Johnson Asiedu Nketia
Attempts by the General-Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, to peddle falsehood about the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in order to justify the party’s GH¢420,000 ‘killer’ filing and nomination fees, have backfired.
Mr. Asiedu Nketia, in a desperate attempt to rationalise the NDC’s excessively high filing and nomination fees for its 13 presidential aspirants, stated that the NPP charged its presidential aspirants GH¢500,000 as filing fees three years ago.
But it has emerged that the NDC’s chief scribe lied in order to cheaply cover up the deliberate monetization of his party, which many believe is part of plans to support former President John Dramani Mahama to become the flagbearer of the party for 2020.
At a press conference on Thursday, November 29, 2018, in Accra to announce the GH¢420,000 fee, Mr. Asiedu Nketia, who supervised elections, which were characterized by allegations of vote-buying, insisted that in 2015, the then opposition NPP charged its aspirants GH¢500,000.
Many Ghanaians have been complaining about the high filing and nomination fees charged by the NDC which has adopted social democracy as its ideology.
The General-Secretary wondered why Ghanaians did not complain when NPP ‘charged’ similar fees, saying “we were all with you here in this country, did you complain?”
Deliberate Lies
But the NPP, in a statement, debunked the claims by the NDC’s General-Secretary, saying emphatically that “the statement by the NDC’s General-Secretary, Asiedu Nketia, that the NPP charged GH¢500,000 from flagbearer aspirants some four years ago is untrue and typical of the deliberate lies and propaganda of the NDC whenever they want to cover up an unacceptable deed.”
According to a statement signed by the Deputy Communications Director of the NPP, Richard Asante Yeboah, “GH¢420,000 for filing fees is unacceptable and can only mean a blatant attempt to skew the primary in favour of a particular person.”
“Never in the history of the NPP has anything close to that amount been charged for primaries or any of our internal elections.”
The ruling party observed that “it should be noted that on June 6, 2014, towards the last presidential primaries, the nomination fee approved by the National Council was GH¢10,000 and the filing fee was GH¢75,000; a statement to that effect, signed by the then General-Secretary, is available anywhere as a public document.”
The NPP, therefore, challenged the NDC’s General-Secretary to provide evidence to back his claim or retract and apologise to the NPP and Ghanaians for attempting to rationalize “an obviously obnoxious way of monetizing internal contest and eliminating other contestants.”
It said, “Asiedu Nketia should also concentrate on how to rebuild his party to become the respectable opposition our democracy craves for. “This hefty GH¢420,000 demonstrates the need to be vigilant about the previous administration’s financial activities and their impact on the national treasury.”
By Melvin Tarlue