary says this is not enough to show commitment, “There is a whole world of difference between operating from party office and operating from Peace FM. So if you are elected to do your work, come to the office and do your work and you’ll have time to respond to radio interviews… and if you go and elect leaders who will go to radio stations and when you want to organise meetings they are not available, then I’m sorry you can’t win elections. So don’t let us judge people by media appearances.”

It is unclear who he may have been referring to in this quotation, but speculations are rife that he may have been targeting Kofi Adams in that statement.

Incidentally, Kofi Adams is a usual guest on Peace FM’s morning show and has also been widely accused of not fully participating in party meetings; a situation that strongly gives credence to the speculations.

Kofi Adams is said to be “too close” to the NPP, a situation that is making ruling party members jittery as they fear he could easily be compromised any time by the NPP.

In what appears to corroborate the fears of some NDC members, General Mosquito warned during the campaign launch of Dr. Kwabena Adjei that the NDC was “facing a very dangerous opposition where our opponents have more control of resources than we do. It is possible for our opponents to even sponsor candidates into our ranks to create the disunity they like so much, so let us watch out. Review the backgrounds of the various candidates and be able to cast a wise vote,” he said.

Kofi Adams is said to be using the same individuals who supported a group who supported the former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings in the run up to the 2011 NDC congress to elect its flagbearer for the 2012 Presidential campaign. The group dubbed Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR) aggressively rooted for Mrs. Rawlings to be elected as the flagbearer of the NDC for the 2012 elections instead of the then incumbent Atta Mills.