Author: Nana Otupiri Darko
The truth, they say, passes through three stages in its journey to manifestation. Every truth at its birth is ridiculed so massively that its advocate(s) could abandon its pursuit and propagation; yet, when it is steadily pursued with deeper conviction, it passes from ridicule to its second stage where it is violently opposed and fought against in a manner that if its advocates do not tread cautiously, lives could even be lost. After this, the third stage which is also the last is gracefully ushered in where truth becomes self-evident after which it is then accepted by all.
Mr. Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanteng of the NPP’s announcement of his resignation from the NPP and his intentions to contest the upcoming Presidential elections to be held in December 2024 as an Independent Candidate comes as both acceptance and endorsement of the above assertion as the Independent Presidential System (IPS) has since 2010 been so ridiculed and opposed by Mr. Kyeremanteng and his NPP family in collaboration with their NDC counterparts.
It would be recalled that in 2010, a young Ghanaian political missionary by name Jacob Osei Yeboah initiated a nonpartisan political movement which was codenamed the United Movement for Change (UMC) with which he sought to offer the Ghanaian people an opportunity to opt for the only alternative to the governance system the country had then known and tried under this fourth republic which was, and still is the Partisan Democratic System.
In order to set the tone for a fruitful conversation, let me digress a little to state that the 1992 constitution of Ghana gives Ghanaians only two systems of democratic governance which includes partisan and nonpartisan or independent presidential systems.
Since the inception of this fourth republic over three decades ago, Ghanaians have consistently opted, tried, and tested the partisan system of governance in which the two political giants have been the only beneficiaries alternating political power in Ghana.
In 2010 when Jacob Osei Yeboah and his United Movement for Change (UMC) started propagating the gospel of the Independent Presidential System (IPS), partisan democracy had then been experimented for eighteen years without any significant impact on the Ghanaian people but Ghanaians as usual only ridiculed the UMC and its ideology as the biggest political comedy ever seen and heard in Ghana’s political history.
Mr. Kyeremanteng and his NPP vehemently bastardized the IPS concept and even called its advocates dreamers and political infants. That was the ridiculing stage of the IPS truth as their cohorts the NDC joined the bandwagon to play the buffoonery.
Just two years on in 2012 before the Presidential polls, their very foundations were shaken by the surprising rise of Jacob Osei Yeboah (JOY2012) to have passed all the tests of the Electoral Commission to emerge the only Independent Presidential Candidate in the race. IPS was then ushered into the second stage of its life’s journey where it had to be fought against and opposed in order to be toppled and terminated.
The evil political duo then joined forces against the individual in diverse ways including paying the media not to publicize or promote him, refusing him the needed state protocols he deserved, and even attack his private businesses to ensure that he was financially crippled so his political mission would die young.
Their communicators even questioned how an independent person who does not have a political party supporting him form a government to govern the country as according to them, the constitution demands every President to choose 50% of Ministers from Parliament and an independent person did not have any representation there in Parliament.
What they failed to tell Ghanaians was the fact that the very provision in the constitution they referred to, did not, and still does not restrict any President elect to choose the said 50% from only one side of the political divide in Parliament but rather choose from Parliament as a whole.
Such were the lies by which Mr. Kyeremanteng and his partisan family members misled Ghanaians to believe that no independent President could govern this country without the support of a political party.
Thirty years on and still counting, this is how far Ghana has come as a country solely under partisan democratic governance and yet, Ghanaians can still not read between the lines to realize that the only evil bedeviling us as a people is nothing else but Partisan Politics and its Divide and Rule as well as Winner Takes All mechanisms by which they create, loot, and share the fortunes of all Ghanaians. Common knowledge holds it that one cannot continue to do the same thing over and over, and still expect a new outcome; yet, today, Ghanaians are out on the streets wailing for help due to economic hardship emanating from the mismanagement of our political leaders but are still reluctant to part ways with partisanship.
To those of us who are resolutely convinced beyond every doubt that the only wise option left for Ghana is the Independent Presidential System, the opposition we faced then, was a clearer indication that the IPS was and still is the giant truth and the only option left for Ghana and Africa as a whole, hence the ridicule and subsequent opposition by the predators. The question as to when IPS was going to be self-evident however was unknown to us although we were confident in the victory of good over evil.
Mr. Kyeremanteng’s final conversion from a staunch partisan politician to IPS alone now ushers the once ridiculed and opposed governance system into its third stage of evolution which is Self-Evidence.
It is worth to note that the thirteen years missionary journey of the Independent Presidential System has evolved through many stages from United Movement for Change, One Ghana Movement, and now the Ghana First Coalition (GFC).
The GFC believes that to have a viable alternative to the evil political duo, there is the need for all other political parties in Ghana if possible, to merge and join forces, mobilize Civil Society Organizations, Professional Associations and Unions and Religious Groups among others under one umbrella to push the Independent Presidential agenda which is obviously the ultimate and most authentic alternative left for Ghanaians in the upcoming 2024 Presidential race.
The National Executive Council (NEC) of the GFC welcomes Mr. Kyeremanteng to civilization and urges him to properly assess himself to ascertain if he indeed has the conviction for IPS before singing the song of nonpartisanship since it is one thing saying something and another thing committing to it. IPS puts Ghana first at all times, and seeks the total wellbeing of the Ghanaian people.
Mr. Kyeremanteng’s political upbringing and practice in the last thirty years has been that of partisanship which puts party faithful’s interests first and one would ask if such a person can wholly wean himself off his faithful party followers and commit to Ghana.
IPS is indeed the ultimate political truth which has gone through the mill in this fourth republic, and has come of age to change the narrative in Ghana’s political struggle.
Join the GFC now! Choose IPS for a better Ghana!!!
