A leading member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Alan
Kojo Kyeremanten has announced his resignation from the elephant party citing hijack by a selected group of Party leaders and elders, government appointees, who are operating “behind the curtain power brokers” and some unscrupulous Party apparatchiks.
Announcing his position yesterday at a Press Conference in Accra, Alan Kojo Kyeremanten averred that he joined the NPP at the very beginning of its establishment as a Founding Member, believing in its core values and the long-standing traditions of its antecedents, predicated on fairness, equity, probity, accountability, and transparency.
He said, he has devoted the best part of his professional career to serving the Party, and still believes in the vision of the founding fathers of the Party, but the NPP as it exists now has very little resemblance to the Party that he joined in 1992 and helped to nurture.
According to him, the Party has been hijacked by a selected group of persons who have staged several attacks on his personality but he has endured all this resentment, and maintained his integrity within the Party throughout the past fifteen years.
“…indeed, the divisive and hostile attacks on my person and my supporters remained for several years thereafter, and have continued to date. It is common knowledge that any Party member who is associated directly or indirectly with Alan, is treated with disdain and considered an outcast.”
Alan Kyeremanten also enumerated that despite the sacrifices he made to unite the Party, there were very serious post-primary attacks on his supporters all over the country, and an open show of hostility.
“Some of my supporters were victims of brutalities and continue to bear the scars of that treatment. I made several representations to the then leadership of the Party, drawing their attention to the rancorous and divisive behaviour of some elements in the Party.”
Talking about the recent Super Delegates Conference, Alan Kyeremanten said, on 5th of January, 2023, he resigned honourably from his position as Cabinet Minister and declared his intention in a national broadcast to contest the Presidential primaries of NPP; and participated in the Super Delegates Conference to shortlist the ten aspirants who had filed their nominations to contest in the primaries.
Although he was selected as one of the five Candidates to contest for the main Presidential primaries scheduled for 4th November 2023, he believes the decisions of the National Council were both “unmeritorious and unconstitutional.”
In effect of all these resentments, Alan Kyeremanten announced his resignation from the party declaring that “…I am honourably resigning with immediate effect from the New Patriotic Party to contest for the high office of the President of the Republic of Ghana in the 2024 General Elections, as an Independent Presidential Candidate.”
He said, in order to actualise his goal, he will establish and lead a new MOVEMENT FOR CHANGE in Ghana with the Monarch Butterfly, which politically symbolizes change and transformation, hope, and positivity as its logo.
“The brand motto of the MOVEMENT is “Ghana Will Rise Again,” which symbolizes hope for the future of Ghana. The new Movement will be led and powered by the youth of Ghana. Out of the over 17 million registered voters in the 2020 general election, the youth aged 18-35, years constituted over 9.4 million voters representing 55% (Fifty five percent) of the total voters.”
He said his Movement will change the political status quo by moving Ghana beyond the duopoly of the two main political parties in Ghana; the NPP and NDC, Promote the establishment of a Government of National Unity, Build consensus on a National Development Agenda
Inspire behavioral and attitudinal change in the people of Ghana, build a strong macroeconomic environment, Promoting Industrial Transformation, Accelerated Infrastructure Development and Digital Mainstreaming among others.
He also assured the rank and file of the New Patriotic Party that he still cherishes his relationship with them and that he is committed to the ideals of the founding fathers of the Party.
“My decision to contest as an Independent Candidate will not destroy the Party, but rather provide the Party an opportunity to participate in a Government of National Unity in the future, and avoid the risk of going into opposition with no dividends, in what arguably will be a difficult general election in 2024,” he said.
By PROSPER AGBENYEGA