A couple of days ago 4 Flag bearer aspirants of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) held a press conference to express their loudest protestations over issues relating to the conduct of the impending primaries to elect its candidate for election 2012.

The summary of all the brouhaha was centered on the delegates register for the primaries. The register was said to have turned into a “chameleon” changing colours every minute! The Aspirants interpreted these occurrences as subtle attempts by some “hatchet men” to tilt the outcome of the primaries of August 7, even before the elections in a certain direction!

Information I stumbled upon revealed that, the aspirants did not just jumped to the media with their grievances. They choose the media as the last option when it became very clear that, the structures they could have used was not only tainted but also made it virtually impossible for their genuine concerns to be heard!

The irony however is that, when the 4 aspirants decided on the media the NPP as a party was not happy at all of the approach adopted. Their reason was that, the aspirants were washing the dirty linen of the party in the media. Sadly, it was the same media that some of the National Executives of the party used to “attack” the 4 aspirants!! So who was guilty here?

Then on the 15th of July 2010, Mr. Stephen Ntim; a former National Chairman aspirant of the NPP-who supports Alan Kyeremanteng’s presidential bid also swamped the media with “wolf-wolf” cry- According to Mr. Ntim certain procedures that were used to “cheat” him from winning the Chairmanship position of the NPP, were being activated to rig the impending presidential primaries of the NPP! Mr. Ntim gave a tall list of rigging strategies he alleged to have spotted including persons he termed “Hachette men” who were being used to thwart a smooth and credible elections and therefore called for the immediate dismissals of those persons from the electoral committee of the NPP as a pre-requisite to transparent elections.

What the National Executives of the party did was to dismiss the allegations of Mr. Ntim out-rightly. The worry of most people was/is that, none of the National Executives is aspiring to become a Flag-bearer and were therefore alarmed that, they elected to dismiss Ntim’s allegations rather than a promise of investigations!! This went further to heighten the situation until the council of elders of the NPP announced in the media that, they were to meet all the aspirants to solve the issues raised!

The issue is that, all the 4 aspirants have spent much money, time, energy and other resources on their campaigns so far. They are conscious of the fact that only one among the 5 persons contesting to lead the NPP will be elected eventually. There are fully aware of this. They are however not willing for even a second to be “defeated” in a suspicious manner in an impending election already shrouded in mysterious occurrences! Supporters of the 4 aspirants are calling on them to form a coalition and a new political party if their grievances are not addressed to contest election 2012 against any candidate who will be secretly or clandestinely “coronated” as the candidate of the NPP. The aim of any new political party that would be formed from within the NPP according to those advocating for that- will be to work against the NPP from securing 50+1 votes to win election 2012 as a protest! The National Reform Party (NRP) at a point in the political history of Ghana did that against the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in protest against then candidate Mills. When things are allowed to get to this level only the gods can predict what will befall the NPP in election 2012.

Persons who keep on making provocative comments in the media against the 4 aspirants must be told to stop those churlish actions. They are for now at best providing oxygen for the automatic defeat of the NPP in 2012 should they continue with such infantile and childish comments. They must be told that, an embittered and aggrieved politician who feels his grievances have not been addressed can use any method against even his own party!

Political historians says the formation of new political parties from inside the Dombo-Busia- Danquah tradition is not new and therefore call on the NPP to avert the current crisis in other that it did not get to that level. They cited the formation of a new political party from within the Popular Front Party (PFP) in the 1979 elections as a case that should alert the NPP that anything could happen especially as it already has such an occurrence in its political history.

Some people have also mentioned the formation of the United Ghana Movement (UGM) by Dr Wireku Brobbey; a founding member of the NPP as another reminder. It must be explained that, a new political party was announced in Kumasi after the NPP primaries in 2007 and around the same time that Alan Kyeremateng was said to have resigned from the NPP over certain grievances. What disarmed that political party was the decision of Alan to rescind his resignation decision from the NPP.

From the scenario given above, it is clear that the formation of new political parties from within the NPP has being with the NPP and could resurface again to the detriment of the party if the current issues about the impending NPP primaries are not addressed well-especially issues relating to the delegates register which keep on changing colours!

It is my hope that the NPP will steer clear of any complacency and act with the speed of light in the face of the current unpleasant developments. May I state that I am not by this article calling for the formation of a new political party from within the NPP.

Is it appropriate for me to say that, the early bird catches the worm? Or I should choose a stitch in time saves nine!

Akilu Sayibu UK

Email: Akilu.sayibu@live.uwe.ac.uk