EDITORIAL: Serious Cracks in the NPP

IT SEEMS the party of the ruling government, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), is developing some serious cracks in its top hierarchy and ranks.

It is obvious that the National Chairman of the party, Mr. Peter Mac Manu is currently not on top of events and unless he comes out to clear the air, the NPP would be gradually digging its own grave as it happened to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) some years ago.

During this week, the NPP has been divided over its intended parliamentary primaries as to whether the party should impose winnable candidates in certain constituencies or not. Some of the top gurus of the party are now waging a media war with each other, not knowing that they are providing ammunition to their enemies, who are sitting comfortably on the fence for such incidents to be used for political gains.

It is strange that while the National Organiser of the NPP, Mr. Lord Commey and the Ashanti Chairman of the Council of Elders, Mr. Akenten Appiah Menkah fully support the imposition of winnable candidates, the Ashanti Regional Chairman, Mr. Robert Yaw Owusu and the Second National Vice Chairman of the party, Alhaji Abdul Rahaman Musah have stated categorically that any imposition will be over their dead bodies.

The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the party has come out clearly to debunk the statement of Mr. Appiah Menkah that 28 Members of Parliament will be retained automatically without facing any primaries. And it is this fallacy of 'Tom and Jerry' sequence that this paper is amused about.

The Chronicle is amazed at this war of attrition between top personalities of the NPP, and this is where the hard working foot soldiers are left wondering as to what is happening to their great party. What the NPP is rehearsing now is too close to a disaster and they should be very careful not to rock the boat.

The Chronicle can recollect such an imposition by the then ruling NDC which caused its defeat in the presidential and parliamentary elections out of which they are still in the opposition-wilderness and one wonders if the NPP is preparing its own political death for the 2008 elections.

The Chronicle is surprised that the NPP has not learnt from the mistakes of the NDC, for the NPP's constitution is explicit on the election of presidential and parliamentary aspirants and it is at this point that this paper wants to know whether that section in their constitution has been amended or not for the imposition of parliamentary candidates.

We have sounded the warning bell and the earlier Mac Manu comes out to stamp his authority on the issue, the better it would be for the party.

The NPP is too big for some few elements to hijack it to do their own thing. Go to the primaries for, forewarned is forearmed.