Sticky Points: NPP must manage outcomes of special congress

The much talked about special voting in the NPP has ended and  many people anticipated the outcome of the election. The result was not surprising.

The surprise was the gap between the winner Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his main challenger, Mr Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen. Nana Addo had 81.28 per cent of the votes cast as against 8.01 per cent by Mr Kyerematen.

Thankfully, the conclusion of the exercise brings some reprieve on a family contest that rather turned ugly to the dismay of many watchers. The way supporters of the two leading men went for each other’s jugular was very unhealthy and is a sign of the susceptibility of the party to possible loss or injury in the run-up to election 2016.

Interestingly, Mr Francis Addai Nimoh, who was considered to be a politician of whom little was known, came up third with 2.4 per cent to beat popular figures like Kofi Konadu Apraku and Stephen Asamoah Boateng. That is politics for you. 

But I do not cry for the last two personalities because along the way I had the feeling that they were ‘digging their own graves’. 

I suspect that the delegates ‘punished’ Mr Apraku for some alleged unsavoury remarks he made concerning the people’s favourite, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. For Mr Asamoah Boateng, the suspicion had been that he was biting more than he could chew and the straw that maybe broke his back was the branded jollof rice he distributed to delegates prior to voting. That was bribery, pure and simple, and it sent wrong signals.

Out of the seven that served notice of their desire to lead the NPP into the next elections, the number was whittled down to five. 

Indications are that even out of the five accepted candidates slated to contest in a second round of voting come October 18, two of them, Mr Osei Ameyaw and Mr Joe Ghartey, have hanged their boots. I tend to support their move. It cuts a long harrowing story short. 

When one considers the money involved in campaigning when it is as glaring as daylight that one’s chances are slim, it stands to reason to give up early.

Nothing of the sort has been heard so far from Mr Kyerematen and Mr Addai Nimoh, who are presently nursing their ‘injuries’ and maybe hopeful of healing quickly after appraising themselves of what went wrong, to join in the engagement scheduled for October. 

Last week, I discussed a suggestion by Mr Appiah Menkah, calling on the candidates to pull out of the race if there was a clear leader. The suggestion received mixed reactions with some calling for the party’s constitution to be followed to the letter and others agreeing to the proposition.

But you see, constitutions are not built of stone or brick and mortar, they are mere words of consensus that guide a group of people and so can be reviewed. 

The NPP would want to show that they are true blood democrats and so would not like to do anything that would vaguely give the impression that they are ‘buckling at the knees’. 

Nonetheless, where there is understanding and singleness of purpose there is strength to carry on.

In all this, what is worrying and should get the attention of party followers and sympathisers is the fact that certain elements who are spokespersons for some of the leaders continue to spew venom on their perceived political opponents. 

A recent case involved one Okatakyie who said he was the National Coordinator of the group; Get Alan Kyerematen Elected (GAKE). If I remember correctly, just after the special delegates congress of the party, the General Secretary, Mr Kwabena Agyepong, issued a statement calling on party members to refrain from calling their opponents names. 

For some reason, I think Okatakyie never heard of it or had simply ignored the call. In an interview on OK Fm last Tuesday, the gentleman did not go kindly on Nana Akufo-Addo at all, describing him in unspeakable terms.

From now to the next intra-party election in October, the party executive will do well to rein in people like Okatakyie who run foul at the mouth or kiss any dream of winning the next election goodbye, that would be because their actions and words are symptomatic of a party that cannot hold itself together and the voter would not want to vote for a party that is in disarray.

Instances of what took place in 1979 when there was a breakaway from the Popular Front Party (PFP) to form the United National Convention (UNC) must be too clear to the NPP which traces its antecedents to the PFP. 

That act of moving away from the mainstream made the PFP lose the election that year, after it had worked so hard to put the party in the first position. That is why everything should be done by the party to smoothen any cracks there may be before it is too late.