Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has lamented his exclusion from key New Patriotic Party (NPP) decisions, saying his senses are still intact to make informed contributions.
The 86-year-old statesman notes that the current party leadership’s sidelining of key figures is worrying, emphasising that his age shouldn’t be a reason for exclusion.
In a recent interaction with Abetifi Member of Parliament (MP) and 2028 flag bearer hopeful of the party, Dr. Bryan Abbey Acheampong, Kufuor expressed the need for persons like himself and others to be consulted in making key party decisions.
“Have I declined to the point where I can be dismissed, overlooked? My faculties are intact. I’m no relic. I deserve at least to be consulted,” Ghana’s second President of the Fourth Republic stated.
Kufuor recounted the sacrifices he had to make for the party, having served a prison term and returning to become a Member of Parliament, serving as a Deputy Minister under Kofi Abrefa Busia, before bringing the party back to power decades after the UP went out of power.
“I was in Ussher Fort prison for one year, three months. How many of today’s leaders can say they’ve paid such a price?” he asked, referring to his imprisonment following the 1972 coup that toppled the Progress Party government.
After bringing the NPP back to power in 2001, Kufuor says he has now been marginalised, asking whether he doesn’t fit as an elder of the party.
“If there are elders in this party, I am surely one,” he declared, stressing that age must not become an excuse for sidelining wisdom and experience.
Some sources close to the former President’s outfit have disclosed that he has formally petitioned the party leadership over concerns about internal decision-making processes and the handling of transitions within the NPP. His petition has triggered an emergency National Council meeting scheduled for Monday, 14th July.
His comments have sparked debate in the party concerning generational leadership and the respect accorded elders of the party, and how the elephant fraternity can preserve institutional memory.
He has been clear that wisdom does not fade with age, and with the sacrifice and contribution he has made for the party, he should not be ignored, just as anyone who has paid same price for the party.
It is expected that the party leadership, following the development, might reconsider its decision to hold its national delegate’s conference for July 19, which sources have revealed the former President might not be attending.
Below is Kufuor’s interaction with Dr. Bryan Acheampong.
