I'm a serious politician — Effah-Dartey
An aspiring General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Captain Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey (retd), has said that he is a serious person and politician who will surprise the entire nation soon.
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“My critics who go about saying I’m not serious and that I’m a singer are rather big jokers. My doors are always open to those who do not know me well to come closer and know who Effah-Dartey really is,” he said.
Capt. Effah-Dartey was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Koforidua on Monday.
“What do they mean by ‘I am not serious’? I am a successful lawyer in my own chambers with over eight lawyers and I have a very beautiful wife who holds a master’s degree and is currently in the United States,” he said.
“I have four sons — the first a lecturer in a university in China, the second a graduate of the University of Ghana, the third and the fourth both at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology pursuing Law and Medicine, respectively. Where lies the claim that I am not a serious person?” he asked.
Capt. Effah-Dartey said if those critics were serious themselves, they would have seen that he is “a serious politician”, adding that those people should redefine their perception of him.
On why he sings the song, “M’atwen Awurade anim”, he said if that was why people perceived him to be non-serious, “then they have failed”.
“I have a covenant with God to sing to glorify Him because of the great things He has done in my life. I do not sing because of politics but I sing to praise my Merciful Maker,” he said.
Capt. Effah-Dartey went down memory lane and said he had been handcuffed and imprisoned five times, including sleeping beside a dead body for 24 hours in condemned cells.
He said on three occasions assassins had attempted to kill him but that did not materialise, adding, “For 60 times I have been involved in serious motor accidents. So if God has saved me from all these and I sing to praise Him, do you say I am not serious?”
Touching on the upcoming NPP national delegates congress to elect national executives for the party, he said he was going to win the general secretary position hands down.
He said statistics had shown that any political party that won the Brong Ahafo Region carried the nation “and this is true from Dr Nkrumah’s time till date”.
He said the NPP desperately needed to recapture Brong Ahafo from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which had powerful leaders such as Mr Johnson Asiedu- Nketia, General Secretary; Mr Yaw Boateng Gyan, National Organiser; First Lady Lordina Mahama and Mrs Cecelia Johnson, Council of State Chairperson hailing from the region.
“Brong Ahafo is not a monopoly of any party but it always goes to the party that has the best strategy and message and I am hopeful that in 2016, with me as General Secretary, the NPP will recapture Brong Ahafo and win more seats to make our presidential candidate the President of Ghana,” he said.
Capt. Effah-Dartey said as a unifier and diligent politician who did not belong to any camp and did not believe in camps but the NPP, “I am the right person the party needs this time to help win power in 2016”.
He was a two-term Member of Parliament for Berekum and Deputy Minister of the Interior and Local Government and Rural Development in President J.A. Kufuor's administration.
When asked whether he had abandoned his flagbearership ambition, Capt. Effah-Dartey said, “No comment.” — GNA