Opinions of Friday, 29 July 2016

Columnist: Adumoa Sam

NPP needs better preparation to win the election instead of noise making

New Patriotic Party New Patriotic Party

Before my resolution to stop affiliating myself to any political party in Ghana, I used to vote for the NPP and used to attend meetings/gathering organised by the NPP during the time of Prof. Adu Boahene and President J A Kuffuor.

My reason for voting the NPP at the time was due to the fact that the leaders of the party were very refined, non violent, tolerant, knowledgeable and very respectable.

I am talking about the likes of Professor Adu Boahene, President J.A. Kuffour, the Late Aliu Mahama, Dr kennedy, Dr Konadu Apraku, Mr. Odoi Sykes, Dr Fred Sai, Mr Kwame Mpiani, Da Rocha, Dr Richard Anani , Kwabena Agyapong, Nana Ohene Ntow, Mr Alan Kyeremanteng and people with similar pedigree in the NPP.

These and other men of integrity of the NPP during the 2000 elections educated us on the economy, Health, energy, Agriculture etc. They made very good submissions on both the print and electronic media which appealed to so many Ghanaians and offered a concrete alternative to what the NDC was offering Ghanaians at the time.

Members of the party were advised to be tolerant and not to involve in any acts of violence or utterances that will bring the reputation of the party into disrepute.

Now we are experiencing a party so different from what we all know. People in high office of the party beating and slapping others members of the party, party members supporting violent acts by their leaders, the party have lost its democratic credentials and bullying members and chasing them out of the party.

The party has become so intolerant and violent, party members will at the least opportunity insult, threaten and beat other members who oppose their views. The leader of the party cannot bring these thugs to order.

There are so many people in the party who does not want the NPP to win the election, because that will be bad for Ghana. In the first instance there is no peace in the party, the party cannot solve its internal problems, the leaders have no power over the members and the party have become so violent, undemocratic and lawless.

Now the NPP could only rally behind Dr Bawumia and maybe Dr Akoto who seems to be the only credible persons with some level of facts who challenge the NDC on the economy from time to time. Apart from these two persons there is no other key individuals who in my view could convince and educate most people about what can be done to improve the current economic climate.

So far NPP has no message for us Ghanaians and they keep relying on the fact that NDC has been in power for 8years so automatically it is their turn to come in. The only message we keep hearing was the usual promises from Akufo Addo during his campaign tour which could only be described as a complete joke.

When a leader has no plans and keeps promising almost every city, town and villages heaven and earth without backing it with where he is going to get funding for the same, that can only be considered as a big joke in my view.

The propaganda is becoming boring, we are tired of hearing that Mahama is incompetent and the NDC is corrupt. We are tired of all that. They are boring and we do not want to hear them anymore. We are tired of the members of the NPP who after reading a verse in the bible will turn around and use it to insult Mahama and other public officials.

We are fed up with the lies that party member have been sharing on social media, We are fed up with all these. What we the good people of Ghana want is a credible opposition party offering a credible alternative to what Mahama is doing.

We do not want a party whose chairman will be threatening to announce election results instead of waiting for the EC to do so, we do not want a party whose chairman will slap a member of parliament and yet the leader of the party will never alter a word about it, we do not want a party where a member of parliament will be on a rampage insulting woman in public without the leader calling him to order.

This is the party the NPP stand for in this present time. I am very sad to go to town today about these happenings in the party. The leader lacks the capacity to unite the party and I do not think that a party divided onto itself will be able to stand.

Instead of campaigning in Ghana Nana Addo is rather travelling abroad wasting precious campaign time and when he loses the election he will head back to the supreme court. This is a joke right? As for Freddie Blay the least talk about him the better, he is the worst of all chairman I have ever known. He is not articulate, very lazy and propagandist.

He acts just like the serial callers on the radio every morning. What has happened to the impeachment of Mahama and all the other allegations levelled against him? This is what am talking about. We are fed up with the useless press conference which seems to achieve nothing. Now these things must stop and common sense must prevail. Defeat is steering at the NPP and the earlier the NPP learn the better.

What is more worrying is that intellectuals in the party have kept their mouth shut (with the exception of a few bold ones of course) and keeps comparing what the NPP is doing to what the NDC has done previously or doing now. At the end of the day, the NPP is in opposition and the burden lies on the NPP to present themselves as clean and credible alternative for Ghanaians to re-elect into office.

Anytime a member of the party try to correct some of these excesses in the party, others are quick to insult them and the leader supports them. I will not be surprised at all if the so called thugs in the party start the usual insults on this very platform instead of reading and understanding the substance of this article. This has been the problem of the party and this is what is going to keep the NPP in opposition for another 4years.

This I believe will help the party to regroup and unite to wrestle power from NDC. But for now the NPP should forget it because they don't have what it takes to rule Ghana. The violence and intolerance nature of party members alone is enough for any intellectual to vote against them. No one should think that the propaganda on social media will win any party a vote in Ghana.

Our politics is different from that of the west and the earlier the NPP changes his ways the better it will be for them. The truth is always very bitter and once again the so called blood thirsty thugs would be attacking and calling me names, but in the end, who cares? A word to the wise is enough.