Renowned economist Kwame Pianim believes that any of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) ten presidential candidates will do better as president of Ghana than anyone from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
He thinks that if they are chosen to head the party, the candidates will all be willing to make sacrifices and might significantly alter the course of the nation.
He cautioned the candidates against disparaging one another only to get cheap political points.
Mr. Pianim stated in an interview during the Point Blank program on Eyewitness News “We encourage all of them to sell themselves, and not to talk about other people. The party is not for personal aggrandizement of one person. Any of the NPP candidates, as far as we [elders] are concerned, will perform better in terms of our philosophy and our outlook of life than anybody from the other side [NDC]”.
He pleaded with his peers not to choose sides, stressing the need of the elders supporting each of the 10 contenders to prevent further escalation of internal strife.
Kwame Pianim, who was present at one of the candidates’ campaign launches, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, promised to be there for the launches of the other candidates, referring to them all as his children.
“I hope the founding members of the party and all the elders will support all the 10 people who are offering themselves as flagbearers. I was there to encourage Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, just like I’m encouraging all the others to come out and sacrifice to lead the nation. It’s not easy to be a flagbearer, these young people will go round the country and spread the message. They are the ones who are going to energise the people at the party base. Hopefully to give them confidence not to lose hope in the political system. It’s the only thing we have, to go and fight and preserve the democratic dispensation, free press, civil liberties that we want at a hard cost to a lot of people.”
He added, “Yes I was there to support Kwabena Agyepong just like I support all the other 9. It’s not for me to select the flagbearer or the 900 super delegates who are supposed to turn the number down to 5, in case they are more than 5, so that the 22,000 delegates from the polling stations, the grassroots members, they will make the appropriate thing to select one. But I hope that when they select one, all the others will rally behind him. It’s good that the party elders don’t take part in supporting one or two, but support all of them so that the task of uniting the party to face the other party [NDC] during the 2024 general elections will be easier. I will attend the campaign launch of the others if invited”. he stated.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Joseph Asare
