
It appears the New Patriotic Party is consistently imbibing a foreign culture into its usually decent way of troubleshooting.
Unfortunately, hooliganism, which its members had held as indecent, has over the years, somewhat, crept into the party as allowable, even when it offends members’ sensibilities as a party of generally genteel people.
It is particularly regrettable that in some of these cases, it is not only constituency executives, but some regional and national leaders as well as party elders, who get caught in the seeds that breed internal wrangling.
Dignified tradition
We may recall the internal presidential candidate jostling in the then Popular Front Party (PFP) and the United National Convention (UNC), and within the UNC itself with Okatakyie A A Afrifa quietly retreating as flagbearer after party elders managed the situation.
We may also recall the 1998 NPP national congress that ‘allowed’ JA Kufuor to go as a senior, and how since that era ‘democracy’, at all cost, has resulted in the formation of factions that have resulted more in creating cracks than uniting the party.
We may also recall when critical party decisions were taken at the top in closed meetings, and how the Peter Ala Adjeteys and Odoi-Sykes and Agyenim-Boatengs relayed such decisions to the grassroots and they became laws.
Ripples
Members of the NPP may seem to have forgotten how they departed from their culture of decency and began importing the NDC thing into their midst, and the pain it cost them in 2008, and even 2020 when they were firmly in control.
Failure to use the processes rigidly to kill that culture had foisted on the party not only a political decapitation that benefited no one, but also left in its wake waves of factionalism that can go on afflicting the party into 2024.
This could particularly be the case in 2024 if the party does not take steps to arrest the current creation of ‘MMDCE groups’ who in the name of democracy think they can overrule the President’s right and responsibility to appoint a team of local managers at the grassroots.
Back to roots
That is why we agree with the Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Dan Botwe, when he insists that vigilantes fanning those flames of ‘resistance’ should be dealt with under the relevant laws.
When the Eastern Regional Youth Wing of the party, therefore, calls on all unsuccessful candidates to support those who have been nominated by the President, we believe the right notes must get to the ground everywhere across the country, in stabilising the grounds ahead of the 2024 general elections.
MMDCEs ‘aspirants’ who generate ‘divide and rule’ factions for opportunistic gains must also be cautioned. Where any are found to have overtly disdained the President by their actions, the party’s leadership must come in and apply the appropriate sanctions.
Bawku, Chereponi, Tain etc
Vigilantism of any form has never been a culture of the ruling party. The response from the NPP over the blazing guns from Mahama Ayariga’s boys who drove Hawa Yakubu from town; the ‘Give-it-to-God’ stance which the NPP took when the Azorka Boys – armed to the teeth – flapped their wings at Chereponi, and the posturing of the NDC leaders at Tain do not point to the NPP as a band of lawless politicians.
That is why the ugly noise on the ground and the unholy jostling must stop.