I Will Not Campaign For Nana Addo In 2012 – A-Plus

Popular hiplife musician Kwame Asare Obeng aka A-Plus has hinted that this year, he will not be part of the 2012 campaign team of the NPP flag-bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo.

According to A-plus, he had decided not to work for any political party in the upcoming 2012 elections to enable him focus on a nationwide campaign tour for peaceful elections.

The controversial hiplife artiste has over the years been associated with the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) after a series of controversial political singles and an open declaration of support for the NPP flag-bearer in the 2008 general elections.

Even though Nana Akufo-Addo lost the 2008 elections, A-Plus had since pledged his unflinching support for him but now reckons that he has to do something else.

Speaking on Asempa Fm’s ‘Ekosii-Sen’ on Friday, A-Plus noted that though he wanted Nana Addo to win the 2012 elections, he would not be part of his campaign due to the project he was embarking on.

‘We (musicians) want to be remembered after 2012 that we were part of the peaceful elections in 2012 so we in the creative industry will rally for a peaceful campaign throughout the country’.

‘I will not be part of Nana Addo’s campaign but I believe in him to win the 2012 elections. He is someone whose pedigree is good to become a president so I have no problem with him. If Nana Addo becomes president in 2013, I will be happy but this time, he will not get my assistance,’ he stated.

A-Plus stressed that if the NPP approached him as they did in 2008 for his service, he would not accept it. ‘No party has invited me to do anything for them as NPP hired me and people in the creative industry in 2008. But I can state emphatically that if the NPP invites me this time round I will not respond to it because I am fully available for peaceful election 2012,’ he noted.

He debunked claims that after enjoying the largesse of the NPP in 2008, he had now decided not to be part of them again. He stated, ‘NPP is not a limited liability company for me to get my share from it. I was not singing for Nana because I wanted money but because I wanted to be part of his campaign’.

‘Look, the money Nana gave me in 2008, I used it to organize a float for the NPP from Mallam to Legon in order to mobilize support so I did not benefit from Nana’s largesse as claimed. I took every musician who sang for Nana Addo to his house and everyone was given his or her money. So I didn’t keep anybody’s money and I am daring any musician to come out and say I took his money from Nana,’ A-Plus noted.

He charged politicians in the country to embrace peace in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in order to sustain the peace in the country.

He said the youth should also guard against being used to instigate violence during the elections.

A-Plus also asked political leaders to accept defeat if the elections did not go their way, saying that “anyone who will lose the 2012 elections must accept defeat. Don’t think that if you lose, there will be all die-be-die. No? Because it will be rubbish to die out of election dispute.

‘I want to tell politicians who think that their party should come to power by all means and those who think their party must remain in power to rescind their decision now. We want to see all the banks, malls and other institutions working in Ghana after 2012. We don’t want war in Ghana. In 2012, someone will lose and if you lose, you have lost so you must be ready to accept it,’ he asserted.

Meanwhile, A-Plus has reiterated his ambition to wrest the Gomoa East seat from the ruling National Democratic Congress as an independent candidate.

He said he was contesting for the Gomoa East parliamentary seat as an independent candidate because the people were tired of failed promises from both the NPP and NDC.

‘I will win the Gomoa East seat hands down because I know majority of the people in the area are behind me,’ he noted.