Some high-ranking officers of the ruling New Patriotic Party have expressed their optimism about the possible return of Mr Alan Kwadwo John Kyerematen, its four-time flagbearer aspirant to the party.

Mr. Alan Kyerematen, former Trade and Industry Minister resigned from the New Patriotic on Monday, September 25, 2023, and announced his bid to contest the 2024 General Elections as an independent presidential candidate.

He made the argument that despite his decades of commitment and sacrifices to the party, there is constant persecution of people affiliated with him by a selected group of people who have taken over the party.

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However, Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has urged the leadership of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to reach out to the former stalwart of the party, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, to convince him to return to the party.

Again, the former Speaker of Parliament and Chairman for the New Patriotic Party Presidential Election Committee, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye has hinted at the party’s decision to engage the former Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kwadwo John Kyerematen to return to the party.

According to Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, he deeply regrets the resignation of the former Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kyerematen from the New Patriotic Party.

Professor Oquaye described Mr Alan Kwadwo John Kyerematen as a very distinguished man and it will be very helpful if the New Patriotic Party is able to bring him back to the party as it will contribute immensely to the fortunes of the party in the 2024 General Elections.

“He is a fine gentleman and I am sorry that today we don’t have him with us but like the Majority Leader said we will need to engage him because politics is a game of numbers, so we need to engage him. He is a man of excellence and they should engage him in all possible means to bring him back to the party. Even the dead appreciate more numbers, how much the living”.
Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye

However, Professor Ransford Van Gyampo, a Political Scientist argued that Mr Alan Kyerematen’s decision to resign from the party and contest as an independent candidate in the 2024 General Elections is a decision of no return.

It is also worth noting that this is not the first time Mr Alan Kyerematen has resigned from the New Patriotic Party.

In 2008 after his failed attempt to win the party’s 2007 presidential primaries in the famous Legon Congress in Accra to lead the party for the 2008 General Elections, Mr Kyerematen resigned from the party citing reasons similar to his Monday, September 25 2023 resignation declaration.

Resignations And Solo Galore

Moreover, Mr Alan Kyerematen is not the first leading figure of a political party that has left to go solo. Under the fourth republic, there is an abundance of instances where some important figures have broken away from their political parties and contested as independent candidates.

The likes of Dr. Obed Asamoah, founding member and former Chairman of the NDC, Augustus Goosie Oboadum Tanoh, founding member of the NDC, former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, Papa Kwesi Ndoum among others have all left their party to pursue independent presidential ambitions.

For most of these prominent figures who have left their political party to pursue independent bids, the chances of their return have been mostly low. Even though, in some instances a number of them have returned, they mostly return after their contest.

For instance, Dr. Obed Asamoah and Goosie Tanoh only rejoined the National Democratic Congress in 2018 after their breakaway in the 2000s.

For the fact that Mr Kyerematen has made a declaration that he will contest as an independent in the 2024 General Elections, it will be very difficult for Mr Alan Kyermaten to return to the New Patriotic Party, particularly under the circumstances under which he resigned from the party.

In the face of the circumstance at hand, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than Mr. Alan Kyerematen’s return to the New Patriotic Party.