By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Friday, December 4, 2015
Folks, I have followed developments at the NDC front well enough to know that what Ade Coker and the Greater-Accra Regional leaders of the NDC are doing to Sam George (winner of the primaries in the Ningo-Prampram area) and Honourable Namoale (incumbent NDC MP for La Dade Kotopon and winner of the recent primaries there) will definitely plunge the NDC into needless trouble. Ade Coker and his gang must be stopped right-away in their tracks before what they have planted grows to cause havoc.
Why are some of these NDC officials so lazy upstairs to know that the trouble that they trigger at the constituency level will eventually tear the party's ranks apart?
This very Ade Coker mobilized and led a team of military personnel to Ningo to cause confusion, apparently because he supported the spent horse E.T. Mensah and feared his defeat at the hands of Sam George. And it happened. Now, he is manipulating the situation to cause more trouble.
If Ade Coker and Co. were really interested in seeking the welfare of the NDC in that constituency, they would have known long before the primaries that E.T. Mensah was a liability to the party. His constantly bad relationship with the chiefs and large segments of the society in the constituency sent warning signals long ago but Coker and Co. failed to see them to know how to patch differences. The chiefs and people had already vowed to "teach E.T. Mensah a bitter lesson" at the 2012 polls. By a slight quirk of circumstances, however, he won the seat even though the NPP candidate did well; but retaining him for Election 2016 won't work this time. That's why George's victory over him should be regarded as a timely change for the betterment of the party there.
Suspending Sam George just because he made utterances interpreted as demeaning is neither here nor there. He made those utterances in the heat of the confusion that Ade Coker and others were causing. In other words, whatever prompted George's utterance can be traced back to the provocation caused by Coker and Co. Turning round to suspend him on that score is just a mere attempt to undermine him and cause disaffection among his supporters. How can the NDC benefit from this untoward situation?
The same applies to Namoale. The allegations used to suspend him are baseless and should be condemned. Unless the NDC wants to lose its support base in that part of the Greater-Accra Region, it should get Ade Coker and Co. out of the way for peace to prevail.
After the bitterness that occasioned the primaries in some of the constituencies, it is time for peace-making and strengthening of ranks, not the kind of stupidity that Ade Coker has initiated.
The reaction of the NDC national leaders to this development is another cause for concern. They are saying that the allegations against George and Namoale are being reviewed and that they haven't been suspended.
I want to tell them straight to their face that they are treading on dangerous grounds to behave like the NPP people. Suspending winners of primaries won't help the party's cause. Are these NDC leaders so mindless of where the party stands?
I strongly wish that the fence-mending efforts will begin immediately to restore sanity into the party's ranks in the troubled constituencies. This is the time for reason to prevail over useless sentiments wrought by senseless animosity toward the real trench-workers of the party.
What is Ade Coker himself worth to the NDC? How many voters can he grab or win over for the NDC to warrant his doing things to erode the party's support base? His foolish manouevres shouldn't be tolerated at all. When it comes to the crunch, he should rather be shown the exit.
I shall return…
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