Ghanaians will damn NPP if it fails to win power – Kufuor
Former President J.A. Kufuor says power beckons the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in next year’s general elections, but he says the party must first look united and attractive enough to attract votes even from its rival National Democratic Congress.
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Failing to win political power and the mandate to salvage the country from its present quandary, he says the NPP faces the damnation of Ghanaians present and unborn.
“I want you to believe, we bear a responsibility to Ghana. If we do not help Ghana to choose rightly next year, I tell you we’ll be damned by our nationals of today and the future because power is ready for us. Power is there, staring at us, asking us to go and take it. All it will take us to do is to hold together and convince people, stand as one people ready to assume power and the responsibility to give Ghana the good governance,” he said.
The former president was addressing the extraordinary conference of the NPP at the Sunyani Coronation Park on Saturday, and said given the myriad challenges confronting Ghanaians, the party remains the only option but it must first unite its front.
Anchoring his address to delegates on the need for unity and reconciliation in the party following months of bickering in its leadership, President Kufuor said “There has been too much infighting” within the ranks of the NPP.
He pointed out that while democracy has never been rational or common sense, it is about the best governance system available, and that entails working with persons of different opinions.
“We talk of Danquah-Busia, I believe their defining character was commitment to democracy. Respect for the human individual, respect their right to think, respect their right to express themselves and respect their right to associate as they will, of course all within enlightened laws. And this is NPP, this is our tradition.”
Kufuor said while the party seeks to entice others to join forces with it, it cannot afford to lose its own members in the quest for political power, and called for reconciliation.
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“Because at the end of the day if the party does not get power, I tell you all the good incentives we have, all the competencies, and we have a lot of it, I tell you we’ve got the human material to really take Ghana out of the quandary that Ghana is in now, but we must first get the power, so then we can use the talents, God-given talents to help lift our country out of the demurrage.”
Nana Akufo-Addo must win the presidency
Kufuor maintained that the party cannot afford to lose power and charged NPP flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo to win the presidency next year.
“To win, he must garner 50 percent-plus-one of the votes cast. He can get it. I tend to believe NPP is the biggest party in the country. It is the biggest party in the country. And where the country is now, the average citizen wanting change would know that it is NPP he or she must cast their vote for,” he said.
“But everybody wants to feel included. Everybody must feel included. So what is the responsibility on us? First is to close our ranks. We need everybody within the party, close the ranks because it is power, the justification for the party is winning power, we need power so we must include everybody within the party, anybody who professes to be with us, we must include them. And not only that, once we show unity I tell you we become beautiful, we become sexy and so people who are not able to decide, they will look at us and join us because everybody wants to be with the victors. And I tell you we may even win some from NDC itself, because they are suffering.”