FORMER President John Agyekum Kufuor has condemned the emergence of personality cults in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) describing it as alien to the Danquah-Busia political tradition.
He noted that the canker together with complacency was the major contributory factor to the party’s defeat in the 2008 elections and therefore called on party members to reject anyone who tried to build a cult image in the party.
Falling short of mentioning names behind the development, Mr Kufuor said those engaged in the negative practice should stop because it was destructive.
Addressing the opening session of the 15th national delegates conference of the NPP at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi last Saturday, Mr Kufuor stated that the practice should be “all inclusive”, which could propel the party to recapturing power.
The conference, on the theme: “Reflect, Rebuild, Recapture”, elected new national executive to steer the affairs of the party for the next four years.
He disclosed that he would only support a presidential candidate who was genuinely elected.
Mr Kufuor warned that the party could not afford to follow the destructive path that allowed power to slip through their fingers in the 2008 elections.
The former president emphasised that the enduring trail of the NPP tradition was democracy expressed through transparent selection of its leaders.
“This transparency underpins our unity,” he said, and therefore called for the cessation of the so-called camps in the party.
He said he would not want to see a repetition of the 2008 scenario where 17 party members stood as independent parliamentary candidates because they were denied the opportunity to contest in the primaries in their respective constituencies.
“We need every single party person on board, and even members from other parties, and we must work towards that,” he said.
Touting the achievements of his government, Mr Kufuor said the NDC government had not even begun to measure up to what the NPP left, stressing that the “so-called achievements of the Mills government is a hoax”.
He said the economic strength of the country under the NPP was typified in the cedi going level with the US dollar.
“Because of the business-friendly environment we created, we saw many foreign banks coming into the country to do business with many of the banks chasing people with credit facilities.
“But what we see today is a reversal of the situation with many people finding it very difficult to access credit,” he said.
Mr Kufuor also expressed concern that the NDC government had failed to continue a number of the projects which his government started and mentioned for example the Accra-Aburi road, which was in abeyance because the current government was unable to mobilise funds to continue with it.
“I challenge the NDC government to go and find resources to complete the numerous projects we left off to better the lives of the people and stop the noise they are making,” he said.
In his welcoming address, the former national chairman of the NPP, Mr Peter Mac Manu, said even though his administration faced some challenges, no one could discount the achievements chalked up over the period.
He said for instance that the amendments to the party’s constitution, which culminated in the expansion of the Electoral College, had given much hope to the party.
He accepted responsibility for the party’s defeat in the 2008 elections and urged the new executive to do everything to bring the party back to power.
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