Former New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Nsuta Kwaman-Beposo, Osei Kwame Prempeh, has called on the National Executive Council of the party to build consensus with other flagbearer aspirants seeking to contest Nana Akufo-Addo to rescind their decisions. The former deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice believes that is the only means to convince Ghanaians that the party is ready for power in 2016 elections.
Mr Prempeh, the party’s 2007 and 2010 Presidential Primaries posed problems for its quest to win power.
In assessing of the various residential hopefuls, the former MP said nobody can deny the fact that Nana Akufo-Addo would win the flagbearership contest, due to the massive support he enjoys in the party.
“We should hold on to what we have and add more people. If people had showed no interest in Nana Akufo-Addo, we would have told him to step down for another candidate but the case is different because wherever you go, people are calling for him. Anybody who cannot predict that Nana Addo win the primaries is not a good politician. How can NPP win power if Nana Addo is not the Presidential candidate?” he rhetorically asked. He was speaking on Okay FM on current development in the NPP.
“What will come out of this Presidential Primaries is that Nana Addo will win the Flagbearership; I have said that Nana Addo has 80% support of the party members and that is the way it is in the party…..since this is the trend in the party, why are many contesting him to create unnecessary tension and division in the party? I am suggesting to the NEC to call the rest of the aspirants and convince them without compelling anyone to step down so that we can have a solid and unified party to contest the 2016 elections as one family…..consensus building is part of democracy and not necessarily competing each other where we can understand and agree to make the party stand supreme. We have suffered defeat twice…so I will only plead with the executives to organize a congress to endorse Nana Addo as the Presidential Candidate for 2016 elections. We are inflicting pain on our party members and sympathizers and Ghanaians who are suffering from the bad governance NDC is giving us….they won’t forgive us in 2016 elections if we don’t take care of the situation,” he noted.
According to Mr Osei Prempeh, NPP’s failure to win the 2012 elections was largely due to the divisions that rocked the party during the Presidential Primaries, adding that the best practice of politics that can assure victory is to maintain the number of followers in the party while seeking for more members.
