Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface, a former member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has said that there is nothing to stop him from backing Alan Kyerematen to become the next President.
He expressed his excitement that he and other colleagues were not sacked from the NPP with disgrace, which had placed them better to work harder to achieve their aim.
He said if they were sacked for wrongdoing as office holders they would have been worried saying, “We are happy about the turn of events and we shall work hard to achieve the reason we were sacked”.
He claimed that there were a lot of prominent people in the party protesting certain actions in silence and that such people would make Alan Kyerematen the first Independent President of Ghana.
He said he had achieved a lot in his political career both as an Independent MP and as a member of the NPP and that he would not allow people in the NPP to stop his vision of supporting Alan Kyerematen.
Alhaji Boniface who speaks publicly for the first time since he had been sacked from the NPP reaffirmed his decision to back Alan Kyerematen to victory.
Alhaji Boniface was speaking to the GNA in an interview over his sacking from the NPP for supporting Alan Kyerematen who resigned from the NPP to form a movement.
He said politics was about numbers and that all his followers and sympathisers had also been technically sacked from the party and were ready to galvanise support to make Alan Kyerematen the next president.
“I am not worried that I’ve been sacked from the NPP. I’ve only been reminded to go back to my roots to work independently and I would do just that but those who think politics is not about numbers should tickle themselves and laugh,” he said.
“I first contested as an Independent candidate in Salaga where I defeated both NDC and NPP to represent the constituency in Parliament and NPP begged me to join them to get a numerical strength in Parliament,” he explained.
He said he also contested on the ticket of the NPP in 2004 in the same constituency and won and moved to the Madina Constituency to also win the seat for NPP, making him follow Ken Dzirasah’s footsteps in achieving that in the Fourth Republic.
He said by dint of hard work and humility, he was first appointed as Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry and later reshuffled to the Ministry of Tourism and Modernisation of the Capital City as deputy.
He was appointed substantive Northern Regional Minister where he was instrumental in the burial of Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II and the enskinment of a regent, a feat making the NPP chalk and bringing peace to Dagbon”.
He said he was also appointed minister of Labour and Manpower where he rolled out the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), now Youth Employment Agency (YEA).
“I also worked as a minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, and such credentials cannot be swept under the carpet.
What NPP is doing now, is not the same NPP I opted to join in 2001 as an Independent MP in Parliament. That is the reason me and many others opted to join the new Movement for Change”, he said. -GNA