Comments on the world wide web by The Odikro, Nana Akyea Mensah.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Reflections on the NPP leadership quagmire
In this month of February, in the year of the Centenary Anniversary of Africa's Man of Destiny, as we remember with overwhelming pain and deepest of sorrows the imperialist stratagems that led to the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and the role played by their local collaborators, we must learn to be magnanimous even in such moments and go to the aid of their local protégé, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), to ensure that they do not disintegrate into violent conflicts all over the place afflicting the lives of the poor foot soldiers of the party. Expediency and common sense dictate that such a route of quick recourse to violence might not augur well for our national electoral campaigns! It is thus in the interest of national political stability, and the deepening of our young democracy that I venture to offer the following counsel to both Nana Akufo Addo and Mr. Alan Kyeremanteng, the two leading pretenders to the NPP throne.
It does not augur very well for our newly-won international reputation as a working democracy, if we allow barbaric acts such as the beatings of the opposing side by the personal body guards of Nana Akufo Addo, the injuries sustained by members of the party at a meeting in Obuasi, not to mention the beatings that preceded the NPP Ashanti Regional Congress. A year ago an NPP polling station officer was shot dead by the Constituency Chairman in the Bono Ahafo over this so-called "internal party affair". It is absolutely imperative that something is done to tame this "training" going on for the use of the "arguments of force" instead of the "force of argument" in resolving political differences.
The call on President Kufour by Dr. Nyaho Tamakloe to step in and help resolve the leadership crisis that is eating up the party raw received a strong rebuttal from Alhaji Haruna Esseku, former National Chairman of the NPP. Alhaji Esseku was emphatic that Kufour was not neutral. Translated into plain English, it means there is practically nobody within the NPP who is neutral enough to unite the two factions, This is a hopeless situation and my principal objective is to bring this violence to the barest possible minimum. My plan may not suit many people but it is effective. Besides, I do not see any way out! There is something radically wrong with the NPP which requires a radical treatment to enable it to rest in eternal pieces. My plan is at least better than the worst scene scenario which nothing but a replay of the last contest between Nana and Alan, and all the bitterness that this would engender irrespective of who wins, and how that has in the past weakened the party, I offer the following as a way out. It may lead to the same defeat but minus the bloodshed and senseless human sufferings that is fast becoming a Busia-Danquah tradition that wont go away! More...
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