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| NDCs re-election of Mills is a miscalculation - says Obiri Boahen |
1/9/2007 |
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The Brong Ahafo Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Obiri Boahen, at the weekend described the opposition National Democratic Congress" decision to re-elect their thrice-defeated Presidential candidate, John Evans Atta Mills, to lead them in the 2008 general elections as "a serious political miscalculation that can never be forgiven by posterity.”
According to Nana Boahen, the law Professor has nothing to convince the electorate to entrust their destiny into his hands, adding “he could not even help to construct the road that leads to his own father’s hometown when he was the Vice President; it took President Kufuor to construct the road he now drives on to his own fatherland.”
In an interview with The Statesman at the NPP’s rally at the Jackson Park in Koforidua at the weekend, the NPP guru noted that the choice of Prof Mills as the NDC’s presidential candidate “has put so much pressure on the numerous NPP presidential hopefuls, delegates and the party as a whole because with Mills, our former wife, as their flagbearer, the gospel truth is that whoever gets the nod as our candidate will automatically succeed President Kufuor.”
Nana Obiri Boahen was of the view that having been rejected by the electorate on three occasions, “that ought to have been the last time any prudent and innovative politician would attempt at the presidency.”
When this reporter reminded Nana Boahen that the NPP saw the need to give President Kufuor a second chance at the presidency in 2000, a decision which paid off, after he had been rejected by the electorate in 1996, because they felt he had been widely marketed this was his response:
“Kufuor was rejected at a time he had never been a Vice President unlike Atta Mills. We decided to give him the benefit of doubt in 2000 and he proved equal to the task. Indeed, there is no way the NPP would have re-elected him as a candidate for a third time if he had lost the 2000 election because we are not political neophytes.
“Prof Mills was rejected in 2000 when he was the Vice President. He was given the benefit of doubt in 2004, but could not prove equal to the task. How could the NDC make such a political miscalculation to re-elect him?”
“If they think the electorate is going to be sympathetic towards Mills or a case of popularity, then they should have gone for Aki and Popo, or even Agya Koo, to lead them.”
According to Nana Obiri Boahen, the NDC settled on Prof Mills as their candidate “because they had no choice as the delegates to the congress that elected him knew he was the choice of their godfather Rawlings. And I can assure them that they are going to pay dearly for that, come 2008.”
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