STATEMENT: Boakye Agyarko Responds To Alan K's Claims Of Being Sidelined

I have read the news coming from Alan Kyerematen�s Greater Accra tour with utter disbelief and amazement. He has made false claims in his attempt to discredit Nana Akufo-Addo and the 2012 NPP campaign team, all in his bid to explain his relative absence during the said campaign, as he contests for the party�s flagbearership once again. As the Campaign Manager for the 2012 NPP National Campaign, I am compelled to set the records straight. With respect to not being invited to join the campaign, the truth of the matter is, Mr. Kyerematen left town for an international job after losing the primaries. As he proudly boasts, he is an international man! In February of 2011, Mr. Kyerematen, Nana Addo and I had a brief discussion in Nana's office about his role in the campaign. Later that morning, I had another meeting with Mr. Kyerematen to discuss his role. He intimated he wanted the discussion to continue after his return from Addis Ababa and he promised to stay in touch. In the whole time he was away, he never called ONCE to even check on the progress of the campaign. And of course, he did not return in April as he had indicated. Were we to wait twiddling our thumbs? What is it that Mr. Kyerematen wanted to offer the NPP in its presidential campaign that he was prevented from offering? If Mr. Kyerematen had for instance mentioned we were losing our grip on Brong Ahafo and that he wanted to spend three months there working with parliamentary candidates on the ground, I do not believe anyone would have stopped him! If he had told us he knew how to identify and attract floating voters, no one in the NPP would have scorned his efforts to help the party win power. In Mr. Kyerematen's mind, following Nana Addo around the country and speaking just before him was his idea of participation in the campaign. Unfortunately, there is much more to campaigning for an election than that. After the 2010 presidential primary, Nana Akufo-Addo visited all the aspirants in their homes in Accra and invited them to join his campaign. Mr. Isaac Osei and Prof Frimpong Boateng were all members of the Manifesto Committee. Mr. Kyerematen was also invited to join that Committee. Prof. Frimpong-Boateng and Dr. Nsiah Asare rewrote our manifesto on Health. When Nana Addo began his speaking tours on Health, Education, Trade, Defence and so on, several experts in various fields presented unsolicited draft speeches to the campaign to help with these events. And not one of them asked to be seated on the platform whilst Nana made these speeches around Ghana. Those, in my estimation, were solid contributions! Dear Alan, following Nana Addo around Ghana and speaking on a platform was only a minute part of the hard work needed for the campaign. I am a bit tired of hearing Mr. Kyerematen�s constant refrain of not being allowed to speak at the Mantse Agbona mammoth rally. The NPP is blessed with party stalwarts whom our supporters cherish and at rallies many of these people are called to speak. Alan Kyerematen is one of these people. For the Mantse Agbona rally, we arranged our speakers ahead of time and assigned them their roles, focus etc. Was Mr. Kyerematen expecting an assigned speaker to be dropped to make space for him to speak when none of the organisers knew he was going to show up at all? I must add, for the very few occasions that he had come from Addis Ababa and showed up at an event, Akufo-Addo always insisted he be allowed to speak. Mr. Kyerematen claims he went to some constituencies and they did not recognize him. Strange that he would blame these party members. It will help if he can name just one such constituency. I certainly do hope he is not suggesting that somebody spent precious time going round the country lobbying for Alan Cash not to be recognized. That is so far-fetched it is unbelievable!