Politics of Tuesday, 26 April 2005

Source: Accra Mail

EDITORIAL: NPP, What's This Clumsiness?

After the Asawase by-election, which was retained by the NDC, instead of the ruling NPP to take it in stride and pat our democracy on the back (like the president has done in far away Jakarta), the party leadership rather decided to embark on yet again one of their embarrassing faux pas in a press conference that presented a litany of excuses as to why the party did not do well.

Shame, we say!

If the party wants genuine answers, it should look deep within itself. First of all who is (are) in charge of the party? What are the strategies and plans for the growth of the party?

Who is in charge of implementing those strategies and plans? What is the state of the constituencies? How many constituency offices are open and functioning? What membership drive campaigns are on the ground?

How about fund-raising? How secure is the liquidity position of the party? How are the party's ideological and doctrinaire underpinnings translated into policy, etc?

And specifically, what outreach programmes, call it affirmative action, or whatever you like, has the party put in place for the Zongos? It is a failure of party policy that makes the Zongos to continue regarding the NPP as the party for "arna".

To be honest, if the NPP wants to remain relevant, there must be serious soul-searching and new structures and people put in place to turn the party into a modern political movement capable of transforming Ghana into not only a mid-income country within the next decade and a half but also making the party a truly modern organization like any of the best in Europe and America.

Ghana's constitution is based on multi-party democracy and any government or party, which forgets this fact, does it at its own risk!

A word to the wise can never be enough. We will surely return to this theme