Akufo-Addo’s 2016 chances fade

Source: The Republic  -  The respected Pan-African magazine, the Africawatch, has exposed an intricate web of denial threatening the existence of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the controversial ‘Agenda 2020’ scheme.

Taking a cue from information treads from the whistleblower website-Wikileaks, the opposition NPP has always maintained that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) was frantically scheming to divide its front, in a bid to monopolise the Ghanaian political terrain.

The NPP claimed that from the Agenda 2020 strategy, the NDC had planted moles within its ranks and is secretly courting key members to defect to the ruling party.

However, in its latest edition, Africawatch had made revealing claims that indeed, the Agenda 2020 is the brainchild of top NPP members in John Kufuor/Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen faction in the opposition party in their bid to annex power in the party.

The magazine claims Kwadwo Mpiani, the Chief of Staff in the erstwhile NPP administration of John Agyekum Kufuor is the ‘Hatchet man’ in the NPP’s own Agenda 2020, as they work behind the scene to ensure the defeat of the party’s 2016 flagbearer, Williams Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in next year’s Presidential elections. 

"It is suspected that, a former Chief of Staff of President Kufuor, is the mastermind behind the Agenda 2020 plan. Mpiani happens to have a nephew who is married into the Mahama family. For Mpiani, family ties may trump party loyalties, or they can become an excuse for not helping Akufo-Addo,” Africawatch stated, adding that, “In any case, Agenda 2020 assumes that its adherents will sit back instead of helping Akufo-Addo’s campaign. But more dangerously, they could sabotage him.” 

It is believed that the Kufuor/ Alan Kyeremanteng faction in the NPP are not particularly happy about Akufo-Addo being the party’s flagbearer, and they intend to make Nana Akufo-Addo lose next year’s election.

The group is said to have dubbed Akufo Addo as a ‘risk factor’. According to Africawatch, its findings indicate that the group has calculated that if Akufo Addo wins the Presidential elections, he may sideline them. 

Consequently, the believe that if Akufo-Addo should be allowed to run for a second term after winning the Presidency in 2016, they would be sidelined into a ‘political wilderness’ for as long as eight years.

According to the magazine, Mr. Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, the National Chairman and General Secretary respectively of the NPP have been planted into those key positions by the Agenda 2020 clique to ensure that Akufo Addo’s plans to win the Presidential elections becomes unsuccessful.

It is already an open secret that Akufo Addo harbours an inherent mistrust for these two top party executives. He is said to have set up his personal campaign office run by his family members and friends to run parallel to the NPP’s official campaign machinery. 

This is likely to cause serious confusion in the NPP run up to the 2016 campaigns, Africawatch noted.

According to the report, the NPP is currently broke and those who are financially endowed in the party are unfortunately within the Kufour/Alan camp and are unwilling to pump cash into the party.

Many have predicted that the forthcoming presidential race would be closely contested-similar to the 2008 and 2012 ones. According to critics, the odds will be massively against the NPP if it fails to raise enough funds in its political War-chest.

The magazine claims that all these factors will work to the third defeat of Akufo-Addo at the polls in 2016 again.