Ghanaian actress Yvonne Nelson did not only touch on relationship matters in her memoir, I’m Not Yvonne Nelson; she also broached a topic on politics, detailing how a political party wanted her to contest a parliamentary seat.
According to her, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) wanted to make her run as their parliamentary candidate for the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency in the 2020 elections.
“By the end of the first term of Akufo-Addo’s presidency, many Ghanaians had begun to lose hope, not only in him but also in the country and its politics. It was not strange that his party nearly lost the parliamentary majority it commanded in the first term. There was a tie in the parliamentary polls. The NPP only got the majority when its member who had been expelled from the party from contesting the election as an independent candidate, won his seat and joined the NPP side in parliament,” she writes.
Firstly, she indicates that she hates the idea of dealing with politicians who are not true to their words.
“I certainly do not wish to associate with a politician who is projected as one thing but becomes the polar opposite of that when elected into office. Strangely, however, some close associates of the president thought I was a candidate to be drafted into their party and pushed to contest a parliamentary seat with their tacit endorsement and support,” she states.
The Princess Tyra actress adds that she declined the offer which was presented to her by a family member of the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, because she did not want to lose her independence.
“I asked him to give me a couple of days to think about it, but I had made up my mind the moment he broached the subject. I was not interested in the offer. Even if I was interested in going to parliament, who told him I wanted to do that on the ticket of the NPP? What if I wanted to go as an independent candidate? And was I going to allow myself to be someone’s political puppet? Once you accept to be sponsored by them, you lose your independence and they expect unalloyed loyalty from you. This was something I wouldn’t do even if I was interested. This person was the president’s family member. And from the modus operandi of the Akufo-Addo “family and friends” government, I wasn’t going to be their conduit, even if I was interested in going to parliament,” Yvonne mentions in the book.
Thirdly, the popular filmmaker notes that apart from the fact that the NPP probably saw a formidable political personality in her as a result of the #DumsorMustStop protest, they also wanted her to compete with actor John Dumelo who was on the side of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“My colleague actor and friend, John Dumelo, was contesting that constituency on the ticket of the opposition NDC and they feared he could unseat the NPP candidate with his celebrity status. Already, John Dumelo’s political affiliation had strained our friendship. We had had open exchanges on Twitter in the past and I wasn’t going to make things worse by openly contesting him. I wouldn’t betray our friendship to satisfy some people’s political calculations. If I accepted the offer, I was going to do that because of the convenience of political power,” she explains.
She intimates that even though she has no regret rejecting the offer even though her chances of winning were high because the constituency was a stronghold of the NPP, she thought she “wouldn’t be different from the politicians and their politics of convenience” if she accepted the offer.
Yvonne Nelson is one of the celebrities who have been very critical of governments when it comes to leadership and accountability.
Together with other celebrities, she led a group of people in a demonstration on May 16, 2015, against the erratic power supply in the country.
That move won her spurs in the entertainment industry and the country at large.
