I won’t step down for anyone – Kennedy runs for President

“Read my lips, I am not doing the bidding of anybody. I am genuinely contesting to become the President because I can do it better” were the response of Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, over talks that he would chicken out of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flag-bearer race.

Kennedy is a maverick politician who represents the Assin Central Constituency in Parliament. He is an eyebrows raising personality who climbed from a street hawker to a Member of Parliament, a successful business man and philanthropist.

“I am 62 years old and I believe I am old and experienced enough to also contest and become the President of our country on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party in 2024”, he added during an interview with Net2 TV, he insisted that his decision to become the president in 2024 on the ticket of the NPP is non-negotiable.

According to Kennedy, reports that perhaps he is doing the bidding of another aspirant are false. He has urged his teeming supporters to treat such reports with contempt.

“I am surprised because the support is coming from angles and corners. Even known NDC and my own NPP members are supporting my bid.

“Some people that I don’t know in person, I am told, have erected my billboards in the Northern parts of the country to support my ambition”, he said with smiles on his face.

Sounding happy, he said other people have printed his (Kennedy’s) campaign T-Shirts and caps to help him, stressing that he would surely become president in 2024.

According to him, he would definitely win the upcoming NPP presidential primaries and go ahead to win the ultimate (presidential elections), slated for December 2024.

Ghana’s next presidential and parliamentary elections is some two years and five months away and how the incumbent 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 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.

Kennedy Agyapong has finally formally announced his intentions.

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.