Kwabena Amikaketo sat in his favourite chair on his balcony, viewing the sky as a dark blanket started covering it to usher in nightfall. It was about an hour and half to dinner and he believed he had enough time to continue contemplating on issues directly affecting the political party he so much prefers, the New Patriotic Party (NPP). He had always wished he was a member of that party, however, his principles demanded he just admire it from afar.
He was born into a politically active family, but Kwabena Amikaketo chose to use his gift of objectivity to advise politicians. Interestingly, he enjoyed it this way.
The other day, he was contemplating on the issue of Mistrust the Obvious, and even though he felt he was not done with it yet, something seem to be geminating in the NPP which he felt he must immediately look at.
Kwabena was becoming very worried about the way people have set up camps within the NPP and are throwing missiles at each other, all in the name of campaigning for the next presidential candidate of the party for the next General Elections.
Kwabena does not agree with those saying it was too early to start this. He also did not agree with some of the things that were coming out from members of the NPP and opportunists of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The central point was that it was the issue between Veep Bawumia and Alan Kyeremateng. These two were the main players, and in fact frontrunners in the presidential aspirant race.
Kwabena was not interested in assessing the faults of any of these two gentlemen, he decided to be fair and drop out anything bad about them. He wanted to look at the qualities they both possess and hoped people will hammer on those rather than fishing out mistakes and false publications on them.
One other thing, Kwabena felt the NPP should not call themselves, Danquah/Busia/Dombo Tradition. This could one day create lots of problems, even if such problems have not started popping out their heads already.
In the first place, the Tradition was not founded on only these three gentlemen. Not even to begin from the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) days, but from when the United Party (UP) was formed.
Obliging to a law, Avoidance of Discrimination Act, 1957, six political parties, namely, Northern People’s Party, led by S.D. Dombo; National Liberation Movement, led J.B. Danquah; Anlo Youth Organisation, led by Modesto Apaloo; Togoland Congress, led by S.G. Anto; Ga Shifimokpee, and Moslem Association Party, led by the likes of Musa Derikikyi, Alhaji Baba, Idris Braimah, Sam Moshie, and Madam MamaremaWangara among others, who were deported because they were born of alien parents.
Here, calling the tradition Danquah/Busia/Dombo, means only the National Liberation Movement (NLM) and Northern Peoples Party were recognised as the only components of the United Party, since Danquah and Busia both belonged to the NLM, and S.D. Dombo founded the NPP. It will be appropriate to call the tradition the UP Tradition to honour the memories of all the founders.
Kwabena heard some NPP members saying Bawumia was not fit to succeed Nana Addo because he was not NPP before 2008. Kwabena wished that they could look at performance and what the Veep brought into the party since he joined in 2008. The UP Tradition is not a pedigree stock, but opens up to members of other political parties who wish to join, and most of these never disappointed people.
In February 1955, some major Convention Peoples Party (CPP) stalwarts in Ashanti Region, namely, Victor Owusu, R.R. Amponsah, Joe Appiah, J.C. de Graft Johnson and E. Kurankyi Taylor defected to join the NLM, which was founded by Baffour Osei Akoto, and later joined the United Party. All of them, especially Victor Owusu and R.R. Amponsah, carried the Tradition on. Same could be mentioned of J.H. Mensah, who was Nkrumah’s Economic Advisor, and later joined the Progress Party and also helped in strengthening the Tradition. Today, any list of great achievers of the UP Tradition can never be completed without listing these fine gentlemen.
Bawumia came aboard and added some sparks to the NPP’s finance and economic front. He had certainly played his role very well, by using what he was best known for to make people respect the New Patriotic Party. Hard as the National Democratic Congress tried, it could not match up with Bawumia in finance and economics, so it had to resort to insults.
Alan Kyeremateng was one of the founders of the New Patriotic Party and also a Founder of a powerful NPP think-tank called the Young Executive Forum (YEF), now called the Executive Forum. This group produced lots of people who served and are serving in the NPP governments.
Picked as Trade Minister in the JAK administration, the current President, Nana Akufo-Addo, also saw his excellent capabilities in this department and made him his Trade Minister. And he also has never disappointed people.
It will be only fair for those campaigning for any of these two fine gentlemen to look out for their qualities and performances and highlight on them, rather than looking for the negativities of the other and adding falsehood to destroy their chances.
Kwabena Amikaketo wondered whether all such persons know what harm they are causing. In the end, either one of these two gentlemen would get the nod, then the problems would begin. After churning out falsehood and destroying the eventual winner, the bad information would be in the public domain, and here the opponents would lash on it and destroy the chances of NPP becoming the first party to serve more than two consecutive terms.
Worse of all, with such steam spewing out, the NPP would be divided before the presidential primary, and this would worsen after that, because no comfortable place would be found for the supporters of the losing aspirant.
Now should the NPP fail to win re-election in 2024 to form the government in 2025, there could be a permanent split in the party and that will not be good for democracy in Ghana. Then the Rawlings Tradition would have achieved what it had been trying to do to the UP Tradition since 1982, after it successfully broke up the once-vibrant and impenetrable Nkrumaist front.
Today, the once feared name, CPP, is but like a physically challenged person, and this political powerhouse is now expecting electric shocks from lightning to destroy all its political opponents before it can form a government.
Kwabena Amikaketo wished the NPP members would listen to him. What happened in 1979, which caused the UP Tradition to lose an election it could have easily won, could arise in a different form if these attacks cast, across with the aim of tarnishing one and the other aspirant are not halted. And while these unfortunate acts are going on, some NDC members have started taking advantage by producing damaging stories and pretending to support one or the other gentleman to spew out this garbage.
Of course, very much unsuspecting that the source of such damaging falsehood would come from the other political groups, those who felt hurt would come back with more damaging and false information against the other aspirant.
Kwabena Amikaketo would make a suggestion to both aspirants. They should with such haste and despatch form committees which would be their spokespersons in all these. Any information should come out from such groups, and the underlining factor here is that, such information must be accommodating with the spirit of uniting, rather than dividing.
Such committees must highlight on the achievements and good works of their aspirant, and use that occasion to convince the party why he should get the nod. And, most importantly, such committees should quickly disassociate themselves from any bad statements made about the other aspirant.
Even if need be, once in a while, both committees should come out together on one platform to inform the press and Ghanaians what they have been able to achieve to date. They should exhibit some form of togetherness and not allow opponents, within and without, to tear them apart, because that could mean tearing the party apart.
Kwabena Amikaketo wished that all members of the NPP realise that there is the need to put the party first and curb any fire during this internal issue of choosing a flag bearer. The enemy from outside will not be able to destroy the party without assistance from those within. The party’s real enemies, therefore, are those party members who will seek to destroy other members with personal attacks.
The NDC are noted for their unity of purpose and would jump to defend any member who commits even treason. Why can’t the NPP follow suit? There is the need to quench the internal fires.
Kwabena Amikaketo was about to deliberate on a matter arising, when he was called by his beautiful Echele to come for dinner. As he got up to follow his daughter, he hoped he would remember what he wanted to contemplate on when he next took his seat in the balcony.
Hon Daniel Dugan
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.
The post Memoires and Lamentations of Kwabena Amikaketo (27) Alan/Bawumia: The need to Quench those Fires appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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