NPP Congress: Dec 6 is either tentative or there's no date!

From all observations and discussions within and outside of the Ghanaian media, it is very obvious that many Ghanaians if not most are keenly waiting in anticipation of who becomes the flag bearer of the opposition NPP. This is understandable because the NPP is the only party with the realistic threats to unseat the failed NDC.

So heated have the debates leading up to the opening of nominations for the flagbearership contest become, that it is threatening to be ugly if not checked. The persons with the requisite mandate to check the growing internal attacks which has the ability to mar the entire process and tar the eventual flagbearer's image are increasingly becoming part of the problem. These are the newly elected officers of the party especially at the national level.

Actions and omissions of our new party leaders are being closely observed and the perception that they are there to do the bidding of their sponsors are increasingly looking like the reality.

From bits of information picked from party steering committee, national executive committee and national council meeting proceedings, the agenda to frustrate the entire process leading up to congress to the disadvantage of a particular candidate who is widely expected to win the contest by a landslide even before the polls are held seems to be the cause of some newly elected executives. Makes one begin to understand the plot as explained by party chieftain Rtd. Brig Odei in his recently publicized article where he said there was an evil plot to ensure Nana Akufo-Addo does not make it through the party's presidential primaries.

In the name of sticking to the party constitution which is obviously being misinterpreted by some of these guys, chairman Afoko was attempting to vary the convention that has been used to constitute the party's National Council since the party's formation. You ask yourself why?

To the point that even when his arguments had been invalidated by superior arguments at one of the NEC meetings paving the way to recognize the regional appointees as due members of the National Council, Paul Afoko is said to have raised his old invalidated arguments once again at the last NEC meeting at Alisa Hotels as a grounds to prevent the meeting of National Council since according to him, the body was not yet fully composed.

We all now know why he was bent on ensuring National Council meeting did not come on. He was trying to prevent their validation of the guidelines for the presidential primaries which included dates of nomination opening and closing, filing fees, super delegates election date, congress date and the timetable for the entire process. The thinking in the public is that there is an attempt to delay the contest as long as possible so there will be time long enough to attack and mar the candidacy of Akufo-Addo. One would ask, to what end?

The mother of all inconsistencies came from the statement supposedly issued by party general secretary Kwabena Agyapong. His statement sort to confirm to us all who were not in the meeting that no date had been firmed up as the congress date though it was not expected to go beyond 6th December, 2014 and so he rightly described the date of 6th December as a tentative one even though some of us still think he was upto a prank because there was absolutely no reason to put in that date in the statement when the National Council was to meet again on June 19 to firm up congress date and others.

The General Secretary in less than 15 hours after his statement was published was heard on air claiming that the firmed up date for congress is December 6. The civil engineer and former TV sports presenter had lost his understanding of the word 'tentative' as used and signed by him in his own statement.

All these inconsistencies and efforts betray one thing....these persons are serving the interest of other persons other than the party.

The party constitution is very clear and reinforced by precedence and conventions as to when our party elects a flagbearer. Not later than 24 months to the general election when the party is in opposition is not too difficult to understand. So we could have had a flagbearer say 6 months ago and it would have been consistent with the party's constitution.

And nominations can be opened anytime and the closing of such specified but shall not be more than 5 months to the holding of the election meaning it can be less than five months. To this extent, holding the election earlier than 6th December is right and very consistent with party's constitution. The date being prescribed by the general secretary will invalidate the constitution assuming we do not have a clear winner with 50% +1 and we have to print new ballot papers and go into a run off. Again, the party needs to focus and monitor the December district assembly elections and also the expected referendum on the constitutional amendments.

So far as the National Council has not considered and approved of a date for the congress as the official statement from the General Secretary spells out, it will be wrong for one person to unilaterally decide and impose a date as suits him on the rest of the party when the person has no such powers. And with the growing expression of intolerance from supporters of the various aspiring candidates, why on earth will anyone want to delay the congress? Are we doing that to ensure we self-destruct even before the general election in 2016? Let's get it over and done with and focus on check mating the incompetent NDC Ghanaians are anxiously waiting for us to kick out.

Acka-Nyanzu Blay-Miezah

Axim, Evalue-Gwira

ackablaymiezah@gmail.com

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