NPP must avoid divided path — Osei Ameyaw

A Presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Kofi Osei Ameyaw, has said the current suspicion, rancour and acrimony within the party are alien to the tradition of the party.

He has, therefore, called on the leadership and the rank and file of the party to use internal party structures to resolve emerging differences instead of the media war.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in a telephone interview Monday, Mr  Ameyaw lamented over the situation where some party members were taking the path of indiscipline and were on radio attacking  one another “as though we are enemies within’’.

The presidential hopeful said what was happening now was, “we go on radio to wash our dirty linen and this can only damage the collective resolve in winning power in 2016”.

Appointments

The party made new appointments at its communication directorate last week and asked the acting Communications Director of the party, Mr Perry Okudzeto, to proceed on a two-year leave having accumulated his leave for four years.

This engendered swift reactions from some members of the party, including the First Vice National Chairman of the party, Mr Fredie Blay, who expressed shock at the decision and blamed Mr Kwabena Agyepong for “a one-man show and unilateral decision.’’

Terminate

In a related development, the Northern and Upper East Regional chairmen of the party have also called for the immediate termination of the recent appointments made by the party’s General Secretary.

They have also called for the re-instatement of Mr Perry Okudzeto as the party’s acting Communications Director.

Outspoken Mr Daniel Bugri Naabu and Mr Adams Mahama, Regional Chairmen for the Northern and Upper East regions respectively, who took a swipe at Mr Agyepong, said the NPP General Secretary’s conduct was a clear violation of the party’s constitution in relation to the appointment of officers at the national secretariat.

“We are not going to allow Kwabena  Agyepong to destroy our party: he knows what he is doing and he is trying to create confusion in the party and we will not sit down and allow the party to collapse,” Mr Naabu stated.

“I believe he is been financed by the NDC. Therefore, if he wants to go to the NDC alone, he should go ahead. We don’t want that, we are not ready to support someone who will go and take money from the NDC and come to destroy our party,” the Northern Regional NPP chairman alleged.

Buttressing Mr Naabu’s standpoint, the NPP Upper East Regional Chairman, Adam Mahama, advised Kwabena Agyepong to consider his decision by nullifying his earlier appointments.

“When I heard about this appointment, I was so disappointed about our general secretary and this is unacceptable.  We don’t even have communication directors, why rush to appoint deputy communication directors?” he asked.

Osei  Ameyaw 

But in Mr Osei Ameyaw’s view , the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asuogyaman, that was not the time for internal attacks and infighting but rather a time for NPP members to demonstrate unity of purpose to win Election 2016.

According to Mr Ameyaw, the guiding principle for all NPP members was that they must  at all times take the united path and not the divided one.

He said as evidenced in the 1969 and 2000 elections when the Progress Party and the NPP respectively took the united path, they were able to take power but lost power briefly in 1979 when the party took a divided path.

He said 2016 was around the corner and the party could not afford to take the path of a divided front and, therefore, called on party members to unite now and desist from washing their dirty linen on radio.

Mr Ameyaw said Ghanaians were looking up to the party and that their hopes and aspirations were that the NPP would stay united to win power so that it could properly manage the human and natural resources of the country.

Mr Ameyaw, therefore, called on NPP members, especially those  at the national level, as well the grass roots, to refrain from attacking one another because the party could not go forward divided as it could succeed only when united.