UK Trip: NPP Didn�t Think Well�. � Kwesi Pratt

Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., is questioning the rationale behind the decision by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and its flagbearer, Nana Akufo Addo to string along with him certain people with debatable character on his recent tour of some European countries. Mr. Pratt, who stopped short of mentioning names, opined that not much thought was put into the selection of individuals who travelled with the NPP flagbearer. According to him, the selection of members of Nana Addo�s entourage in his 2012 electioneering campaign is crucial as the presence of some individuals on the recent trip affirms earlier suspicions raised especially by activists of the ruling NDC. �The selection of who to travel with him (Nana Addo) is crucial and very important, and it doesn�t seem to me that a lot of thought went into the selection of the people the flagbearer of the NPP travelled with, because already, there are two or three persons who were on the trip and (needn�t have been there) you can see that the NDC and a section of the media are focusing on those personalities in order to deepen the already existing public perception. And if a lot of thought has gone into the selection of the people who went with the candidate and so on, this problem will not have arisen,� he noted. Kwesi Pratt, who was speaking on Radio Gold�s �Alhaji and Alhaji� programme also questioned the kind of campaign the NPP and Nana Addo seem to be embarking on ahead of the 2012 elections. To him, the strategy adopted by the NPP for 2012, does not differ much from the door-to-door campaign employed by Professor Mills in the 2008 elections. �There are all kinds of quibbling and semantic verbiage and acrobatics and so on over the kind of campaign Nana Addo is organizing for the 2012 elections. If you listen carefully, it is a door-to-door campaign and you can call it whatever you want, but the question people are raising is that when President Mills embarked on the same campaign (door to door), it was pooh-poohed�They laughed at it; they scorned it and made jokes out of it, so how come they are doing the same thing?� he added. He pointed out that though there is nothing wrong in imitating or copying someone, it has its negatives.