Reliable information crisscrossing the entire United Kingdom is that there is severe tension and general discontent among the Communications Team of the NPP-UK and Ireland and if immediate steps are not taken to calm tempers down, the negative consequences of the action taken by members of the Communications Team would be so dear for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to pay in 2012.
It was not for nothing that the NPP incorporated the Communications Directorate in its recent Electoral Reforms and thus ensured that every constituency and external branch of the party set up a communications team. However, the attitude of the Communications Director of the UK and Ireland who prefers to call himself the Communications Officer – Michael Nana Yaw Sarpong has let to this sad situation. According to a very reliable source this guy whose appointment was made possible by the Branch Chairman – Hayford Atta-Krufi, is not only using divide and rule tactics to run the directorate but there are many series of malfeasance which could only be eliminated by Ghana’s Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO).
Upon the assumption of reigns of the directorate, Nana Yaw Sarpong extended invitation to over 15 members to help him run his office. Among such committed members who accepted the invitation were Peter Antwi of Ramford, Katakyie Kwame Opoku Agyemang of Hull, Obaa Yaa of Daltson, Yaw Twum Barimah of Thamesmead, Kwame Homerton, Piesie of Manchester, Naana of Woolwich, Awura Akua of Germany, Issah, Raymond Taylor, among others. In fact, the Ghanaian community in Europe, including members of the political divide will attest to the excellent communication work done by these patriotic members as regards the propagation of the NPP’s message of hope to Ghanaians. They patriotic communicators have also attacked and counter-attacked the propaganda machinery of the NDC on all the Radio Stations in the UK – Rainbow Radio, Radio Focus, Naspa Radio, Hot Digital, WBLS and even Highlife Radio in the US. The educative articles written by the likes of Katakyie Opoku Agyemang and Peter Antwi in the Ghanaian media over the past two years cannot be over-emphasized and this has attracted a lot of sympathizers to the party in Europe.
However, it seems the noble role being played by these “Asonomma” communicators in the UK Branch is going unnoticed by the powers that be. The so-called Communications Officer – Nana Yaw Sarpong is toying with the office he is holding and all indications show that he has no clue to his job role.
Among the issues of concern raised against Nana Yaw Sarpong are as follows:
• He has not bothered to account for all the finances that go into the directorate’s coffers to his team of officers.
• He has not disclosed the source of funding of the directorate to the rest of the communication team.
• He has been soliciting funds from the Branch’s Executive with the pretence of funding the activities of the team members but the funds end up in his own pocket.
• He has not been able to provide the names of serial callers he claims to send £300 every quarter to in Ghana.
• He makes unilateral decisions with regard to meeting times and dates and selection of members to represent the party on radio programmes and press conferences.
• It is alleged that he is flirting with one of the female communicators who is nurturing a parliamentary ambition in Ashanti Region.
• He is said to be making advances to some of the overseas married women in the communications group until he met the wrath of the husband of one of such women before his German trip.
• He writes articles in the name of the External Branch and NPP as a whole on controversial issues with series of grammatical errors and without sometimes any substance. Somebody described him as a JHS writer.
• It is alleged that he was once warned by the General Secretary of the NPP – Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie (a.k.a. Sir John) to desist from writing such articles until approved by the national headquarters. No wonder an article was written by an unknown member of the UK Branch to get Sir John out of his job.
• He led the Communications team to boycott radio programmes on Radio Focus – UK, for a week in May, 2011 without any justifiable cause. He is too bossy and always wants to dictates to radio presenters as to how their morning show programmes should be run.
• He is not articulate and his submissions and analysis on radio programmes leave much to be desired. Many callers even wonder how he managed to secure his position in view of the abundance of many qualified men and women in the Branch.
• He has hijacked the Communications Team and made one Andy Owusu, who joined the party in January, 2011 the unofficial ‘deputy’ Communications Officer to satisfy his own whims and caprices. A source revealed to me that he is currently sitting on a wedding invitation card of a radio presenter meant for the whole team without disclosing the information to rest.
• The last straw that broke the camel’s back is his failure to introduce the Communications Team at the recent gathering at Dominion Centre, where the party’s flag-bearer Nana Akufo-Addo interacted with Ghanaians in the UK about his vision for Ghana.
In effect, Nana Yaw Sarpong has brought the whole communication set-up of the branch into a standstill and this, the NDC serial callers have capitalised on it to launch scathing attacks on the party’s flag-bearer without equal measure of defence from the NPP communications team. As a party sympathiser, I will urge the NPP-UK to revoke the appointment of Nana Yaw Sarpong as the Communications Director for a more competent person to hold the forth. This will bring unity in the group and motivate the rest of the members to match the NDC boot for boot, bumper to bumper and fire for fire.
God bless Ghana! God bless NPP!!
Nanaba Yeboah
nanabayeboah@yahoo.co.uk 07930744790
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