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The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has mounted its merry-go-round yet another time.
The question of whether or not to have a so-called early congress has become into a cause of unneeded conflict within our Party every four years.
We gave ourselves the first taste of this acrimonious and pointless argument in 1995.
According to the Party constitution, the flag bearer must be chosen twenty-four (24) full months before the presidential election, when the party is in opposition.
This mandates that the Congress for choosing the president-elect must take place no later than the end of December 1994.
However, there were vocal opponents who wanted to postpone the selection of the party’s flag bearer for the 1996 presidential election.
As was to be expected, a greater portion of the Party was vehemently opposed to the idea.
They believed it was improper for us to play with with our constitution’s provisions for our own, sometimes unchecked personal goals.
In his keynote presentation to the 4th Annual National Delegates’ Conference on Saturday, August 26, 1995, in the Great Hall of the University of Ghana, Legon, Mr. B.J. da Rocha, then National Chairman, addressed the danger as it was emerging in this way.
“ELECTION OF PARTY’S PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE”
The choice of the Party’s presidential candidate for the 1996 election has been the focus of much rumor and, unhappily, has led to a great deal of unease inside the Party.
Candidates for the election must be chosen by the Party. Every Party member in good standing is eligible to submit a self-offer.
Do contests for office have to stir up resentment and contention?
Can we not compete without hurting our relationships with one another and the Party?
A candidate will be chosen in due time. Whoever wins the election cannot become Ghana’s president only via personal effort.
All of us in the party will have to work hard to win for him the votes which will secure him victory and the Party. It is for the reason that we must do everything to prevent the contest for nomination from degenerating into a bitter and destructive fight among the aspirants.
Already there has developed a heated controversy over the date of electing our candidate. This matter was thoroughly debated by the National Council, after taking all necessary factors into considerations, decided to recommend to this conference that the election of our presidential candidate should take place in March, 1996.
It is a recommendation which I urge this conference to endorse. If we think in terms of the Party’s best interest and not the personal convenience of aspirants then I do not see any reason why there should be any further squabbles over the date of election of our candidates.
By March, 1996 we would have had behind us the demanding task of getting our people to register. We should have laid down the framework for our election campaign and mobilize the necessary man power and material resources to take off. Remember that our election campaign must take off from the day our candidate is elected. There is the further consideration that we shall have had time to have done everything possible in the way of securing the co-operation of the other opposition parties if possible.
Already a committee has been mandated by the National Council to pursue this matter vigorously. I have no doubt that between March and November, 1996 we have ample time to conduct an election campaign which should reach its peak at just the right time.
I should like to admonish all aspirants to remember that they are colleagues inside the same Party, having identical political interests. None of them can hope to reap any benefit by damaging his opponent either openly or secretly. Such conduct only harms the Party by sowing the seeds of factionalism. You should seek support by impressing on your supporters your own virtues and merits and what you have to offer, not by running down your competitors. I expect that after this conference a code of conduct will be drawn up for all aspiring candidates. I expect and fervently hope that we shall soon see the emergence of a new style of campaigning by our presidential aspirants.
The National Council, the second highest decision-making body, a meeting on Friday, 23rd December 2022, without a hitherto agenda and goes ahead to undertake the age-old gymnastics of when to hold the various primaries to select candidates Right after the meeting, and even before an official communique could be issued, a private media outlet, an al-Ahram of some sort, publishes a program with specific dates and timelines for the upcoming primaries not speculatively, but in a matter-of-fact fashion.
This publication has since been exposed as a total fabrication. The Party has since issued a statement to the effect that no such decisions were taken as reported. Why such a brazen audacity to deceive? One may only surmise that it amounts to nothing more than a nefarious attempt either to impose a narrow will on a silent majority or in a usual style, “mafia” some people to their detriment and an undeserved advantage of others.
So here we are in 2023, and like the Bourbons, we learnt nothing so we forgot nothing, and are therefore back to this unwholesome, circular argument, largely driven by inordinate and unbridled narrow ambitions.
The main argument seems now have been reduced to the imagination that we will need sufficient time to heal wounds, smoothen ruffled feature and assuage wounded sentiments. The sensible question for me is, why inflict wounds and ruffle in the hope of healing and assuaging?
And what do we regard as sufficient time? There are still petty peeves hanging and dividing us since 2008 with top ups from 2012. What makes us think that wounds which have been deliberately and consciously infected can heal or heal this fast so as to become the basis of a reproachment?
To add insult to injury, we have not adopted the “criminal” language of La Mafia into our internal lexicon in describing the shameful and underhanded methods by which we gleefully ride roughshod over ourselves for petty gain, but to the detriment of the collective interest and brand.
We are the Party that forced the argument of holding national elections on specific dates, and rightly so. It was done to eliminate the manipulative and surprise elements out of calling national elections at the behest of the Electoral Commissioner, which did not and should not have such a mandate. And we, who gained this noble achievement cannot gain same for our own party?
I hear in my mind’s ears, the argument of granting ourselves some flexibility in the language of our party’s constitution. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter and our disposition has already been to misuse the discretion to the detriment of those we perceive to be our internal opponents.
It is better to be put into constitutional structures and only relex them by special resolutions as and when the matter becomes self-evident, and not vice versa.
For those who have made it their game to “mafia” opponents, both at the parliamentary and presidential primaries, they ought to think hard and pin their eyes to the lessons of history and our own track record- a record that firmly resists ossified dictatorship and impisitionists.
Our elders say, “sɛ wo tietia obi deɛ so hwehwɛ wo deɛ a, wo renhunu”, to wit, if you trample on what belongs to others in search of what may legitimately be yours, you will never find it.
It is also said that, “those who destroy others to succeed will surely meet destruction at the gate of their own success.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
