NPP is a Tribal Confederacy –Bishop

By A A Yayra

The leader and founder of the Heaven Gate Bible Mission, Bishop David Adu Betle has taken the New Patriotic Party to the cleaners describing it as a grouping that does not befit the status of a political party but a tribal coalition of elite Ashanti and Akyems whose ground agenda is to divide the country on clannish lines for their parochial interest.

According to the renowned man of God, the NPP is only creating an impression to be a political party just to get the needed votes from other tribes to consolidate the Ashanti/Akyem bloc votes it has laid it grips on firmly. “Tell me, what shows that the NPP is a political party…the group lacks a national appeal; it is widely dominated by elite Ashanti and Akyem bourgeoisies who have developed a convention that only people from the two dominant Akan groups should lead the party,” added

Speaking in an interview with The Al-Hajj, Bishop Betle noted that the constant reference to the NPP as a political party is misleading and inappropriate considering its tradition and roots in the Ashanti and Akyem areas.

He stated that the constant rift between the Ashantis and Akyems fighting for political supremacy as to which ethnic group leads the party in any election held in Ghana since the inception of multi-party democracy juxtaposes his claim. Whilst the NPP is struggling to defuse the Ashanti/Akyem tag the party has been branded with to give it an ethnic and geographical balance it needs, the party is also seems to have been divided between the Ashantis and Akyems after a stiff competition between Alan Kyeremanten who belongs to the Ashanti faction and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, an Akyem in the 2007 flag-bearer ship race.

What seems to have compounded the problem for the NPP was the infamous ‘yen akan fo’ statement made by the party’s defeated flag-bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo in the run-up to the December 7 and 8 elections.

Bishop Adu Bettle explained that “when we say a political party, we are talking of a grouping of people from diverse ethnic backgrounds that share common ideology and does not discriminate against any member on the basis of his tribes. Can the NPP prod itself of befitting to be referred to as a political party? You just consider how they treat people in their party who are not an Ashanti or Akyem?”

Touching on happenings after the just ended elections, the Bishop noted that, Nana Akufo-Addo was not destined to be president of Ghana that was why he failed to win the 2012 general elections after losing that of 2008.

According to him, the NPP’s defeat was signaled by Nana Akufo Addo’s fall on stage during a rally in Kumasi in the run up to the elections.

He remarked “the NPP should know that Ghanaians did not vote them into power because God did not create their flag bearer to be president.”

“I am sorry I have to pronounce Nana Akufo-Addo’s political obituary… As far as the spiritual world is concerned, he is politically dead and I wish him to rest in peace,” Bishop Adu Betle added

He however, advised Nana Akufo-Addo to go down on his knees and pray to God to reveal what plans he has for him, adding that “all his scheming to get the Supreme Court to pronounce him president will come to naught because President John Dramani Mahama is God’s chosen one and no man can put that asunder”