FLASHBACK: Why Alan resigned from NPP in 2008

Graphic.com.gh Politics Sep - 07 - 2023 , 16:56 5 minutes read

Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen on Tuesday announced his withdrawal from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) November 4, 2023 presidential race.

He announced his decision in a press statement signed and issued Tuesday evening [September 5, 2023].

There have been varying views about the political future of Mr Kyerematen following his withdrawal from the NPP presidential primary.

In what looked like a re-enactment of a 2008 scenario when he quit the party after a failed ambition to lead the party into the presidential race, Mr Kyerematen stepped down from the final stage of the party’s presidential primary, citing intimidation, physical assault on his supporters, and an unlevel field that favoured a particular candidate.

Known for his calm disposition, the former Minister of Trade and Industry’s appeal among political moderates has been touted as a direct function of his unpolitical character.

The businessman, who attains 68 years on October 3, 2023, had sought the party’s blessings to contest the presidency 15 years ago, and was always touted as the party’s anointed candidate after Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo until Dr Mahamudu Bawumia emerged.

We reproduce below an article published by the Daily Graphic on Friday, August 18, 2008 when Alan left the NPP and assigned reasons for his resignation from the party.

Alan quits NPP

Story by Kobby Asmah and Donald Ato Dapatem. First published on Friday, August 18, 2008.

Mr Alan Kyerematen, the defeated presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has resigned from the party.

According to the Political Aide to Mr Kyerematen, Mr John Kumah, Mr Kyerematen would make his reasons known to Ghanaians later.

At the time of filing this report, no official reason had been given but snippets of information indicated that Mr Kyerematen's supporters had not been happy with the treatment meted out to them by the campaign team of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the flag bearer of the party.

However, another source close to Mr Kyerematen told the Daily Graphic that Mr Kyerematen presented his resignation letter to the party secretariat yesterday afternoon, copied to President John Agyekum Kufuor.

At the party office, the National Chairman, Mr Peter Mac Manu, was absent, having travelled outside the country, according to party insiders.

The source also told the Daily Graphic that Mr Kyerematen's resignation was as a result of the alleged harassment of some of his supporters who wanted to contest NPP parliamentary primaries.

Since he was named the Chairman of the Committee in charge of Identifiable Groups of the Akufo-Addo Campaign Team, Mr Kyerematen is said to have never attended any of its meetings.

Reports also indicate that Mr Kyerematen wants to run as an independent candidate in the December general election.

Mr Kyerematen, a former Trade and Industry Minister, contested the position of flag bearer of the NPP in December 2007 but lost to Nana Akufo-Addo when he polled 736 votes against the 1,060 obtained by the winner.

He has had an extensive and successful professional career in the private and public sectors spanning over a period of 24 years.

He was a senior corporate executive with a subsidiary of Unilever International in Ghana.

He also worked for a number of years as a Principal Consultant and Head of Public Systems Management with one of the leading management development institutions in Ghana, the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI).

He was responsible for establishing the EMPRETEC Programme in Ghana (an enterprise development programme sponsored by the UNDP and Barclays Bank Ghana Ltd in 1990.

As Chief Executive, he led in the transformation of EMPRETEC from a small UNDP project into an independent foundation which is internationally recognised as a best practice model for private sector development.

In 1998, Mr Kyerematen was appointed by the UNDP as the Regional Director to establish and manage the Enterprise
Africa Regional Programme, an Africa-wide regional programme for the development and promotion of SMEs, which is the UNDP's flagship programme for private sector development in Africa.

Under the umbrella of the Enterprise Africa Programme, Mr Kyerematen successfully expanded the EMPRETEC presence in Africa into 11 other countries, besides Ghana and Zimbabwe.

The new countries included Botswana, Ethiopia, Namibia, Nigeria, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Cameron, Senegal, Uganda and Swaziland.

He is a graduate in Economics from the University of Ghana and also holds a law degree from the same university. He has been called to the Ghana Bar and is a practising attorney-at-law in Ghana.

In addition, he is a Hubert Humphrey Fellow of the School of Management at the University of Min-nesota, U.S.A., having completed one year management studies under the Fulbright Scholarship pro-gramme in that institution.

Mr Kyrematen is a member of the Council of Governors of the British Executive Service Overseas (BESO) in the UK and also a board member of other organisations in Ghana.

In 1994, he was listed by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 Global Leaders for the new millennium, alongside Bill Gates (Microsoft Corporation), John F. Kennedy Jr and others.