By Edzorna Francis Mensah
Kofi Konadu Apraku, one of the ten Presidential Aspirants of the NPP 2023 Super Delegates Conference has gotten a section of Ghanaians talking as to why a man of his caliber could not even get a single vote at the end of the poll.
The Man who could be best described as an astute economist with international repute and a member of the 2nd, the 3rd, and the 4th Parliament of the 4th Republic of Ghana has surprised many political pundits including Political Journalists fact his own chairman at the constituency has failed him on the election.
Some of the people on social media could not comprehend how come, a man from the Region, Ashanti with a large delegate population could not even convince just one person to vote for him,
Konadu Apraku has performed poorly by securing 0 votes representing 0% of the total vote cast at the just-ended election has brought to mind the phrase “fear delegates”, coined by the late Sir John.
Konadu Apraku was Minister for Regional Cooperation and NEPAD in John Kufuor’s administration from 2003 to 2006.
He also served as the Minister of Trade and Industry under Kufour from 2001 to 2003. In 2008, he was appointed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Council of Ministers as ECOWAS Commissioner for Macroeconomic Policy and Economic Research where he was responsible for a Multilateral surveillance mechanism that involved regular assessment through joint surveillance mission of the economies of ECOWAS members’ state to ascertain whether the convergences criteria are being met and provide economic and statistical data for member state and help them attain the convergence criteria and the ECOWAS single currency.
He also liaises with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund [IMF], African Development Bank among other financial institutions to support the development of ECOWAS regions.[6][7][8]Dr. Apraku has had an extensive and successful professional career in the both private and public sector.
In Politics, Apraku was first voted into parliament on 7th January 1997 to represent his constituency. He polled 10,456 votes out of the 21,428 valid votes cast representing 37.80%.
He contested against Nana Oduro-Baah an NDC member who polled 10,257 votes representing 37.10%, Manu Yaw Joseph an PNC member who polled 358 votes representing 1.30% and Emmanuel Kwame Boakye an IND member who polled 357 votes representing 1.30%.[9]Dr. Apraku was the personal spokesman of Prof.Adu Boahen from 1991 to 1996.
He was reelected on 7 January 2001 after he emerged winner of the 2000 Ghanaian General Elections and polled 13,160 votes out of the 21,543 valid votes cast representing 61.00%. He was also re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Offinso North Constituency of the Asante Region in the 2004 Ghanaian general elections with a sum total votes of 13,389 representing 50.30% of the total votes cast.
He was among the 17 aspirants who contested in 2007 for the slot of flag-bearer of the New Patriotic Party, going into the 2008 elections.