“I’ll do everything in my power not to let you down, with the decision you have made here. I hope my colleagues can forgive me, but, on this occasion, I single out one particular man; one man who gave me such a big run for my money.
“All I can say to him is what my predecessor flagbearer said to me many years ago, and I have never forgotten it. After our contest in 1998, he came to my house to tell me that he had to be President first before I become president. Alan will follow me.
“The gesture that he has made here is a gesture that comes with the resilience of the very best of the traditions of our great movement and party. And in all that, I owe you a special word of gratitude for making all our lives that much easier. Alan, thank you once again. Thank you very much indeed.”
These were the words of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo when Alan Kyerematen dropped out of the (New Patriotic Party) NPP primaries in 2007.
The intense 2007 NPP primaries held at Legon was heading for a run-off between Alan and Akufo-Addo, the top two candidates at the congress after none of them failed to get the required 50+1 votes but the latter (Alan) withdrew from the race following concern the runoff might split the party.
Alan regarded his withdrawal as the ultimate sacrifice for the NPP which had earned him the right to lead the NPP after Akufo-Addo.
He warmly accepted Akufo-Addo’s appointment in his first term, as the minister for trade and industry, not knowing that it was the reward for his “sacrifice”.
He even accepted to continue as trade and industry minister during the second term of Akufo-Addo which many political experts have stated was his undoing.
Now it is time for Akufo-Addo to leave but Alan, who made the “ultimate sacrifice” for the NPP in 2007, led efforts to build the party’s head office, see his dream of leading the party in a presidential election dashing.
He, withdrew from the flagbearership race of the NPP for the 2024 election, which could be his last, citing intimidation of his supporters by the ‘establishment’, who he accused of skewing the primaries in favour of one candidate.
