Can Kennedy Agyapong Break The 8?

Ghana’s next presidential and parliamentary elections is some two years and seven months away and how the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) government would manage to win a third term in a row has become one of its topmost priorities.

It certainly is an uneasy task that begs for an incisive strategic-thinking outside the box. No political party in Ghana has won a third presidential victory in a row.  The best performance has so far been two terms for both the NPP and the National Democratic Congress (NDC). The other parties are yet to exorcise themselves from the powerful demons of electoral defeat. It is most likely deliverance would continue to elude them.

Consistent reports from the grapevine suggest that the newest entrant to the ever-growing list of persons who hope to be the NPP’s presidential candidate for the crucial 2024 elections is Kennedy Ohene Agyapong; a maverick politician and successful businessman who represents the Assin Central Constituency in Parliament. An eyebrows raising personality who climbed from a street hawker to a Member of Parliament, a successful business man and philanthropist

Kennedy Agyapong has not formally announced his intentions but his situation is no different from Vice President Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia or Trades Minister Alan Kyeremanten: per the party’s directives and calendar, it is not yet time to officially express any intent.

The question is does Kennedy have what it takes to first win his party’s primaries and then go ahead to win the general elections within the next two years and seven months considering the baggage with which he enters the race?

Kennedy comes across as a candidate that would be initially ridiculed, and then fiercely opposed but of course certainly not a push-over. You underrate him at your peril.

He has guts.  He has influence. He has a handsome amount of money and the ability to raise some more. He has street-credibility and a cult following plus the requisite political posture to sway popular votes his way.

If the NPP underrates Kennedy, he would win the primaries. He, unlike the other hopefuls, is not seen as being a part of the executive therefore exempted from the growing anger-against the party in government. His personal support for the party at all levels over the years whether in government or in opposition has not been in doubt.

And yes, he has the funds to contest primaries and the political tongue to explain himself well to his party delegates. You underrate Kennedy at your own peril.

Kennedy’s nightmare would be his undiplomatic and unconventional outbursts when he has a point to make. Sometimes he gets it wrong and has a lot of apology to make in that regard. Several gods needs pacification.

His hallmark of speaking truth to power without fear or favour irrespective of which political party is in power is a rare positive trait among his peers. Some see that character as arrogance. Some see it as speaking bitter truth. Those who see him as a truth speaker are in the majority.

If not for the fast changing attractions of a political commodity in contemporary times, business mogul Donald Trump would not have won the Presidency and gain popularity the world-over.

Voters are fast getting disillusioned over  the so called ‘prim and proper’ candidates who brag about their agility in economic and financial engineering yet get elected and mess up brutally. Too many examples have led to lethargy and fatigue.

Just like Trump, a firebrand and exciting businessman who has walked the talk may revive and reignite the waning light to illuminate the darkness the NPP is halfway into.

Metaphorically, Kennedy may be the NPP’s Trump and literally, Kennedy may the NPP’s trump-card.