Theories of organisational change have it that the only thing that will always constant in every human institution be it political, religious or economic is change. Progressives see change as an opportunity to improve organisational effectiveness and efficiency while reactionaries who benefit from the status quo view change as a threat tha must be resisted at all cost. This is the situation that one finds in NPP Germany as it prepares for its National Congress to elect new leaders to manage the affairs of the party for the four years that lie ahead. For nearly nineteen(19) years, the party was run like a chiefdom by the 76 year-old Mr Dwamena Yeboah surrounded by carefully selected sycophants all resident in Hamburg. Apart from the General Secretary, Mr Kwaku Appiah wo resides in Stuttgart, all the other national executives live and work in Hamburg.

Fortunately , the over concentration of power in Hamburg is likely to change after the January 11 elections which the 46 year old investment Banker Mr Alhassan Yakubu Tali is largely tipped to win. However, Chairman Dwamena Yeboah and his cronies who have monopolised power for nearly decades will have none of that are bent on ensuring that no candidate outside Hamburg wins the chairmanship. What makes it more dangerous for the NPP as a party is the ethnic factor that has entered the equation. The Chairman and his cronies make no secret of their unwillingness and unpreparedness to accept a Non-Akan as party chairman in Germany. To carry out this diabolical agenda they set in motion a carefully planned vicious campaign just to denigrate and vilify the character and person of Mr Alhassan Tali. Theses narrow-minded tribalist started by first circulating rumours that Mr Tali does not speak Twi and as such should not voted for as Chairman. These rumours later turned out be unfounded and baseless. As an ardent sympathiser of the NPP the question that readily came to my mind was since when did ones language skills or knowledge of the Twi Language become a requirement for a position in the NPP? Perhaps Sir John and the NPP leadership in Ghana should be the right people to provide some answers to this pertinent question and the earlier they did that the better it would be for the image of the party. As it this was not enough, ethnic bigotry and tribal politics initiated by some elements within the Hamburg chapter actually intensified in October when a Team led by the outgoing National Organiser Miss Mary Saka visited local chapters in Munich, Saarland and Frankfurt with the sole purpose of inciting party followers against voting for a Northern candidate for the position of chairmanship. Miss Mary Saka is on record to have categorically told her audience that NPP Germany was not ready for a Northerner as Chairman. After these meetings the outgoing national organiser went further to place several telephones calls to several members in which she questioned if they wanted to be led by “PEPE NI” a derogatory term referring to someone from the North.)

The ethnocentric politics that is being promoted and supported by two leading members namely Mr Dwamena Yeboah (Chairman) and Miss Mary Saka Oduro (National Organiser) have left many observers to question the motive behind their actions which by all intents and purposes have the potential to cause dissent and disaffection within the party. The motive behind the conduct of these two characters can be explained by the fact that they find difficult to accept the reality that the balance of power is gradually tilting towards North Rheine Westphalia which has the largest number of NPP supporters(47% of all registered members). In their attempt to prevent this from happening the Chairman (Mr Dwamena Yeboah) and the National Organiser (Miss Mary Saka Oduro) decided to sponsor one Clement Acoma an unknown character who they believed they could manipulate from behind the scenes. Sources close to party managers say the said Akomea has never been a member of any local chapter of NPP-Germany and has not participated in any event or programme organised by the party. This, has understandably created apprehension and disaffection among the party’s rank and file most of whom are questioning how such an unknown individual was allowed to file for the position of Chairmanship in the first place.

Fortunately for NPP Germany, relationship between the two former allies and partners in political tricks (Politricks) Mr Dwamen Yeboah and Miss Mary Saka became strained when it emerged that the said Mr Clement Akomea is indeed a Card bearing member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Information gathered from Accra and London has it that in fact Mr Akomea was actually sponsored by the NDC government to pursue his Masters programme. This revelation has undoutedly become a source of embarrassment to Chairman Dwamena who in turn has accused Miss Mary Saka of deliberately misleading him. Party leaders in Germany are however not convinced that the chairman was misled by the organiser but that he was pursuing his own political agenda which ended in a dissaster and should take responsibility for his political miscalculation. Despite his poor leadership and dictatorial tendencies, Mr Dwamena Yeboah is said to be true believer in the Busia-Dankwa-Dombo tradition and would not want to hand over to a known NDC mole. As a result he is reported to be making all efforts to stop the congress and the elections from taking place to allow him time to file for the chairmanship position. Reports have it that the chairman had been lobbying party leadership in Ghana to intervene to stop the congress so that he can have his way. This move, according to the reports has been flatly rejected as the party leaders are themselves engaged in the fight for their own political survival and would not want to be seen to be interfering and for fear of losing the German votes in the forth coming national executive elections in Ghana.

In the face of such devastating humiliation, one would have thought that the 76 year-old Dwamena would come to the realisation that he is now spent force and has become politically irrelevant. Rather than accepting this reality, the power-drunk Dwamena is deliberately doing all he can to orchestrate a crisis within the party by inciting three new chapters to write a letter asking him to call an emergency meeting to discuss issues that have already been discussed and resolved nearly two months ago. In yet another twist leadership of the said chapters have all come out to deny knowledge of such a letter and have disassociated themselves from its contents. Clearly, the conduct of Mr Dwamena Yeboah with all the twists and turns looks like the last kick of a dying horse whose ultimate and inevitable death cannot be postponed or deferred. In the midst of this political gamesmanship, the beneficiary has been Miss Mary Saka Oduro. First, she has succeeded in outmanoeuvring and outwitting Chairman Dwamena by having her candidate(Akomea) to contest for the chairmanship position although he stands very little chance of winning. Second, she has succeeded with the assistance and influence of Mr Akomea in obtaining highly lucurative contracts from the NDC government. And as we speak the outgoing national organiser Miss Mary Saka Oduro is currently in Ghana trying to mobilse funds for the execution of those contracts and this explains why she would not be present during the congress.

Indeed, the current developments within NPP-Germany provide useful and important lessons that cannot be ignored. First and foremost, it has brought attention to the need to exercise due diligence and do thorough background checks on all candidates before giving them the go ahead to contest for positions. If this had been done NPP Germany would not have found itself in a position where an NDC mole is now contesting for the position of chairmanship.

Last but not the least, the ethnocentric message rather than working against Mr Tali worked in his favour because most NPP supporters in Germany are highly sophisticated men and women who judge people on their performance and the content of their character and not their ethnic background or tribal affiliation.

Adwoa Sarpomaah-Afrifa The writer is an NPP Sympathiser Hamburg