Flagbearer hopeful of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, has admonished delegates of the party not to mortgage their future in exchange for monies that will be doled out to them during the party’s primaries.
The two-time flagbearer aspirant said the delegates cannot survive on such monies given to them by flagbearer aspirants for the rest of their lives.
The former Press Secretary of former President John Agyekum Kufuor charged NPP delegates to vote for an aspirant who can lead the party to change the fortunes of the country.
“I have confidence in the delegates’ system, you are not there for yourself. So if you think that you are going to make it a cocoa season, that money you will get, are you going to share those monies with the people you represent in your catchment area?
“In any case, how much money can anybody give you? Divide that by 365 days and divide by a further four years, and you will see that it’s nothing. So you cannot mortgage your future, your birthright to decide something that means to you, your conscience, something that will secure the future of our country,” he said on the Citi Breakfast Show hosted by Bernard Avle.
Mr. Agyepong stated that only aspirants who have money backing them in the NPP will win elections if elections are always monetised.
“Only the people who have money backing them will always win elections in our party if elections are monetised during elections,” former General Secretary of the NPP said.
He further appealed to the delegates not to vote on monetary terms or tribal lines urging them to vote for an aspirant who has the capacity to lead the party in the 2024 general elections.
“Right now, the leader we require is someone who can earn the trust of the Ghanaian people. It doesn’t matter where we come from as a party. The new generation of politicians like me, let’s try to discourage politics of religion, money and tribe. Let’s talk about politics of principles, what we need as a country is thinking leaders, leaders who are deep in thoughts, intellectual capacity and character, both private and public. That is what I have done to submit myself for scrutiny,” he advised.
He expressed confidence that the delegates will vote for him based on his track record recalling his massive win as the party’s General Secretary during his accident in 2014 on the Nsawam road.
“I have trust in the delegates of the party, they have done it before in Tamale, even on my hospital bed when I was not there to do the campaigning on the ground. Whatever you talked about if people paid monies or not. I won massively while I was still in 37 Military hospital when I had a near-fatal accident,” he stated.