On Monday, 25th September, 2023, Alan Kyerematen, one of the Founding Members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) accorded ‘special status’ by way of being given the opportunity to occupy key positions in both the Kufour and Nana Akufo-Addo Administrations, publicly declared his intention to abandon the party that shot him to prominence and empowered him financially, and launched a Political Party with the proposed name; Movement for Change, to enable him go unopposed at the said party’s presidential primaries (arising primarily out of his consistent abysmal performances in competitive presidential primaries from 2007 to present).
One wonders how many people in Ghana had heard of the name Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, before the 1992 general election?
Among the grievances of ‘Alan Cash’, (cash that he allegedly amassed during the Kufour Administration, thus 2000 to 2008), include his cry that the Party has now been hijacked by certain elements who have thrown away its core values.
Alan further claimed that the Party has been hijacked by a selected group of Party leaders and elders, government appointees, i.e, behind the curtain power brokers, and some unscrupulous party apparatchiks.
I joined the NPP in 1992 and was a polling station agent in the general election held in November that year; just after I completed sixth form and started National Service. I personally met the late Prof. Albert Adu Boahen, the Presidential Candidate of the NPP for the 1992 Presidential Election when he was on a campaign tour in my constituency (Nalerigu/Gambaga), where he personally handed over money to me to support the Party’s activities in my zone.
Somewhere in 1995, when John Agyekum Kufour was on a campaign tour of my constituency to solicit votes of the Party’s delegates towards leading the NPP into the 1996 Presidential Election, I was invited by the then Zonal Chairman (Mba Seidu Amadu, aka God Dey), when Kufour arrived at his residence, to join them.
On a lighter note, following a hand shake with Kufour that memorable day, I wondered whether I had shook hands with the symbol of the NPP (elephant), or someone vying to ride the elephant to victory? His palm was very huge (elephant-like) and it basically swallowed my ‘goatish’ palm.
I left Ghana before the 2000 Elections, and thereafter, I took a temporal leave from Ghana politics in order to ‘upgrade’ myself.
After having upgraded myself and felt secured, and while still abroad, I supported the NPP in both the Walewale and Gambaga/Nalerigu Constituencies financially, and directly took part in radio discussions (via phone on Eagle FM, Walewale), in the run-up to the 2012 Elections.
I returned to Ghana in 2014, and took steps to make my presence known to the NPP; this I did through a prominent and well known figure in the current government. Thereafter, I became a regular visitor to his house up to and after the 2016 Elections.
I again provided some financial and logistical support to the NPP in the above two Constituencies prior to the 2016 Elections.
Prior to the 2020 Elections, as a staff of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), and a member of the NPP Club (Senior Patriots Club) on campus, we contributed money and it was delivered to the NPP Headquarters in Accra.
With all the above sacrifices and others that cannot be disclosed publicly, I haven’t benefited directly from the NPP since it took over the reigns of government on 7th January, 2017.
Alan Kyerematen has one vote, just like myself, and has probably supported the Party financially, just as I also did. Alan has degrees; I have degrees too. Now, between Alan and I, who has been treated unfairly by the NPP?
Alan’s submission that the NPP has been hijacked by certain elements who have thrown away its core values, and a selected group of Party leaders and elders, government appointees, who he termed behind the curtain power brokers, and some unscrupulous party apparatchiks, is apt.
At UEW, a majority of the Senior Patriots (NPP Members) including myself, and some members who have donated vehicles to the Party in the recent past, have been treated worse than rugs by the NPP!
One particular politician with one vote, just like any other NPP member, has been virtually handed control of UEW. This politician now determines who should be UEW Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Council Chairman, Council Members, and many other positions in the University. Being appointed to any meaningful position in UEW, is no longer based on merit, but rather based on being a boot-licker and a puppet of this politician.
If the seat of government is not already aware, then it is being made known to it that the free hand that they have handed this politician to treat UEW as his personal property because of a hung Parliament or for whatever reasons, has destroyed the NPP in UEW and the University as a whole! A National asset, being sacrificed for one vote? What a joke!
The threatening phone calls that are usually placed to competitors for some key positions in UEW, allegedly from the seat of government, mounting pressure on these competitors to withdraw from a contest in favour of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s preferred candidate, and alleged National Security Operatives getting involved in the appointment of some principal officers of UEW, have collectively finished off the NPP in UEW!! How can the President of the Republic stoop so low to be involved in the appointment of an officer of a university, which is supposed to be purely based on merit? Even known NPP members in UEW, who failed to serve as boot-lickers and puppets of this politician, have been shoved aside to make way for the ‘owner’ of UEW candidates to sail through. The President’s name is being dragged in the mud!!
Furthermore, a member of the Senior Patriots Club who was a Council Chairman in a sister university had his appointment truncated on the alleged orders of this politician.
With all the ‘injustice’ outlined above, and others that unfortunately cannot be disclosed publicly, the Senior Patriots, including myself, have remained silent.
When it comes to instances where someone is flexing their muscles and attempting to ‘carry’ the world on their frail shoulders like what this politician is presently doing, the Mamprusis response to that is captured as follows: “There were bigger mountains than that but they have all disintegrated”. Only those who can think far will be able to decipher the meaning.
Alan should consider himself as one of the few members of the NPP who has been given special treatment by the Party (even after his earlier resignation from the Party following his disgraceful performance in the 2007 Presidential Primaries).
On the basis of the above, it is clear that the second resignation of Alan Kyerematen from the NPP and the formation of a doomed Political Party (Movement for Change) on Monday, 25th September, 2023, is borne out of selfishness, immaturity, impatience and lacking the capacity to reflect independently on the future of the outmoded and ill-fated Movement for Change, and the faith that befell similar Political Parties that were founded out of similar circumstances; such as Charles Wereko-Brobby, aka Tarzan (United Ghana Movement, 1997), Augustus Obuadum Tanoh (National Reform Party, 1999), and Dr. Yao Obed Asamoah (Democratic Freedom Party, 2006).
Even though a good majority of NPP members have been treated unfairly by the Party; fact is, who has had it easy going under the current Administration (which Alan Kyrerematen was part of)?
The selected few who haven’t been disappointed by Nana’s second Administration are persons like Alan Kyerematen and that politician who was probably still breastfeeding and struggling to learn the art of walking with pampers stuffed in his under-compartment in 1992, when some of us were already sacrificing for the Party, and who the government has ‘sold’ UEW to at the expense of almost all ordinary Ghanaians.
If the government hasn’t sold UEW to this politician, why is it that the ECOWAS Parliament has set up a permanent base in UEW? Is UEW the only university in Ghana capable of hosting the ECOWAS Parliament?
In addition, how much income has UEW earned from hosting the previous meetings of the ECOWAS Parliament? Is it not an insult to the rest of the country that a particular politician has commandeered a National event as his personal thing?
Since Alan Kyerematen claimed to have been treated unfairly by the NPP, Alan and I are in alignment on this point. However, the fundamental question is, has Alan Kyerematen actually been treated unfairly by a Party that appointed him a Minister on different occasions, and an Ambassador at some point?
Alhassan Salifu Bawah
(son of an upright peasant farmer)
