Fire on the mountain

NPP USA I hear is on fire and the fire brigade hasn’t been able to put out the flame. Funnily enough, their cousins on the other side of the Atlantic who could have helped are nearly burnt to ashes. Yes, the UK branch is frying like ‘’kelewele”. At a time when the NPP has to be vigilant, the love for power struggle is tearing them apart to the detriment of their 2016 campaign.

Till now it seems another Diaspora giant, Germany is brewing to explode. All may seem quite and cool because all the candidates are campaigning vigorously on the Social Media and elsewhere, the truth on the ground is, it is something that needs our due attention in order to forestall any explosion.

I am particularly interested in the race for the person who leads the Germany branch. The incumbent Mr. Samuel Dwamena-Yeboah who for the past 20 years has done a yeoman’s job is stepping down and one of two men is poised to lead the party over there. These are Mr. Alhassan Yakubu Tali a banker who is from the NRW (North Rhein Westfallen) chapter and Mr. Clement Brako Akomea a Business Intelligence Consultant who is from the Hamburg chapter.

Looking at the posters they have splashed on the Social Media, the notion that one gets is one of a clean campaign, but it sure is not a clean one. It is one of manipulation and under-hand dealings and the constituted Electoral Commission is not concerned and Mr. Dwamena-Yeboah is deeply worried that he may have to hand over to someone who was not genuinely elected, I think.

Please read on. The main issue which has made many chapters such as Bremen, Munich and Hamburg disillusioned is that the NRW chapter has registered over 70 people. Sources have it that one of the contenders paid their registration fee for them to enable them vote for him. That is the very reason why Bremen, a very potent chapter has withdrawn from the congress. I hear many chapters are poised to follow suit and withdraw because Mr. Tali is also using the Nana Addo ladies club to fulfil his secret and unholy agenda. What baffles many is that, he wants the chairmanship position to further his ambition of becoming a Member of Parliament for Tolon constituency and the question being asked is, when he finally becomes an MP, who then would be available to Chair the party in Germany?

What has aggravated the situation is that, Mr. Tali is the Vice Chairman of NPP Germany. To many, they didn’t see his contribution when he was the deputy. The claim is that he wasn’t even attending national meetings and whenever he did he was there for a short period and complained that his battery was running out. What wonders them is how the same person in the run up to the upcoming National Congress has been present at any meeting, even to the extent of calling for a national meeting without the consent of the Chairman.

Funnily enough, many expected people like Mr. Kwaku Appiah the current General Secretary who is a school mate of Mr. Tali and Mr. Kwaku Anane-Gyinde the Communication Director to stop the agenda of Mr. Alhassan Tali but they rather are pushing this unholy agenda down the throat of the people. The question many are asking is; what do they stand to gain? It is reported that Mr Anane-Gyinde a self-acclaimed lawyer should know better. I am by this article calling on the NPP Director of International Affairs, Mr. Charles Owiredu and the incumbent Chairman Mr. Dwamena-Yeboah to stamp their authority on what is going on. They should, in my opinion, stop the congress all together and put in place an electoral college to do the voting. With this, each chapter gets to send delegates to go and vote. They should also allow postal and electronic voting; after all we are in the age of technology. By this, I am calling on the Electoral Commission to not only look at the financial gains, but at the wider picture. The wider picture is not the immediate money that they will get from the registrations but the future of the group. What would they have achieved if the group disintegrates after the congress?

What many don’t even know regarding the upcoming congress is that Mr. Alhassan Tali has already been disqualified due to a technicality. The constitution governing the election states that “there shall be no election but acclamation in positions with one candidate”. Also, the “Chairman, National Secretary and the Financial Secretary cannot be from the same chapter”.

Under law, since the National Secretary and the Financial Secretary are the only contenders in their respective positions, they all have already won and should be acclaimed as such. This disqualifies Mr. Tali since he is from the same chapter as the Financial Secretary. Many people I have spoken to know this technicality but are still insisting the right thing is done since the NPP believes in true democracy. Some argue that even if all 72 votes go to Mr. Tali, there still remain 98 votes which Mr. Akomea is likely to take.

And if the congress is to happen as scheduled, Mr. Alhassan Tali should know that when he uses dubious means to win the contest, it would be a dent on his hard won reputation as a Banker, a Politician and a Family Man. Let him go to the congress with a clean conscience and win cleanly than this communist inferior tactics. I rest my case. Mohammed Kabiru.

A distant observer

kabirumohammed.mk@gmail.com