NPP Neglected Us - PNC

… after helping them to win power

A presidential candidate aspirant of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Professor Yakubu Saaka, has chastised the government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for not sufficiently rewarding the PNC after the latter had given massive support to NPP in the 2000 elections during the run-off. He said political parties took decisions based on the calculation of what benefits would come to the party and that any decision that did not bring any benefit to the party was not worth taking. "Personally, I am not too happy about the way we were treated.

I don't think the PNC has benefited by giving massive support to the NPP in 2000. I think that we have not been rewarded sufficiently,” he was quoted as saying. He said others may disagree with him, but maintained that, "If one looks at the political calculations that people make, one does not make political commitment to people for nothing. Nothing is for free; it is give and take. And if you give something to somebody, he is supposed to give you something in return."

Professor Yakubu Saaka was reacting to questions when he filed his nomination to contest for the party's flagbearer position at the party’s headquarters in Accra last Tuesday afternoon. He explained that he could not submit the completed forms within the period of 24 hours as he promised when he picked his form last week because of the constitutional requirement he had to meet. The Ghanaian lecturer, who plies his trade in the U.S. A., was however happy that he had set a record by being the first candidate to pick the nomination form to contest for the position and was also the first person to submit the completed form after he had gone through all the necessary processes.

The form and the accompanying filing fee of fifty million cedis were received by Alhaji Ahmed Rahmadan, the Second Vice Chairman of the party, on behalf of the General Secretary, Mr. Gabriel Pwamang. Answering a question on to how he was going to resolve the leadership crisis that had engulfed the party with particular reference to the rift between Alhaji Ramadan and Honourable John Ndebugre, he explained that he was neutral in all the seeming factions in the party. He promised to resolve the issues amicably in the supreme interest of the party.

He also promised to resign from his job abroad and move his bag and baggage to Ghana for good if he is elected the flagbearer of the party at the end of November this year. The General Secretary of the party, Mr. Pwamang, was happy that the party was improving with regard to the way it conducted its activities, saying that was the first time candidates vying for the flagbearer position had had to go through stringent processes. He congratulated Professor Saaka for completing the form in time and hoped the campaign of all the prospective aspirants was going to be conducted in a mature manner which would focus on issues rather than personalities.