Leading aspirant in the upcoming Ashanti Regional Chairmanship race of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Chairman Odeneho Kwaku Appiah says rather than anything else his focus is to galvanize all persons who matter in the region to help the NPP win the 2024 elections hands down.
Speaking on Kumasi based Hello fm last Thursday, Chairman Odeneho said, ‘it is possible to break the eight year cycle both the NDC and NPP had enjoyed as government’.
This, he noted, would not be achieved on a silver platter but through strategy, hard work and good communication.
Chairman COKA, as the aspirant is known by party faithful, said, ”my interest in entering the regional chairmanship race is to win power and undertake programs and projects that would ensure the NPP remains in power for a long period of time including the upcoming 2024 general elections”.
STATISTICS:
Chairman COKA said the New Patriotic Party in the 2016 general elections garnered a whopping 1.6 million votes and took 44 parliamentary seats out of the 47 that were available.
But in the 2020 general elections, he noted that the NPP did 1.7 million votes in the presidential poll but only garnered 42 parliamentary seats.
”This showing in 2020 was abysmal because the party lost two of its parliamentary seats it gained in 2016 to the NDC despite aiming to win the 47 seats in the Ashanti Region before the polls”, COKA noted tearfully.
He said while the NPP did a 9.2% rise from the votes it gained in 2016, the NDC made monumental gains by gaining 32% of the popular votes as compared to the 20% they had in 2016.
BACKGROUND:
Giving a brief account of himself from 1991 when he joined the Danquah Busia Club in Mmrom, suburb of the Kumasi Metropolis, COKA said he rose through the ranks of the party to become finance committee chairman from 1998 to the year 2000 where the NPP won its first political victory to govern.
Having been recognized for his efforts, COKA said President Kufuor made him a government appointee at the Bekwai Municipal Assembly.
He recounted how he together with others helped the veteran Lawyer and Politician, S.K Boafo to win the parliamentary seat for the Subin Constituency on the ticket of the NPP.
Having been the Chairman for the Afigya Kwabre South constituency for two decades, COKA said he would use those experiences he has practically gotten to put the NPP back to work in the famous region and use same to trade horses in its national elections so that it can remain formidable and a power-broker region.
