New NPP General Secretary warns ‘recalcitrant’ executives

The new General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Frimpong Kodua, has cautioned executives at all levels of the party not to make open endorsement of any would-be presidential aspirant ahead of NPP’s presidential primaries.

According to him, such conduct by party officials does not only flout laid down party rules, but significantly contributes to factionalism and acrimony within the party.

He believes it was such conduct by some party executives that contributed to the factionalism in the party ahead of the 2008 general elections, which the party lost to the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

To discourage party officials from conducting themselves in such a manner, Mr Frimpong Kodua has promised to remain neutral in supervising the processes that will lead to the selection of the party’s presidential candidate for the 2024 general elections.

He is demanding same from other leaders of the party at all levels, warning that his administration will not hesitate “to crack the whip” on those who will go contrary to this laid down directive.

Giving the caution during a discussion programme on Joy News, the NPP General Secretary said he had already sent the message out, advising party officials against any such misconduct.

2008 debacle

“As General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, I will not take sides in the presidential primaries, and I will be an honest referee. I will make sure that the rules, the processes that lead to us selecting our presidential candidate will be free, fair and transparent.

“I take a cue from what happened in 2007/08 where at a point in time the party was so sharply divided. We had party officers supporting candidate A; others supporting candidate B. By the time we were done with the presidential primaries, there was so much division and acrimony that we couldn’t unite for the 2008 election,” he noted.

JFK further reiterated that he would not take sides in dealing with those found culpable, saying “it’s something I will push through the committee, NEC and even National Council that party officers, particularly national officers, regional officers, and constituency officers, should not come out to support particular candidates, and we should allow the party people.”

“Once the party makes rules, once the party makes directive, trust me on that, we will crack the whip when it becomes necessary without fear or favour,” he added.

Working gov’t

He described the Akufo-Addo administration as “the best thing to happen to Ghana in this Fourth Republic”, saying current government was able to implement many social intervention policies in its first term than any other government since 1992.

“No government in the history of Ghana, since 1992, has been able to implement the programmes we did in our first term,” he stated.

He, however, admitted that government had not been able to meet expectations of Ghanaians, but believes the best has been done compared to past governments.