By Dr. Samuel Adjei Sarfo
Attorney and Counselor at Law
The landslide victory by Nana Akufo-Addo in the recent New Patriotic Party (“NPP”) special delegates congress has led to calls by party stalwarts and the general public for the other contestants, especially Allan Kyeremanteng, to step aside in order for Nana Addo to be proclaimed the party’s presidential candidate in the coming October, 18, 2014 party congress. The purpose of this article is to endorse the calls emanating from the party supporters and to advise that Allan concedes to Akufo-Addo as being suggested by many supporters.
With 800 delegates voting in the aforementioned congress, the following results were registered: Nana Akufo-Addo: 598 votes representing 80.81%; Allan Kyeremanteng: 59 votes representing 7.97%; Addae Nimoh: 22 votes representing 2.97% ; Joe Ghartey: 22 votes, representing 2.97%; Osei Ameyaw: 2.16 votes representing 2.16% ; Asamoah Boateng: 13 votes representing 1.76%, and Konadu Apraku: 10 votes representing 1.35%.
Viewed from the standpoint of sample/simple statistics, Nana Addo has emerged the convincing winner of the electoral college votes and ought to represent the New Patriotic Party in the 2016 presidential elections without any further ado. However, the party’s constitution imposes a requirement on the party to organize another delegates congress during which over forty thousand voters will now get to decide who to choose as the party’s presidential candidate.
The whole notion of a special delegates congress was mooted to resolve the problem where candidates flooded the party’s marquee and made the nomination process unwieldy. Under this notion, the special congress was conceived to trim the number of nominees down to five. On hindsight, it is easy to argue why the amendments made to the party’s constitution failed to holistically address the implications and ramifications of a lopsided result such as the one produced by the recent congress. Here, we have Nana Akufo Addo garner over 80% of the votes whereas the combined votes of all the other contestants amounted to less than 20%; yet the party is trapped by its own constitutional amendment to organize a general delegates conference to “elect” a candidate when the exercise is deemed to be rather superfluous and altogether soporific.
Thus, it could be argued that if those party leaders who drafted the constitutional amendment had paused to consider the present conundrum, they would have inserted the relevant prophylactic clauses to remedy this outright absurdity. They would probably have stated that if one candidate got a certain clear percentage over the rest of the candidates, then another selective procedure shall be deemed moot, and the winning candidate shall then be formally proclaimed the presidential candidate at a general congress. Or that to necessitate another congress, a candidate must necessarily secure a certain qualifying threshold percentage of the vote.
As the situation stands, Allan, like the other qualified candidates, has rights provided by the party constitution to take the contest to the next level. Their supporters foresee a probable disparity between the voice of about eight hundred delegates who voted at the special delegates congress and the over forty thousand delegates who will be voting come the October 18 general congress. But the optimism of Allan’s supporters that there will be any significant deviation from the present results is farfetched. It is a rule of thumb in sociological and scientific research that a random sample, if it is truly reflective of a cross section of a population, could fairly be used to predict the nature and posture of the whole population. That is why Zmapp, tested in fifteen Ebola infested rhesus monkeys with positive results, could be said to at least cure Ebola in rhesus monkeys. You do not need forty thousand rhesus monkeys to arrive at this curative conclusion.
So the result of this super delegates conference will not deviate much from that of the general congress scheduled for October 18. This being the case, it stands to reason that Allan should bow out. Such an action will be a dignified gesture that will benefit Allan himself and portray him in a better light for any future political aspiration.
I can understand that given the contempt and calumny and scorn often poured on Allan by so-called Nana Akufo-Addo supporters, there is hardly any incentive for Allan to bow out of the race. He will naturally and justifiably construe such an action as benefitting no-one but his political rivals who are likely to mock him instead of praising him. But as my mother Akua Sarpomaa used to say, “It is no act of intrepidity to allow your enemy to beat you until you soil your pants.” Again, when Shylock, in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Vernice” insisted on his pound of flesh, he ended up losing every pound he has. Thus with Allan’s present untenable situation, it should be proper for him to call Akufo-Addo to congratulate him and then gracefully bow out.
But the onus lies equally with Akufo-Addo to initiate the healing process by meeting with Allan Kyeremanteng to give him the necessary assurances and to receive same from him. Up to now, Nana’s posture toward Allan and his supporters has remained too adversarial and does not rise to the level of maturity required of a seasoned politician of Nana’s standing. He has even failed to call to order his supporters who make incendiary accusations against Allan…..
But if the history of the two previous elections could serve as any guide for the future, then the NPP needs every one of its supporters and sympathizers as well as the critical mass of undecided voters in order to win 2016 convincingly. That is why we must jettison pride and affirm our party’s unity and cohesiveness.
Samuel Adjei Sarfo, Doctor of Jurisprudence, is a general legal practitioner in Austin, Texas, USA. You may email him at [email protected]