Alan Kyerematen
The political temperature has affected the balance of some players.
These characters lack the pedigree for the exchange of ideas, hence their resort to personal attacks and insults. Perhaps the heat in the kitchen has become too hot for them and thus they have forgotten about the fact that politics is about the contest of ideas.
That is why characters like Dela Edem can look former President Kufuor in the face and say derogatory things about him just on account that the former President recognises that Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia holds the key to the next phase of our development agenda.
We can tolerate insults from National Democratic Congress (NDC) elements including their leader, John Mahama, but it is very nauseating to hear Alan Kyerematen also join the bandwagon to take former President Kufuor to the “cleaners” just on account of his support for Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia.
Alan Kyerematen is bitter because he lost the opportunity to lead the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) into the December 7 polls.
It is generally held that empty barrels make the loud noises. We know the accomplishments of Alan Kyerematen before he came to political limelight in 2001 as Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States of America, thanks to the magnanimity of John Kufuor, then President of the Republic who the Butterfly Movement man thinks is his coequal today.
Not only did The Gentle Giant end there, but in 2005, after winning a second term, he made Alan the Minister of Trade and Industry and later added another mandate for him to take care of the President’s Special Initiatives.
The performance of the man who claims that the leadership of the NPP is his turn or entitlement by beating his chest that “edu mi so” has very little to show for that initiative. Perhaps he can claim to have popularised Friday wear, but can he show us more as the sector minister of one of the critical government agencies in the country?
Ghanaians know how in 2007 Alan carried himself as the establishment candidate, with the general perception that Alan Cash was the choice of President Kufuor.
We also know that some government officials, especially district and municipal chief executives lost their jobs because they did not support today’s Butterfly Man.
There was this widespread reportage in 2007 that the President directed that the presidential jet be put at the disposal of Alan Kyerematen during that year’s primaries when 17 leading members of the NPP contested for the flagbearership race.
When Alan was beaten in the contest by now President Akufo-Addo, Alan even then as a bad sportsman decamped from the NPP, citing some flimsy excuses for his decision.
Alan after realising the futility of his decision to defect from the NPP made a U-turn, but remained on the sidelines of the party, although nursing the ambition to lead the NPP.