Hold your fire – Bawumia tells NPP

THE 2012 vice presidential candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has introduced what he termed as the ‘11th Commandment’ of the Bible for members of the NPP to ensure party unity.

“Thou shall not speak evil/ill of a fellow NPP member,” is the new addition to the ancient divine laws which Dr Bawumia is preaching to all NPP faithful to ensure brotherly love in the party.

Addressing party executives drawn from all 29 constituencies in the Brong Ahafo Region in Sunyani on Wednesday, Dr Bawumia, who is on a thank-you-tour on behalf of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the party’s 2012 , and other national executives, called for an end to the factionalism in the NPP.

He entreated NPP members who are eyeing various positions in the upcoming polling station, constituency, regional and national elections to be circumspect in their campaign devoid of personality attacks and insinuations so as to maintain party unity.

According to him, the interest of the NPP is much bigger than any member of the party, while charging members of the party to put aside selfish interest for the sake of the NPP.

He said without unity the NPP’s agenda of wresting power from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2016 general elections would not materialise since a house divided among itself could not stand.

Dr Bawumia informed the party executives that Nana Akufo-Addo had outlined three key things which he wanted the party to keep their eyes on to brighten the party’s fortunes of winning power in 2016.

“Number one is unity within the party. Number two is unity within the party and number three is unity within the party,” saying that without these three elements the NPP cannot come to power.

Dr Bawumia, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, National Chairman, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, General Secretary and Otiko Afisa Djaba, National Women’s Organiser were in the region to thank party supporters for their unflinching support for the party during the last elections and the eight month Supreme Court election petition.

He congratulated all NPP members across the country on a hard fought campaign and the various inputs they put into the election petition.

According the NPP 2012 running mate, though the NPP may not have won the legal victory at the Supreme Court despite the strong case it presented, the party won the moral victory.

“This shows that the NPP is the party of peace in Ghana and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has shown that he is truly a statesman contrary to the negative things our opponents said about him,” he pointed out.

On the way forward for 2016 and beyond, Dr Bawumia said Ghanaians were depending on the NPP to help rejuvenate the crippling economy, which is currently broke due to mismanagement by the Mahama administration.

He said the problem in Ghana today was not about resources but about the management of the resources, and this was the more reason why the NPP should put its house in order to assume power in 2016 to better manage the shattered economy, since the party had the best materials to do so.

The National Chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, said the NPP had a great plan for Ghana and could execute it only when they were in government.

He said the NPP had not given up the struggle to replace the NDC government and called on all members of the party to come together to achieve this common objective of the party.

Mr. Obetsebi Lamptey indicated that Ghanaians were sick and tired of the NPP tearing itself apart and leaving the NDC to continue to mismanage the economy due to the struggle for internal positions.

He said the NPP was a democratic party and therefore urged all members to stick to its democratic principles in the jostling for positions in the party.

The National Women’s Organiser, Otiko Djaba, encouraged party people to wipe out their tears after losing the court judgement and fight into the future with pride because the party had done a yeoman’s job to consolidate the peace of the country.

She urged them to unite their ranks, saying that “If we are ready for 2016 then we must forget the pettiness.”

She seized the opportunity to thank all women in the party for their prayer support throughout the period, indicating that the fact that they lost didn’t mean that God did not hear their prayers because the battle was still the Lord’s.

The Brong Ahafo Regional Chairman, Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, stated that there was no leadership crisis in the NPP since the party constitution stated that the National Chairman was the leader of the party.

He refuted rumours that the party leadership was trying to impose a particular person on the party as its flagbearer for the 2016 election since the NPP believed in the rule of law and internal democracy.

Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh, therefore, called for a stop to all accusations in the party, adding that anybody at all in the party could become its flagbearer in 2016.