The NPP is divided and may collapse, Kufuor warns
Fair play should be the order of the day. We are democratic, we believe in justice; our motto is Development in Freedom, and we want to feel like everybody is being counted so please, let’s go back to the drawing board and look at ourselves critically – PRESIDENT JOHN KUFUOR
John Kufuor has proven to be a political sage: He is one of the most respected political figures in the country today and celebrated by the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition for leading the tradition out of political wilderness after almost three decades.
In the run-up to the selection of his successor to lead the NPP into the 2008 election, he famously urged Party delegates to choose someone who would unite but not divide the party. Many people believed that it was a subtle jab at the leadership credentials of Nana Akufo Addo.
There are many who shared similar sentiments, but many other Party faithful had resolute faith in Nana Akufo Addo. From a distance, Nana Addo seemed like a charismatic and pragmatic leader who would lead Ghana to the proverbial ‘promised land’. For many NPP loyalists, the admonition from President Kufuor was needless because thinking about Party unity at that time was a remote thought: the Party essentially was on a smooth sail, and from a distance one could not easily tell the real nature of the key actors. Yet, being that close, Kufuor knew what he was talking about.
Subsequent events, perhaps, affirm the concerns that President Kufuor expressed. The NPP under the leadership of President Nana Akufo Addo suffered a terrible and divisive leadership crisis that some Party people believed was engineered by the President and his famous “Akyem Mafia”. Today, the NPP is in the depths of a bitter and divisive leadership crisis, a vestige of the President Akufo Addo era, and it threatens to tear apart the party some more, and again President Kufuor has sounded the alarm bells:
At the launch of the Patriotic Institute last week by the NPP, President Kufuor warned that if the Party does not pursue a genuine path of unity and reconciliation, it risks collapsing.
It was a no-holds-barred speech, and he hinted in the course of the speech that he had initially wanted to skip the programme because of another engagement but later decided to be part of the historic launch to also give the Party his piece of mind.
“If we do not change our minds and think critically, we will not be the first party that went out of operation. The Party that used to be like the only party around, where is it now? Let’s be self-critical….
“We lost power in 1979 because we tended to be too individualistic…egos were too big. A party must be united. We must be reconciled. If we go in with swollen egos, where do you get the unity and without the unity how do you get the Party.
“It’s a very sad situation we are in now. I am using this occasion to tell the truth as it is to all of us. “Me Tooism” led to our loss in 1979. We tend to be too self-centered. The purpose of Party is to win power, but we don’t seem to want to learn,” President Kufuor lashed out.
These hard truths should not be lost on the leadership of the Party, which prides itself as a Party built on the foundations of the rule of law and human rights. Ironically, the Constitution of the Party appears to have been thrown away for the self-serving interests of a few persons.
Is it not a shot in the foot, that the executives who elected the previous Presidential Candidate are being asked to elect another Presidential Candidate. Definitely, this is a decision that has been taken by National Executives who appear to have been compromised, and President Kufuor’s warning that such self-serving decisions threaten the future of the Party, should not be taken lightly.
Indeed, the recent revelation by the former General Secretary of the Party, John Boadu that the recent ‘Thank You Tour’ organized by the Party was financed by Dr. Bawumia, a deviation from previous ‘Thank You Tours’ that were organized and funded by the Party, provides a hint about why the Party is charting such a dangerous path. It appears, Dr. Bawumia is the “financier” of the Party and is now calling the shots.
In concluding, I echo some of the words of President Kufuor at the launch of the Institute:
“Fair play should be the order of the day. We are democratic, we believe in justice; our motto is Development in Freedom, and we want to feel like everybody is being counted so please, let’s go back to the drawing board and look at ourselves critically…
“People talk monetization; monetization – everybody is hungry. There is so much unemployment. We tend to know people…today you get to some position and then you manage to get some money. When it comes to voting you want to come and give me some money…take and vote for me…they will ‘chop’ your money and then go and vote against you…when this happens, we should blame ourselves,” he cautioned.
A political sage has spoken; will the Party’s leadership hear him?
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