Opinions of Wednesday, 13 January 2016

Columnist: Innocent, Ivan Kyei

Suspension In NPP, a sign Discipline or Political Madness !

Every human institution or associations may be faced with one form of a problem or the other but how those challenges are addressed without necessarily injuring both the integrity and reputation of such organization is very relevant because it would definitely strengthen and immune such organization or association against any possible disintegration in relation to poor handling of misunderstanding among members.
The conduct of the Npp in this democratic dispensation is quiet worrisome expecially, with the establishment and the activation of various brigade of thugs like invincible forces who are often seen wielding machete, an internal militant group set up to hunt down non Akuffo Addo's interest in the party. Such other groups like the Kandaha bulldogs and others in the party have assumed unrestrainable pace unleashing terror and dreadful intimidation on party faithfuls who criticise the current Akuffo Addo led npp.

Prior to the congress at Tamale to elect party executives, many were the rumors flying in the airwaves revealing the frosty relationship between Nana Addo and Paul Afoko sighting several schemes and strategies to sideline Afoko's dream of becoming the party's chairman.

Despite legitimately becoming the most powerful person in the party through elections, chairman Afoko was continuously subjected to series of administrative intimidation with the sole intention of discrediting him and a possible throw out. This clandestine agenda was heightened after they had succeeded in luring and buying the entire members of the party's disciplinary committee and the so called founding fathers into this dirty agenda.

Chairman Afoko was named the enemy of the party and the subsequent constitutional coup detat staged to scrap him out worked to perfection and currently the confrontational feud between him and Akuffo Addo's faction have indeed degenerated into a state of no repair.

Self acclaimed ambassadors of rule of law have now become soldiers of constitutional bombers, treating and subjecting democratic processes to fragrant impunity.

The logical coherence of this move by the elephants is a betrayal of political intelligence and a farcical display to enforce political coercion.

Look at the mathematics here, this is a party many describe as a hostile club to non Akans so with the emergence of Paul Afoko who is a northerner, the restoration of tribal dignity to the Danquah Busiah Dombo tradition which the party had suffered over the years was imminent but the restoration was stampeded by stalwarts of the party. The folding of the party's own constitution to suspend an elected officer only goes to give credence to the already public held perception of Akan tag party.

Some of the reasons ascribed to his suspension were so funny within a context of intellectual discussions, a display of extreme intellectual dishonesty with malice and vindictive intends.
Let me put it on record that Afoko being a northerner to suffer suspension is not the substance this article is seeking to sell but rather the unjust procedures he was subjected to and the public perceptions of NPP as non Akan party is my major consideration which l believe should have rather be the major factor or an opportunity for the party to erase the established-notion of tribal bigotry cassock wearing the elephant but they rather chose to muddy the waters to cloud their chances of Victory in the next elections.

So l'm cautiously dragging the issues out of any possible ethnocentric and tribal considerations to a more political tone so therefore Afoko being a northerner doesn't have any merit in my discussion because the records are there, some members of the party have suffered similar fate even though there were Akans but the "Kakai" procedures and reasons assigned to Afoko's suspension defile any logical rendition.

The party's disciplinary committee upon receiving a petition from some aggrieved individuals of the party calling on the chairman of the party to be suspended acted swiftly by conveying a steering committee meeting to streamline his suspension, a meeting which several big shots in the party have kicked against it legitimacy because they argued the acting chairman who called the meeting had no locus to effect such meeting.

Some of his accusations have to do with the fact that his brother Gregory Afoko is implicated in a murder case of the late Mahama Adams and therefore it dignifies his postion as chairman.
Does this kind of analysis have a place in our modern democratic dispensation where one is nailed to the crose for his brother iniquities? And besides his brother's alleged involvement in this unfortunate murderer has not been fully established by a court of competent jurisdiction.
If the logic these apostles of rule of law were peddling is positive, then could we also say Nana Akuffo Addo, the flagbearer of the party have two of his brothers in jail for dealing in narcotics therefore should resign? This concept is intellectually hollow, politically paralyzed and fragile to make any sound arguments.

Again there was another issue of financial malfeasance involving the treasure and the first national vice chairman of the npp which the police got involved. To the party, Afoko's failure to exhaust all internal conflict resolution mechanism to settle the issue and the subsequent involvement of the police to investigate the case was a clear breach of the party's way of handling act of thievery.

Persons caught of diverting party's moneys into secret accounts without the knowledge of the general secretary and the national chairman were preferred to stay with the party but the whistleblower was sacrificed instead..interesting times in the npp and these same people will wake up in the morning running from one media house to the other accusing the government of corruption. Ranting and chanting, weaving fallouts from government into political choruses tirelessly. l'm sure it gives the public a clue on how "Dream Preisdent" Mr. Akuffo Addo intends to handle corruption if he ever gets the opportunity to be president.
Obviously the npp has lost its glory and electoral fortunes the very day power was vested in Akufdo Addo to lead.

