The clarifying effects of election 2024 are now manifesting themselves. There is now a clarion call for various actions and steps to be taken to “rescue” our party, the NPP. Some are demanding that “we take our party back.” Various suggestions are beginning to emerge on the types of reforms that our party must embark upon. All these are good ideas and are welcome. However, we must properly gather all of them together and arrange them to avoid a haphazard and incoherent set of knee-jerk reactions.

In response to a similar situation, albeit less humiliating, there arose a grand conspiracy in 2009 that seized the party, under the guise of pursuing reforms, and put it in the hand of one man, creating a “Caesar” thereby. The current clamour, in my mind, seeks to undo the effects of “Caesar” on the fortunes of our party. In so doing, we must proceed with care and diligence in our search for restoration and healing so that we do not end up repeating the mistakes of the past.

For a start, we must ponder on the following central points that are engaging our minds:

1. We may have a clear idea as to who we are taking our party from. But we must be very sure of whose hands we seek to put the party. We must strive to avoid the situation where we repose total trust and confidence in one man who will then seize the party and treat it as if it were his personal property and the rest of us as his minions to be tread underfoot.

2. We must be absolutely clear as to what form of political organization we seek to model our reform on. We must ensure that our efforts this time around create a party of like-minded men and women in pursuit of building a nation for the benefit of all rather than an organization hijacked by a cabal to transfer public wealth into private pockets or, worse still, a cultic organization that in supine impotence bows to the whims and caprices of an individual. These are the central issues that must seize our attention now.

People who forget their history keep making the same mistakes and keep having to start over rather than being able to build upon the wisdom and the accomplishments of the past.

Farouk Aliu Mahama breaks silence following loss of Yendi seat in Parliament