Preserving our tradition, renewing dialogue and building the NPP for the next generation

Some 78 years ago, on August 4, 1947, a group of determined men met in Saltpond, in the Central Region of Ghana, to develop modalities to initiate the process of self-government as quickly as possible. This is the beginning of the United Gold Coast Convention.

On that seminal day, these great men of former times, amongst them, but not limited to, were Joseph Boakye Danquah (JB Danquah), George Alfred Grant (Paa Grant), RA Awoonor Williams, Edward Akufo-Addo, and a host of others, who began to incubate the governance architecture of Ghana.

They had no guns at the time. Their only weapon was advocacy through public gatherings. Within a short time, the then Gold Coast felt their presence, and people began to see through their vision of an independent Ghana.

Gold Coast was debated out of colonial and imperial control to pave the way for Ghanaians to assume the reins of government.

Paa Grant and his colleagues' words were well-cultured and well-captured, and so powerful that the colonial masters bowed to the pressure to grant the Gold Coast independence through the leadership of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who left the United Gold Coast Convention.

A conversation that began on 7 April 2019 with nine people, namely Richard Gyamfi (NPP UK Branch Youth Organizer at the time), Fiifi Noonoo ( former NPP Swindon Chapter Chairman), Kofi Barimah, Albert K Sekyere, Shirley Kumi Barimah, Kennedy Wiruh, Emmanuel Domena, Yaw Adu, and Douglas Osei-Appauh, culminated in the formation and subsequent inauguration of NPP Bristol Chapter on 18 October 2020.

As a Chapter, we have been actively involved, investing time and resources to advance the course of our dear Party notably in the elections of 2020 and 2024. Our frontiers have expanded, so that a gathering of nine people has turned into a family of hundreds in 2025.

It is apt to single out the Chapter's Chairman, Kofi Barimah, whose exemplary leadership and unparalleled commitment to the Chapter's growth have endeared many to us.

Chairman Barimah’s team of executives and members should be recognized for their unwavering commitment to the chapter's and the mother party's activities.

As we celebrate our 5th anniversary with the theme ‘Arise, let’s build together’, we remember the tradition that has sustained the belief and vision of the great men of yore who gathered in Saltpond many years ago.

They believed in nation-building through dialogue and debate because group dynamism is an avenue for sustainable growth and development that every thriving nation must strive for.

It is unfortunate to say that this culture of openness and debate in NPP has drifted into insults and recriminations, as if the party were a theatre for rogues. Conflict of ideas is now misconstrued as antagonism: we can no longer debate ourselves out of difficult situations as our forbearers did.

Some party members talk as if there is no elder in the NPP. We are losing the spark that hitherto made the party a novelty for those who want to associate with it.

To this end, and as part of our 5th anniversary, the Bristol Chapter is running a series of programs with young talents in our ranks and students in the surrounding universities to teach the younger generation the history of NPP and what we stand for, for a people who do not know where they are coming from will certainly not know where they are going.

The Bristol Chapter will be a breeding ground for intellectualism: a hub where a panoply of ideas is cultivated to safeguard NPP's future.

Suppose Professor Albert Adu Boahen is associated with breaking the culture of silence with a series of lectures titled “The Ghanaian Sphinx” in February 1998, at a time when Rawlings’s environment could barely allow dissenting views.

What will the current leadership and the future of our party be likened to? The rowing should be tamed to restore our party to its basics.