Don't vote 'skirt and blouse'

Ghanaians will go to the polls on Monday, December 7, 2020, to elect the next president (and vice president) as well as 275 members of parliament. As is the usual practice, the various political parties including, in some cases, independents are vigorously campaigning for their presidential and parliamentary candidates.

This is the time, more than any other, that political parties mobilize all their members who in turn canvas the voting public for maximum votes for electoral victory. After an acrimonious and bitterly fought party primaries, it is incumbent on political leaders to show leadership and maturity by uniting all factions of the party for the purpose of electoral victory.

It is against this background that, as a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), having contested three times as a parliamentary candidate, having been once a District Chief Executive (DCE), two terms a Member of Parliament (MP), and one term a deputy minister, I wish to call on All members and sympathisers, particularly the leadership, of the NPP in the Bibiani Anhwiaso Bekwai constituency to come together in the closing days of the 2020 campaign and push for a decisive victory for both the presidential and parliamentary candidates come December 7.

The NPP campaign message is so noble and uplifting that Ghanaians are clamouring to embrace it. What is required of us is to be seen as one united family, with no room for division and factionalism. Is it not the case that a house divided against itself cannot stand?

It is therefore disheartening to observe that there are strenuous efforts by some in the constituency to sow seeds of confusion. Some people have formed, outside of the official campaign structure, a group by the designation 4MORE4NANA, whose ostensible objective is to campaign for the president, but which in reality is meant to campaign against the parliamentary candidate, Mr. Alfred Obeng Boateng. By their utterances and actions on the ground, on-air, and on social media, it is clear they wish for the defeat of the parliamentary candidate.

I am sure these people have not reflected on the consequences of their actions: the loss of the seat to NDC! Do they know how far we have come as a party in the constituency? Do they appreciate what it will mean to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo with a parliamentary minority? For heaven's sake and for the sake of the NPP and Ghana overall, please stop it. My earnest appeal to those involved is to use the last week ahead of us to rally behind our party candidate for him to carry the president to the victory we all desire and, indeed, deserve.

I wish to urge the Hon Member of Parliament for Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai Constituency who doubles as the Western North Regional Minister, Kingsley Aboagye-Gyedu to diffuse this unnecessary infighting and stop this shameful 'skirt-n-blouse' agenda, reminding himself that I personally held his hand throughout the constituency to introduce him to the people to vote for him.

He should magnanimously do for Alfred Obeng Boateng what I did for him without any hesitation.

I expect that in the last days of the campaign he will personally hold his hand and present him to the people at rallies and other fora to show sincerity and the MCE should likewise take a cue and extend that hand of fraternity. If they listen and carry it through, we shall all be amazed at the margin of victory which will be all ours.

We should all, especially those in leadership, realize by now that competition is meant to bring us together and not to separate and weaken us. Let us all stand strong as one and share the glory of victory together as a party.

Long live Bibiani Anhwiaso Bekwai NPP!

Long live NPP!

Long live Ghana!