Truth they say is bitter, but like a cork it will always pop-up. We hope ‘they’ speak to this one too with the same passion and zeal as ‘they’ did to our earlier story.
Already reeling under the heat of stiff challenge being mounted against his third time comeback by archrival Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanten, the twice defeated presidential candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is reported employing all the tricks under his sleeves to remain relevant in NPP and Ghana politics, The aL-hAJJ can confirm.
As part of his strategy to ‘silence’ opposition against his third time bid, Nana Akufo-Addo is said to be wooing all defeated candidates at the party’s Tamale conference of the party and everyone who matters in the NPP to his side to enable him consolidate his grip on the party.
Overly convinced the newly elected national officers of the party are pro-Kufuor/Alan Kyeremanten, and are therefore likely to stand in his way for a third and possible last attempt at the presidency, sources close to Nana Akufo-Addo say he has been approaching all the losing candidates at the just ended congress and top guns of the NPP; promising them ‘juicy’ positions in his campaign team and ‘government’.
Party sources familiar with this new strategy disclosed to The aL-hAJJ that in order to beef up his support in the party to avoid losing control of it to the Kufuor/Alan Kyeremanten camp whose men are believed to be in the driving seat at the moment, the former Foreign Affairs Minister in the Kufuor administration has begun dishing out positions to prominent party figures.
But unknown to the twice defeated presidential candidate and his henchmen, his political nemesis, Alan Kyeremanten like a clairvoyant, is said to be aware of all the covert strategies of the Akyem septuagenarian and has put in place measures to counter his plans.
Mr. Ntim maybe an unsuccessful serial National Chairman aspirant, however his organizational ability and clout which is never in doubt, according to party insiders has positioned him as a colossus that leading NPP presidential aspirants cannot ignore, The aL-hAJJ’s painstaking investigations has unearth.
To deprive Mr Alan Kyeremanten of winning back his once loyal and indefatigable backer and lifetime pal, Nana Akufo-Addo is reported exerting pressure on Stephen Ntim to take up the management of his campaign team as Director, and has vowed to employ all means under the sun to deny Alan the services of Stephen Ntim in their upcoming primaries.
But a reliable source close to Alan told The aL-hAJJ that “even before Nana Akufo-Addo begun knocking on Ntim’s door, Alan Kyerematen, who has had fruitful relationship with Mr Ntim had already offered him the same position just after the Tamale congress.”
However, by press time yesterday, our sources were unable to confirm if Mr. Stephen Ntim, now turned ‘campaign magician’ who campaigned on the platform of ‘non-align’ to any of the party factions ahead of the Tamale congress, has accepted any of the offers.
“To solidify his campaign and to combat threats posed by Alan Kyeremanten, Nana Akufo-Addo has been reaching out to all the defeated aspirants promising them positions such as Campaign Director, Communication chairman, regional campaign coordinators and directors of operations, finance and administration among others”, another source disclosed.
Attempts to get a confirmation from Mr. Ntim by press time proved unsuccessful.
Party sources told The aL-hAJJ that the new national executives have resolved to take charge of the party’s next presidential campaign. Unlike previously, the flag bearer they say will not be allowed to handpick persons to make up the campaign team for a presidential candidate.
Reports are that a postmortem of the 2008 and 2012 defeat of the NPP showed that the party lost the two elections partly due to Akufo Addo’s hand-picked ‘family and friends’ campaign teams and as such, almost all the national chairman aspirants; having taken a cue from Jake who first broached the idea, promised to whisk the composition of the campaign team from the flag bearer.
But sources close to Nana Akufo-Addo revealed he has device a strategy to get all the losers and other ‘movers and shakers’ in the party on board to form a shield around him to fight any likely threat that may come from the new executives in the event they decide to work against him.
It would be recalled that Jake’s camp few days after the congress revealed that Nana Akufo-Addo who has been supporting Jake prior to the Tamale congress dumped him at the eleventh hour for Fred Oware because Jake promised to put a stop to the phenomenon where the flag bearer forms separate campaign team which invariably creates problems for the party.
Based on past experiences, the new national executives are said to have also decided not to allow the party’s next flag bearer to compose the campaign team alone.
But sources close to Nana Akufo-Addo say he is aware of the decision and in a bid to circumvent it, he is reaching out to big shots in the party including known allies of Kufuor/Alan Kyeremanten to position his team as one to beat.
The is said to have informed his decision to promised Jake, Sir John and Fred Oware with the Chief of Staff, deputy Chief of Staff and Minister of Energy respectively in the event he is elected president in the 2016 presidential election; even though his office have since strenuously denied it.
Sources say Nana Akufo-Addo is of the high hopes that he will still be allowed to compose his own campaign team after congress and as such has carved obscure positions in his campaign structure for persons he does not want to lose to his rival internal factions. Stay tuned