If intelligence signals Public Agenda is picking are anything
to go by, then President John Dramani Mahama is likely to win the 2016
presidential elections without sweat. And this will not be because of
any remarkable achievement of his administration but because a sizeable
section of the New Patriotic Party leadership wants it that way. They
call it Agenda 2020.
The Agenda 2020 plot is only a rehash of an earlier agenda hashed for
the 2012 elections, but which does not appear to have yielded the
pre-meditated outcome.
Public Agenda has gathered that, in 2012, Nana Akufo Addo’s
campaign was heavily infiltrated by elements of the Alan Kyeremanteng
faction, who were mainly young, exuberant and aggressive crop of
politicians, some of who had served in various capacities under the
Kufuor administration, from District Chief Executives to ministers of
state. Working under pretence and deceit, the group, according to Public
Agenda’s intelligence succeeded in undermining the Nana Addo campaign.
Some are alleged to have collaborated with NDC elements to rig election
results at some polling stations. One of such operatives who spoke to
the Public Agenda in confidence in 2012, said if Nana were to win the
2012 elections, he (the Allan operative) was certainly not going to have
a place in the government that would be formed, and given the
likelihood that Nana will serve two terms, he and his group would be
confined to the ‘wilderness’ for eight years.
Whereas if Mahama won (and of course he did) they were going to have to
wait for just four years before their man, Allan, could take a chance
at the presidency. The reasoning at the time was based on the
expectation that, Nana was either not going to run for the high office
in 2016, or was going to be rejected by the party if he did.
Of course Nana Akufo-Addo’s popularity today cannot be taken for
granted in any political analysis. In fact, his declaration of intent to
run for the presidency for the third time in a row, has sent shivers
down the spine of prospective candidates for the presidential slot, both
within the NPP and NDC. Pundits say Nana will be the man to beat in
2016. But his adversaries are not idling at all these days. Notes have
been revised and the plot this time, even though cast in exactly the
same frame as the 2012 one, has undertones of party political capture as
a tool to undermine Nana’s bid. The rehashed plot still hinges on
Nana’s age.
In 2016, Nana will be 72 years. The thinking is that if his third bid
can be scuttled, Nana will either give up his presidential ambition or
the party will give up on him. Either way, the stable would be cleared
for an Allan bid in 2020. That is the Agenda 2020. Of course there are
others who are also nurturing presidential ambitions in the NPP, such as
Dr. Kofi Konadu Apreko, Dr. Frimpong Boateng, and Dr. Richard Anane,
which suggests that even in 2020 Allan will not have a smooth ride.
One would have expected that given the economic management challenges
that confront the Mahama administration, the NPP would be united in
purpose to unseat the NDC, but the Allan faction, long believed to have
the backing of former President Kufuor, would rather be in opposition
than have Nana as president in 2016. The strategy this time around has
been varied to capture major positions in the party by whatever means
possible, and to turn around to call for party unity after the
elections.
The Allan faction will then deploy a well-rehearsed plot characterised
by the usual pretence, and aimed at making the world believe they (Allan
loyalists) are genuinely working for Nana’s campaign. This is meant to
deceive party followers as they proceed to undermine Nana’s bid by
withholding resources for the campaign. Party insiders say the Allan
pawns in this agenda are Paul Afoko, Kwabena Agyepong, Yaw Boaben
Asamoah, Mike Ampong and others. The machinations have already begun -
ahead of the party’s delegates’ congress in Tamale. A story carried in
the Chronicle on Friday, April 11 suggested that Nana Akufo Addo has
endorsed Paul Afoko, which would have been weird, but our checks did not
confirm it. It seems all part of the grand plot to deceive party
followers into voting for Allan loyalists.
The ultimate objective of this rather bizarre development within the
NPP in the post Kufuor era flies in the face of Kufuor’s own preference
for “…being a messenger in a governing party to being the General
Secretary of a party in opposition”. These developments will no doubt
hand over 2016 to NDC, and Mahama will remain President not because he
won the elections, but more because the NPP decided to lose it.
Source: Public Agenda
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