By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
August 29, 2014
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
In the wake of widely circulating rumors, indicating his abrupt but not altogether unexpected withdrawal from the 7-man super-delegates' pre-presidential candidacy elimination contest, President John Agyekum-Kufuor's fired Trade and Industry Minister emerged out of the proverbial woodwork to say that he was staying put, and that he was poised to winning the contest by a landslide (See "NPP Race: I Strike Fear In My Opponents - Apraku" Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 8/24/14).
That was nearly a week ago. And so far, his campaign has been so muted that some are beginning to wonder whether his momentary rearing of his head slightly above the level of media waters was not primarily meant to provide comic relief for avid critics and observers of New Patriotic Party politics. Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku would have those who care to listen to him believe that rumors about his sudden withdrawal from Sunday's political muscle-flexing were concocted and bruited about by his other six presidential candidacy rival aspirants.
"I am in this race and I am winning it," he was quoted to be saying. Of course, not even the most inebriated of his handful of supporters think that Dr. Apraku sincerely believes in his own victory vaunt. For yours truly, though, his claim of having put fear into his political rivals - he prefers to call them his opponents - reminds one of the globally celebrated poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, the great and immortalized English poet, about an ancient absolute monarch, or tyrant, who erected a giant-sized statue of himself in his sprawling dominion, in hopes of immortalizing himself.
The irony here is that by the time the speaker/narrator of the poem arrives at the site of the statue, the latter has been pulverized into fine desert sand, except for a few broken pieces, including the head, that lie at the plinth, or pedestal, of the long-shattered monument.
Sunday's elimination contest, inserted into the Constitution of the New Patriotic Party, as an amendment, was created as a result of the chaotic decision of some 17 key players of the party to tussle for the flagbearership of the NPP in 2007, well ahead of the 2008 presidential election. Of the seven flagbearership aspirants currently jockeying for the stipulated five spots - it actually ought to be no more than three - in preparation for the main flagbearership contest on October 18, four participated in the 2007 Legon contest, including Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice under President Kufuor, who is also widely tipped to effortlessly carry the super-delegates' votes on Sunday.
Since the 2007 presidential primary, Nana Akufo-Addo has gone on to win one more presidential nomination of the New Patriotic Party, but he has yet to clinch a general election victory and see beyond the outer walls of the Flagstaff House. The other five contestants, besides Messrs. Akufo-Addo and Apraku, are Mr. Alan John Kwadwo "Quitman" Kyerematen, the second Trade and Industry Minister under President Kufuor; former Attorney-General Joe Ghartey; former Information Minister Stephen Asamoah Boateng; and two current NPP Members of Parliament, namely, Mr. Francis Addai-Nimoh and Mr. Kwame Osei-Ameyaw.
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