FORDJOUR TO CONTEST NPP CHAIR IN BA (PAGE 17, NOV 17)

A former Brong Ahafo Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Kwadwo Yeboah Fordjour, has declared his intention once again to contest the highest executive position of the party in the region, with a vision to ensure that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) goes back into opposition after the 2012 general election.
He expressed optimism that with his nine years’ experience as a past regional chairman of the NPP, and having led the party to win the national elections in 2000 and 2004, he had what it took to spearhead the NPP to wrest power from the ruling NDC in the next elections.
He intimated that when he assumed the chairmanship position of the party, he worked tirelessly and the outcome was that the NPP won four of the 21 constituencies in the 1996 elections and again strategised to increase its seats to 14 in 2000 and maintained them in 2004.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Sunyani, Mr Fordjour explained that he and his campaign team at the time focused their attention on winning votes in the villages, since votes in the rural areas were significant for any party winning of a national election.
According to him, he later stepped aside to pave the way for Nana Obiri Boahen, who also stepped down in the course of time when he (Nana Boahen) intended to contest the Sunyani East parliamentary seat and relinquished the position to the current Regional Chairman of the party, Mr Adu Gyan.
The aspiring NPP regional chairman, who is a product of Dormaa Senior High School, recalled that the Gyan-led executive never organised a single rally in the big towns in the region, let alone campaigning in the villages, insisting that because he (Fordjour) had already laid the foundation in the villages, the NPP still won 51 per cent of the votes and that enabled Nana Akufo-Addo to beat Professor J. E. A. Mills in the first round of the 2008 elections but failed to obtain the overall 50+1 votes, hence the second round ballot, which the NDC won.
Mr Fordjour observed that the dismal performance of the NPP in the Brong Ahafo Region led to the flop of the party in the national elections, stressing that the region had so far proved to be the decider of elections in the country and that if the regional executive had worked harder, the NDC would not have obtained the 23,055 vote difference to win the last election.  
“I have brooded over our unfortunate situation and decided that in the supreme interest of the NPP, I have to come back again to overturn the unfortunate situation and I am confident that whoever saw what I did in the past will vote for me to become the new regional chairman of our great party,” he added.
He named his would-be team as Mr Kwame Owusu, Regional Organiser; Mr Yaw Dabie, Treasurer; Mr Alfred Annyeh, Secretary; Madam Felicia Adomah, Women’s Organiser, and Mr Paa Clement, saying, “With this team, I am sure to overturn the tables.”
According to Mr Fordjour, he and his team would not run the business of the party from a hotel, explaining that he would ensure that the party’s office was filled with what he described as “responsible personalities and not ‘Lalasula’ elements”.     
Asked about his thoughts on the selection of a future running mate for the presidential candidate, Mr Fordjour suggested that the party hierarchy should start thinking about choosing someone from the Brong Ahafo Region, since the region was a deciding factor in national elections.
He maintained that his suggestion was without prejudice to the regular practice of selecting running mates from the north.