Eighty-six-year-old former President John Agyekum Kufuor has voiced deep frustration over what he describes as his exclusion from key affairs of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), insisting that his age should not be used as a reason to sideline him.
In a straightforward reflection, the statesman lamented the growing tendency to push aside senior figures like himself, despite their sacrifices and enduring contributions to the party’s legacy.
“Have I declined to the point where I can be dismissed, overlooked? My faculties are intact. I’m no relic. I deserve at least to be consulted,” Kufuor said during a recent interaction with Abetifi MP and NPP flagbearer aspirant, Dr Bryan Acheampong.
He recounted his decades-long political journey, beginning as a 30-year-old Member of Parliament in 1969 and later serving as Deputy Minister under Prime Minister K.A. Busia. His political career was not without cost.
“I was in Ussher Fort prison for one year, three months. How many of today’s leaders can say they’ve paid such a price?” he asked, referring to his imprisonment following the 1972 coup that toppled the Progress Party government.
Kufuor’s leadership brought the NPP to power in 2000, marking a pivotal moment in Ghana’s democratic history. Yet, two decades later, the man many regard as a cornerstone of the party’s modern success says he feels marginalised.
“If there are elders in this party, I am surely one,” he declared, stressing that age must not become an excuse for sidelining wisdom and experience.
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