Opinions of Tuesday, 27 May 2014

Columnist: Michael Kessey

Unity is strength

It’s rather unfortunate and pathetic that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which is the largest opposition party in Ghana after a peaceful and successful congress in Tamale Sports stadium in the Northern Region finds itself in an uncomfortable situation in their quest to choose who leads them to battle against the NDC and other Political opponents.

There is an old adage that goes like “ United we stand, divided we fall and as such, it is imperative for the NPP fraternity to come together as a united front whose main objective is focused on coming to power in 2016 general elections.

The scripture says in LUKE 11vrs 21, “when a strong man, fully armed, guards his house, his possessions are safe and secured”. The NPP can be a formidable force only when it is united and not divided.

Undoubtedly, the NPP is one of the finest parties we have had in terms of developments and good policies which have made a positive impact on the lives of the good people of Ghana irrespective of one’s political party in their eight (8) year tenure of office.

Most especially, the National Health Insurance Policy, School Feeding Programme, Metro Mass bus conveying school children, Capitation grants to cushion head teachers of basic school to help them buy teaching and learning materials for their teachers and regular supply of textbooks, registers, chalk and teachers lesson notes books which has become a thing of the past.

Identifying your problem is half solved and it beats my imagination when I see some people in the party who always say they have the party at heart, but the words that come out of their mouth tears the party apart.

I was itching to ask what is actually wrong with NPP fraternity. Whenever we come to selecting a flag bearer for the party, you will hear supporters of our aspirants raining insults on other aspirants and this crude and barbaric attitude has gone a long way to affect the party in their previous defeats.

The needless factionalism in the party disunites the party and has to be stopped to avoid another defeat in the hands of the “yentie obia’ government in the near future.

Most Ghanaians are yearning to have the NPP back in power and we cannot fail Ghanaians again. It is about time the party put the 2012 defeat behind them and has a critical look at what went wrong even though the Party’s manifesto or campaign message was the best compared to “edebee k33k3” and yet could not wrestle power from the NDC.

Patience is necessary at these crucial moments and supporters of our aspirants must give peace a chance so that NPP will achieve its aim and objectives. The Bible tells us to be quicker to hear but slower to talk and it is imperative we weigh the kinds of words we use for our aspirant’s opponents to avoid retaliation from his supporters.

If I may ask, those who think they know better than the other members of the party, can we fight our opponents if they attack us? I leave it for them to answer.

Let’s begin to love one another and put aside our selfish interest and put NPP first in all things we do. It is a pity when someone from your own party deliberately tarnishes one's reputation built on so many years for no apparent reason.

If you feel your candidate has all it takes to be the flag bearer for the party tell the delegates who have the power to give him the mandate based on the fact that what he is bringing on board is different from other aspirants and not moving from station to station to discredit your candidate’s opponent.

If you want the best for the party, you will do the right thing. You are preparing for a football match and you go on air to tell your opponent your goalie has a problem on his left hand. Don’t you think your opponent will hit his shots on the weak point of your goalie?

In the same way, if you are too anxious of getting your candidate to be the flag bearer and because of that you say all sorts of things about the other candidates and eventually he wins you have let your party’s flag bearer at the mercy of your political opponent and time that could have been used to send the party’s vision across the nation would be used to do damage control.

If someone sits somewhere and says Ghanaians did not buy our political package then it is not the fault of our package, but Ghanaians did not buy it because we did not market it well.

It is about time the NPP fraternity desists from washing their dirty linen outside because the moment we do that the NDC capitalizes on it as a tool to defeat the party in elections. Instead of praising our flag bearer we tend to paint him black and in the end want Ghanaians to buy him?

Those people in the doing this kind of a thing in the party must remember there are lots of people out there who have contributed immensely than them and have kept quiet in the part not because they are deaf and dumb, but because they want peace to prevail in the party for growth and development. If we have anything to do for the party to come to power 2016 then it will be in our own interest to refrain from anything that would tear the party apart and look out for strategies that will bring the party back to power.

No political opponent will come and put things in order for us unless we do it ourselves. Let’s stop the egoism and pull him down attitude and rally fully behind any candidate that will emerge the winner and see if NPP will not win the 2016 general elections.

Let us learn to emulate what the current leadership headed by Mr Paul Afoko is doing that is working hand –in-hand with the past leadership. Let us not be our own worst enemies. I thank the current leadership for their effort in making sure sanity prevails before and after we elect the party flag bearer. LONG LIVE NPP