NPP flag
With the New Patriotic Party having successfully rolled out its executive elections from the polling station to the national level, what the party requires now is the will, commitment, zeal and leadership to deliver victory in 2024.
Unfortunately, on the ground and among the grassroots in the constituencies, there has been a lingering challenge of keeping executives untied in delivering that common goal.
That challenge has been the reason why leaders of the party always make several efforts during important activities like parliamentary and presidential primaries to enforce guidelines in smoothening the grounds for healthy contests. This is always important in avoiding needless cracks that negatively affect effective prosecution of campaign during general elections.
Recurring clatter
The process had been largely orderly ‘until the floodgates of internal democracy were unleashed’, breeding fights between constituency chairmen and secretaries, chairmen and MPs/parliamentary candidates, MPs and Municipal/District Chief Executives, among others.
In most cases, wherever any of the above scenarios are played out, the electoral gains previously made on the ground are whittled, as was witnessed in several constituencies in the lead up to the 2020 general elections.
That saga of internal fights continues to afflict the party, with a section of leading stakeholders seeking to claim that it is part of the growing democratic culture.
It is the expectation of all well-meaning members of the party that the current executive will ensure discipline, especially in the constituencies, in a manner that will help in enhancing the party’s internal cohesion.
As far as the posturing of some constituency executives is concerned during parliamentary primaries, we at the Daily Statesman want to believe that the current leadership will develop enduring mechanisms in effectively checking all excesses.
Cracking the whip
So far, it appears that the average constituency executive believes it is alright, for instance, to openly create factions during primaries for some parochial benefits.
That is why cracking the whip on such ‘recalcitrant’ executives will be in the supreme interest of the party, as it seeks ways to avoid the hiccups that culminated in the fatal loss of over 50 seats in the last elections.
It is in this regard that the Daily Statesman thinks the party’s new General Secretary needs the support of all stakeholders to enable his administration crack the whip when need be. In that case, the party will be well positioned to win the crucial 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.
‘Once bitten…
Particularly for the flagbearer elections, we believe the national executives must do everything possible to ensure that executives at all levels avoid open declaration of support for any candidate.
What all party delegates, executives, foot soldiers and stakeholders must understand is that every aspirant is a brother or sister, and that after the processes everybody will be needed in the fight to stay in power to continue working for Ghana.
While people may have their individual interests, they should be made to understand that pushing individual agenda to hurt the NPP’s collective fortunes helps nobody in the short or long run.
There is the need to learn a lot of lessons from how such unhealthy practice affected the party in the 2008 general elections.
We believe the aged-long adage ‘once bitten, twice shy’ will not be lost on the NPP as far as the party’s handling of the upcoming presidential primaries is concerned.
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