Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto being cheered on by party supporters
Flagbearer hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has told polling station executives and electoral area coordinators that he would make them frontliners of his campaign and properly resource them.
According to him, the party cannot continue to look on when its frontline workers, popularly known as grassroots party faithful, continue to wallow in abject poverty and expect them to run a vibrant campaign machinery aimed at increasing the votes the party obtained in the 2020 general elections.
He said while he will resource the polling station executives and electoral area coordinators from now till the 2024 general elections, he will equally find sustainable ways of improving on their living standards going forward.
“We nearly lost election 2020 because of neglect of polling station and electoral area coordinators. Because of this, there was so much apathy among the party faithful. Morale was therefore down and our people at the grassroots found it very difficult to go and propagate the good news of the party. What was the situation in 2016? In 2016, because the base of the party was properly energized, we won convincingly, with our Presidential Candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, beating then President John Dramani Mahama, over one million votes to become the President of the Republic,” he noted.
Dr. Akoto made this observation when he toured parts of the Volta and Eastern Regions last week. Among the areas visited in the Volta Region include Anlo, Keta, Akatsi North, Afadjato South, and Ho Central constituencies. In the Eastern Region, Dr. Akoto visited the New Juaben South, Akim Oda, and Asene-Akroso-Manso constituencies.
Speaking with the delegates, Dr. Akoto said he had to resign from his Ministerial position and compete in the party’s upcoming flagbearership race, underscoring that a win for him will ensure that he carries out reforms that will prioritize the welfare of the of supports at the grassroots.
He told the party faithful that his strategy christened, ‘Linking Party to Government’ would be vigorously pursued, believing that is the best sustainable means of effectively managing the party at all levels and ensuring that the welfare of the party members are properly catered for.
“The companies that I will set up at each level of our party will employ party members. By so doing, it will provide sustainable means of resourcing you and your sufferings or plight will be a thing of the past”, he stressed.
By Samuel Boadi