NPP Chairman, Stephen Ayesu Ntim
Dear Chairman Ntim,
I do not think it is necessary to remind you that the two of us have been friends through our mutual membership in the New Patriotic Party for several years now. It was because of this long-standing relationship between the two of us that I penned you an open letter on July 30, 2022, when you were finally elected the party’s chairman that year.
Because of my close relationship with you, I was aware of your struggles over the years to become the chairman of the party and the specific role current members of the presidency played in preventing you from attaining your goal of leading the party as its national chairman.
It was within the context of my relationship with you, the history and circumstances of your feud with the Akufo-Addo gang, and the timing of your ascendancy as the National Chairman of the NPP that I wrote you that letter. My epistle to you was to advise you, as a good friend, on the way forward for your chairmanship and the legacy you sought to leave behind for posterity.
I knew you had only two years to take the party to the crucial 2024 elections with the telegraphing of the party’s mantra of “Breaking the Eight.”. Because the sine qua non of any political party is to win and retain power, I knew that in the two years you had at your disposal to prepare the party for the 2024 electoral contest, you would spend your time towards that end.
But, Chairman, in my letter to you, I also drew your attention to the fact that political parties strive to win political power; winning power is not the only variable in the equation. Specifically, I made you aware of the fact that while winning political power is the ultimate goal, you would also need to consider the means to that end, which, under the circumstances, was a fractured political
party.
No clear-thinking Ghanaian, let alone an NPP member, will deny the fact that the party that was left by J.A. Kufuor is a mere shadow of its former self now due to two main factors. First of all, the party that elected you to lead as chairman had become the most unattractive political grouping in the country at the time you became its chairman due to Nana Akufo-Addo’s misrule and rampant
corruption, and economic meltdown.
Secondly, the NPP has become splintered internally due to the retributive, hateful, and vengeful nature of the current leaders, who have succeeded in marginalizing competent and well-educated members of the party who, to them, are antithetical to their goal of raping the country of its resources.
Because of these prevailing factors at the time of your election as chairman, I knew that even though you were aware of the problem of disunity in the party through the attitudes and behaviors you are now talking about, you were going to preoccupy yourself with the problem of leading the party to an electoral victory in 2024.
This is why I titled my open letter to you two years ago, “Spreading Yourself Too Thin Will Spell Your Doom.” For the avoidance of doubt, let me quote the relevant parts of my letter to you: “As a party chairman, it is natural for the party membership to expect that you and your team would be duty-bound to embrace these two job descriptions (winning the 2024 elections and reorganizing the party).
Ideally, this expectation would not be too far-fetched because the raison d'être of every political party is to organize the party efficiently and effectively to win political power. Chief, truth be told, the hallmark of the NPP since 2016 has been the politics of exclusivity and the dismantling of the broad coalition that J.A. Kufuor built to win power for the party after more than 30 years in the political wilderness.”
In short, my advice to you was that given the disappointment of Ghanaians regarding the misrule of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration in terms of the runaway corruption, economic management, and marginalization of competent members of the party, nothing short of a miracle would guarantee the retention of power by the party.
I concluded that epistle by admonishing you to preoccupy yourself with re-organizing the party by jettisoning the factionalist tendencies and the heightening arrogance of those we have entrusted with power. The flipside of this task is to reconcile the divergent interests in the party by bringing on
board members who have “resigned from the party in their hearts," to borrow a line from the Hon. Boakye Agyarko.
Chairman, I wrote this letter to you two years ago, and the circumstances under which I made those observations and suggestions remain the same, if not worse. The economy is still in the doldrums, as indicated by the worsening exchange rate, excessive borrowing, and thievery from the public purse, contrary to what we promised Ghanaians before we earned their trust. Meanwhile, corruption is rife, as if there is no tomorrow.
Above all, there seems to be an inverse relationship between the management of the economy on one hand, and corruption and arrogance of power, on the other hand. As economic conditions worsen, corruption and arrogance by those in leadership tend to increase. Our leaders are so out of their depths that their solution to the problems is to retreat by laying back and being arrogant.
Chairman, my question to you is, why did the party have to lose a crucial by-election in Assin North and nearly lose another one in Ejisu in its stronghold before realizing that certain "attitudes” have to change before the party can put up a formidable fight in the impending December electoral battle?
Because of the circumstances under which you came to be the National Chairman, many compatriots thought that your presence would be a game-changer in shifting the center of power back from the government to the party, as was the case in our recent past. However, our hopes have been dashed by your co-optation by the executive.
Specifically, those of our members who expected you to shift the pendulum of power and control back to the party have all given up that hope because of your uncommon accommodation of the executive; you seem to have cozied up to the very people who had persecuted you and prevented you from leading the party for a long time.
Chairman, making overtures to the Hon. Aduomi of Ejisu and the thousands of members and Ghanaians as a whole who are disillusioned by the current state of affairs in the party and government is unfortunately too late to alter the fate of the party in the impending general elections. While you mentioned that your focus now is going to be on “attitudes” in the party that have alienated a large number of our members, you may have forgotten the bulk of Ghanaians who have
been discouraged from sympathizing with the party because of the heightened arrogance and the wanton display of wealth by the current crop of our leaders.
It is a truism that some members resigned from the party of their own volition, but the vast majority were expelled from the party while you looked on as the National Chairman! Specifically, Alan Kyerematen resigned of his own volition, but the party expelled the likes of Nana Ohene Ntow, Hopeson Adoye, and Buaben Asamoah without your intervention.
Chairman, it is needless to say that the chieftaincy is an intensely political institution because it was the main center of power before the modern state came into being. Chiefly power and authority have been the mainstay of our party’s strength from its inception until now, since almost all our founding fathers were all from royalty.
And to the extent that the individual African’s primary loyalty lies with the ethnic group to which they belong, this primordial institution holds sway over his/her attitudes and behaviors in the modern state because chieftaincy is their first line of loyalty before the state.
Ghanaians love and respect their chiefs, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Kwasi Pratt could not have put it better recently when he said that the president’s utterances and behaviors are making Ghanaians angry. This statement came on the heels of an occasion in the Oti Region where the president asked the chiefs at an event to stand up before greeting him.
A similar situation arose in the Savanna Region last week, where the president asked the Yagbonwura to stand up before greeting him. However, this time around, the request was rejected by the King and his subjects.
How can a president whose pedigree is royalty incur the wrath of the people by disrespecting chiefs in a country where every ethnic group adores the institution of chieftaincy?
This is indeed the height of arrogance, yet as the National Chairman, you have failed to call the president to order. When the party was in opposition, we all saw how people scrambled to greet this president, so why does he have to ask people to stand up now? The answer lies in “disappointed expectations.” If you lie to win power, your character and incompetence will expose you!
Chairman, besides the problem of reconciling members within the party and the president’s arrogant exercise of executive power, the issue of the public display of unexplained wealth by members of the party, most especially the up-and-coming leaders, who are throwing lavish, so-called birthday parties that respected elders of the party are patronizing, ought to be addressed.
You would agree with me that these attitudes and behaviors come at a time when the majority of Ghanaians are wallowing in abject poverty and are therefore looking for scapegoats for their plight.
In conclusion, let me say that the task ahead of breaking the so-called “Eight” is an arduous one, and it is becoming more difficult for a president who, like most Shakespearean tragedies, is going “rogue” by the champagne of power.
Again, my humble counsel is to keep focusing on the noble goal of rebuilding the party that has been shattered beyond recognition by the attitudes and behaviors of those in charge now. Best wishes, my good friend.