Without walking into the legalites as to who have the locus to convey the steering committee meeting or not, it was obvious that, the move was a calculated and well-designed scheme to flashout those perceived to be a threat to Akuffo Addo's presidential ambitions or the perceived brigades of agenda 2020. The agenda started with Kwabena Agapong but Kwabena proved to be more than enough to be handled by the party's evil machinery of extermination hence he was left off the hook.

A second move was activated, this time Kwabena was helpless and he was uprooted like cassava plant and as part of the agenda, Nana Obiri Boahen, a Sunyani based vociferous radio lawyer who doubles as the deputy general secretary whom many thought would be acting for sometime was not even considered for the position but rather John Boadu who is a kinping in Nana Addo's cabal was picked as acting general secretary of the party.
Does it not give credence to the fact that Nana have his loyalists in the party and therefore there are several others he cannot worked with within his own party? My guess may be challenged but l think my intuition is positive. Will Ghana ever be safe under a divisive President?

The suspension vehicle was then moved to the house of Sammy Crabbe, the Second Vice Chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sammy Crabbe was seen to be in cahoot with Paul Afoko, the suspended chairman, after challenging the locus of the party's discipline committee to suspend the chairman and wowed never to recognize the acting chairman, Fredie Blay because according to him the decision by the party was a travesty of justice and a betrayal of the party's constitution.

This and several of his public comments concerning the issue were seen as an act of extreme disrespect to the party and subsequently a suspension letter was handed to him.
I'm fact the Npp's decision to suspend high ranking members of the party have attracted lot of attention from the political landscape.
According to many, the decision to suspend these elements may be right though but the timing was politically nonsensical and a total intellectual fallout coming from a party perceived to be a composition of elites. Because the previous decision by the party to suspend and sideline some key elements in the party didn't help much. Dr. Wireko Brobbey popularly known as Tarzan was suspended indefinitely, Dr.Kobina Auther Kennedy, Konadu Apraku have been tagged enemies of the party and have been relegated through the back door. It's on record that these individuals openly criticized the seeming ridiculous leadership style of segregation and internal witch-hunting by the flagbearer of the party Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo who is on a mission to become president at all cost...you remember his popular all die be die man" mantra? That's the man I'm talking about in case you have forgotten.

As if the numerous dismissals weren't enough to satisfy Akuffo Addo's insatiable lust of uprooting those he perceives to be enemies within and a threat to his journey from Nima to the Flagstaff house. Dr. Nyaho Tamakolo was recently suspend for similar reasons ascribed to that of Crabbe and others.

These are individual who have enjoyed a significant number of years with the party and indeed gone beyond being just individuals but rather political parents who represent a significant interest groups within the elephant's fraternity, so pushing them out unjustly could have a disastrous political consequences but to Akkufo and his people nothing should stand their way to victory, it doesn't matter to even suspend the last person in the party.

Let's take a drive into the development to see what we could chance on.
I understand discipline is key to success and advancement of every human organization, and its therefore common to see people face one form of punitive action or the other but the recent happenings in the npp considering the frequency of suspension, many believe it's more of political madness than a restoration of discipline or cleansing as the party has made the public to believe.

Going into the 2016 elections l thinks a fractured or limping Npp would disrupt the beauty of the elections and it's in this light that suggestions have evolved from all concern quarters advocating the need for Akuffo Addo-led Npp to assume a posture of a more responsible forcused party and effective political tool to be reckoned with in our democratization.

There is no way to ascribed the on going man-hunting, in the Npp to political savviness but rather a vindictive enterprise marked for terror and vandalism.
The journey to 2016 elections is a bit longer in political description so Akuffo Addo and his party could do much to turn the tables around because no decerning mind would vote for party made up of syndicates of tribal segregation, acid baths, known for ejecting elected generals, making the country ungovernable because they are not in power, dragging the country's image into the gutters by staging demonstrations around world with fabricated imageries. A party with their own coined version of a an economic hero known for lies and organising lectures full of platitudes and distorting facts and figures by projecting fakes analysis on a screen to deceive the old men because most spent their school days after computer debuted in our educational system.
The only redemptive alternative for the Npp is change in leadership style and adopt a bit of Mr. Kuffour's all inclusiveness tactics he adopted to capture power from the NDC. If this is a lie then
"The Bible" remains my witness .

From Ivan Kyei Innocent. 0206262717, nanakyei81@gmail.com