One of the favourite contestants of the upcoming New Patriotic Party presidential aspirants is Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku; a veteran on the race.
He has explained that he has not yet fully embarked on a nationwide campaign for strategic reasons. Speaking to this journalist in his plush Adjiringanor residence over the weekend, he put it that, the campaign is in three phases.
The first one is the selection of 5 people eligible to vie for the primaries by 1200 veters . The second is the primaries after the selection . The third is the election proper by the elected candidate for the general elections. In view of the above processes he has decided to visit the people who constitute the electoral college throughout the 16 regions quietly without much noise and fanfare.
According to him the electoral college comprises : All Regional Chairmen, Constituency Chairmen, Regional Executives,National Executives, Council of Elders, MPS former National Executives,etc making up the 1200 members. Here after ,then the lucky and eligible candidates selected for the primaries would go round the wole to sell their message to the NPP delegates of over 200,000 voters.
This is where a full swing campaign will be relevant and necessary. He opined that since campaigning entails a lot of expenditure, he is being very strategic not to exhaust his resources before the primaries take shape. He however expressed his position without any prejudice to those who are into some form of palpable campaign if they so wish to that.
He indicated that campaign involves lot of resourse dissipation and one had to be extra circumspect to avoid panting for resources before the main race gets under way. Dr Apraku disclosed that he had been visiting and getting in touch with the members of the electoral college on daily basis and hopes to clear the first hurdle to be in the race.
He was of the opinion however that, the ceiling of only five people for a big party like the NPP is not the best. He argued that at least it should be expanded to 10 aspirants to enable any member who feels ready to participate to do so.
This is because NPP is a very big party with large following which is also inundated with more competent contestants. He bemoaned the ever growing canker of monetisation of the electoral process in the country that is seriously undermining our democracy.
He therefore called on the electorates to open their eyes to select the best suitable person to rule this country. This is the third time Dr Apraku will be putting his name down to contest the party’s primaries if he emerges from the selection mode. He did it in 1998,2008 and now 2022,all things being normal.
