Ayikoi Otoo
Like Ayikoi Otoo said “gbeshie” has caught up with some of the personalities seeking to lead the NPP into the 2024 general election. Unfortunately, the former Attorney General who pleaded with the Supreme Court judges to tamper justice with mercy in 2013 when the former General Secretary of the NPP because of the misfortune of “gbeshie” caused him to make disparaging comments about the judges is a key member of one of the candidates.
We urge all the candidates to be wary of the “gbeshie” obstacle and avoid the personal attacks that have become the stock-in-trade of some of the aspirants who want to lead the NPP.
We are curious to ask if some of the aspirants think the Akufo-Addo government has not done well and for which reason the party will have no message for 2024. Then why are they in the race in the first place? The rank and file of the NPP, especially the delegates should call out the aspirants to do a clean campaign.
Let it be made loud and clear to all the aspirants that their personal attacks on their colleagues is unacceptable and may set the party on the path of internal implosion.
The party leadership has a responsibility to tighten its rules to make room for a clean campaign. Some of the candidates who think government policies are on a stretcher must tell the delegates what they have up their sleeves and more important what are their platforms. Some others claim the performance of the government makes it difficult for the party to go into the 2024 polls with a message.
Again, we may ask them to tell us about their platforms and if the NPP’s output has been so abysmal in the last six years or so why are they stampeding the delegates across the country to vote for them to lead the party?
If the record of the Akufo-Addo government is nothing to write home about why are they not applauding the attempt by John Mahama to stage a comeback? Are they no longer part of the mantra that the John Mahama return is scary and should be avoided at all cost?
Let us make it very clear to them that NPP supporters are determined to ‘break the 8’ and set the record of breaking the myth that no political party can cross the eight-year cycle. And it will be in the interest of such aspirants to put up with the party’s guidelines or shutdown their ambitions because it is becoming increasingly clear that they want to drive the NPP into opposition. What went wrong that some of the people who used to shout the achievements of the NPP today are saying the party has nothing to show? Really, where is this self-centredness coming from? Or one will be right to say that their claim to belong to the NPP family is a mirage, false and that they are working for other interests?
Our elders always say that no matter how dilapidated your father’s house looks you don’t point to it with your left hand, in other words you don’t disown. Nobody denies the fact that Ghana is in difficult times, and we all know the reasons to include external and internal factors, but these challenges can be fixed. Don’t forget what President Akufo-Addo said during the heat of COVID-19 when he said “we know how to fix the economy but not how to bring back dead people to life” and rally everybody particularly NPP supporters for the task of nation building.
The party leadership has a big task ahead to keep the party united from now to the congress and after intact for the crucial 2024 general election. We do not think the Ntim-led leadership took power to lead the NPP into opposition. God forbid. For it is more dignifying to be a messenger in a governing party than General Secretary of an opposition political party, to quote former President Kufuor.
We make a clarion call to former President Kufuor and President Akufo-Addo to jointly summon all the aspirants to a meeting to tell them in clear terms that their actions are breaking the hearts of their teeming supporters and not in tune with the strategies put in place to ‘Break the 8’. If the leaders fail, the delegates who are the kingmakers should make a clear statement at the congress that those who want to destroy the NPP are not fit to lead the party. Please fear such aspirants like the destructive and fatal nature of COVID or a plague. The battle is still the Lord’s and the naysayer aspirants will not succeed with their agenda.