It has been three days since former President Nana Akufo-Addo hosted the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer aspirants to a breakfast meeting at his Nima residence.
The meeting could not have been organised out of the blue; it was occasioned by some occurrences on the party’s landscape.
The NPP, since five leading personalities of the political grouping announced their intention to bid for the flagbearer position of the party, has been bedeviled by mudslinging and acrimony largely fueled by supporters of the individuals and lately the flagbearer hopefuls themselves.
In some instances, the flagbearer hopefuls have treaded the dangerous path of ethnic and religious bigotry. We and other Ghanaians sitting on the peak and seeing into the political horizon wonder whether those in this reckless mood appreciate the implication of this national security risk. If they don’t or cannot fathom where it can lead the country to, then they of course are unfit to present themselves as flagbearer hopefuls let alone dream of leading the country.
In the past few months, social media has been awash with the trading of insults by supporters of the individual flagbearer hopefuls.
In a previous commentary, we expressed surprise that four of the aspirants but one had ganged up against Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia; he being the target of the ethnic and religious bigotry.
We did refer to the sense in Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s enactment of the Avoidance of Discrimination Act of 1957 which outlawed the creation of political parties along regional, ethnic or religious lines.
If so many years after that legislation some political leaders would prefer plying that tangent, then they are longing for a return to the darks days of non-avoidance of discrimination and hate speech.
Be it as it may, former President Akufo-Addo of course not happy about the acrimonious campaign going on in his beloved party brought the flagbearer hopefuls together with a view to demanding a campaign bereft of acrimony and mudslinging.
As it is said among the Igbos of Eastern Nigeria, the man who brings people together for a feast does not do so because they are unable to feed themselves, but to achieve a certain goal. Â The former President, in this case, organised a breakfast meeting to restore sanity in one of the two dominant parties in the country.
It is our hope that now that the former President is done with this audacious assignment, the filth would have been cleared from the stable. Attention would be riveted on the players as they traverse the constituencies with their messages to see whether the former President’s word was positively impactful.
Let each one of them tell the delegates what they have up their sleeves and avoid the dangerous path of trading acrimonies.
The interest of the NPP and Ghana for that matter supersedes the parochial interests of individual personalities seeking to lead.