Give Nana Akufo Addo Space To Choose Running Mate

Hon Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, MP for New Juaben North, has appealed to members of the New Patriotic Party not to put pressure on the party’s flagbearer and stampede him into making a decision on his choice of running mate. In the view of the NPP founding member, this is the time Nana Akufo-Addo needs utmost peace of mind to reflect on the ramifications of whatever choice he makes on who partners him into the 2012 general elections. Speaking to Citi Breakfast Show Host Moro Awudu on Thursday November 4, 2010, Hon Owusu-Agyemang said, “I think Nana should be given a bit of space. There is plenty of time, we have more than two years to go. There is a gamut of considerations that must come in the selection process. I believe he must be given time to do that, take advise on advisement” before making his choice. Refusing to be drawn on whether the party should stick with Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Nana Akufo-Addo’s running mate in the 2008 elections, or choose the man who came second in the recent flagbearership race, Alan Kyerematen, Hon Owusu-Agyemang, who served variously as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Water Resources Works and Housing and Interior in the Kufuor administration, nevertheless pointed out that choosing the right person will be predicated on “a consideration of ethnicity, of region, of age, and other issues.” With the NPP flagbearership contest out of the way, speculation has been rife on who partners Nana Akufo-Addo into the next general elections, with several names popping up. Dr Bawumia, Alan Kyerematen, Deputy Minority Leader Ambrose Dery, and former Salaga MP and Minister for Water Resources Works and Housing Boniface Abubakar Saddique have all received mention, while some party members are also pushing for a woman candidate. But Hon Owusu-Agyemang counsels patience. “Give Nana space, time to think, time to reflect, and then as demanded by our constitution, with the national executive and the national council we will name a running mate. “We will put up a team that is in our view perfectly capable of winning.”