Some delegates of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Nhyiaeso Constituency who voted out the incumbent Member of Parliament, Kennedy Kwasi Kankam in last Saturday’s parliamentary primaries say their decision is justifiable because the legislator failed to live up to his billing.
They say the first time MP, Kennedy Kankam who went to Parliament after unseating ‘big man’ Dr. Richard Anane at the primaries in 2015 was unable to sustain the pedestal at which the former Health and Roads Minister had put the Nhyiaeso Constituency in Ghana’s Parliament and media space.
“He came to fill the shoes of Dr. Richard Anane but he didn’t do anything close to what his predecessor achieved; apart from being mute on the floor of Parliament and abysmal in constituency work, we never saw him engage in any intellectual debate in the media like his first-time colleagues, Sam George and Alhassan Suhuyini of the NDC”, some delegates told MyNewsGh.com in a jubilant mood after the poll on Saturday.
Kennedy Kankam was handed the shock of his life at the parliamentary primaries after being beaten by his sole contender, Stephen Amoah a.k.a Sticka, the Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) by seventeen (17) votes.
Four years ago, Kankam beat Amoah and three others, including Dr Richard Anane at the primaries to become the NPP’s parliamentary candidate for the Nhyiaeso Constituency and went on to win the December 2016 polls to become MP.
Not much can be said of him since he entered Parliament, though prior to his becoming an MP, he was one of the most vibrant and loudest NPP communicators who used the Asante vernacular; he was once the Ashanti Regional Organiser of the NPP.
Stephen Amoah, who was also a communicator and once the NPP Organiser in the Ashanti region was noted for his prowess in debates on national television, articulating the policies of the NPP in both the Twi and English languages.
According to the delegates,
“we had to send a weightier person to Parliament this time; Nhyiaeso used to be a very respectable constituency but ever since Kennedy Kankam became our MP, we have lost that glory. We have never seen him speaking English on TV as STICKA does; he also hasn’t done much to effect development in the constituency, so he was an absolute misfit in Parliament and we needed to recall him”.
At the close of poll on Saturday, Stephen Amoah had 332 votes against Kennedy Kankam’s 315, making him the NPP’s parliamentary candidate for the December 2020 polls in the Nhyiaeso Constituency.
This was his second attempt at the candidacy and he won by a slim margin.
He pledged to do his best to restore the lost glory of the constituency and advance the programmes and projects of the Akufo-Addo administration.