Dan Botwe On NPP's Latter Day Gurus

The General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Dan Botwe, has admitted in an interview with The Daily Dispatch that there have been times when some members of the party have complained about how certain people who recently joined the NPP were given high profile positions.

The question put to Mr Botwe was, “what is your reaction to complaints by some die-hard supporters that the party seems to concentrate on those termed, ‘Latter Day Gurus’, to the neglect of those who really worked hard. Has that affected their enthusiasm to work”? Mr Botwe smiled, “I would not say that such people have lost their enthusiasm to work. But I will say that it is true to some extent that the feeling that people have worked so hard for us to come to power and at times, they see certain faces and certain people occupying certain positions, whom the rank and file think did not contribute to our success. The feelings do come and at times, one has to explain.

We believe that we were not working for ourselves – we were not involved to win power just to share political power for ourselves. We were persuaded by the national interest and therefore, it does not necessarily imply that certain positions should come to people like us.”

On whether the NPP at their Congress in Sekondi over the weekend did not also embark on another form of acclamation (a la NDC), the NPP General Secretary went on the defensive, “not at all. The big difference is that the NPP, by our Constitution, should at least, 24 months before the next general elections, elect our President candidate. The Constitution again states that six months before that time, we should open nominations, which we did. We opened nominations in May 2002 and prospective candidates had three months to file. Only one person filed, that is President John Kufour. When we talk of acclamation (a la NDC) or the popular Swedru Declaration, we are talking about a situation where all these processes do not take place. Our Constitution also states that if one person files, the Congress should still decide whether they want that person.”

On reports that the Greater Accra NPP seems to be in some disarray, he said “the National Executive had received some unpleasant reports about certain constituencies and are not happy; however, we (the National Executive) have had a number of meetings with the Greater Accra Regional Executive of the party. We believe we can resolve any differences.”

Another question Mr Botwe had to deal with was “there had been complaints that matters meant exclusively for the party are at times referred to the Office of the Chief of Staff at the Presidency. In effect, the Office of Chief of Staff is running parallel party machinery. What do you say to such complaints? His answer was politically diplomatic, “I have received letters which have been copied to the Presidency, copied to the Chief of Staff and at times, Ministers.

In an address at a Regional Congress, I made it clear that they should desist from that because party matters should be solved at the constituency levels, thence to regional before the headquarters. I also emphasised that under no circumstances should anyone take party matters to the Presidency or Chief of Staff. I would expect that the Presidency or Chief of Staff will also encourage people not to do that. The fact that we are in power does not mean that party matters should be sent to government. No, it is something that we should not encourage; we should not mix the two.