TAKING UP DR PAA KWESI NDUOM’S CHALLENGE – PART 2
My aim in Part 2 of this article is to refute the oft-repeated false claims Dr Nduom and his supporters have been making about landmark events in the CPP in recent years. I intend to demonstrate that Dr Nduom’s version of events is not a slip of the tongue, but a deliberate misrepresentation of the facts.
For a variety of reasons individuals in powerful positions in the CPP have not been able to publicly defend the truth thus allowing falsehood to fester. I therefore believe that those of who adhere to the principle s of Nkrumaism owe it a duty to the movement at large to correct the misrepresentations about the history of the Party in recent times..
It is not my intention to malign or impugn the integrity of Dr Nduom. If, however, the facts as stated in this article paint a negative picture him, then the blame should be placed squarely at the door step of Dr Nduom.
Dr Nduom’s Ministerial Appointment One of the commonest claims Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom has made on umpteenth occasions is that his appointment in President Kufuor’s government in 2001 had the blessing of the CPP hierarchy.
When Mr Felix Amoah, Dr Nduom’s campaign manager, launched Nduom’s presidential campaign at a p ress conference in Accra, he claimed erroneously that it was Dr Edmund Delle wqho as Chairman of the Party who approved Nduom’s appointment in the NPP government. How can Felix Amoah forget the history of the Party of which he was once a Vice-Chairman? The Chairman and Leader of the CPP in 2001 was Dr Abubakar Al-Hassan, not Dr Delle who became Chairman in 2003.
It may be recalled that one of the first decisions taken by the in-coming NPP administration in January 2001 was the appointment of a transitional team. Dr Nduom, without the consent of the CPP, was named as a member of the team. The announcement generated protestations within CPP circles. To cool CPP tempers, the newly-appointed Chief of Staff, Jake Okanta Obetsebi-Lamptey, wrote to the then CPP Chairman, Dr Abubakar Al-Hassan, asking him to ‘release’ Dr Nduom to serve in the team.
The same day Dr Al-Hassan received Jake’s letter, the CPP Central Committee had been scheduled to meet in Accra. At the meeting, the Committee discussed at length whether or not members of the CPP should accept positions within the new government. It was unanimously agreed that no member of the CPP should accept a ministerial or high ranking position in the Kufuor government. First, it was argued that the leadership of the Party could not justify a decision to the contrary. Second, it was pointed out that the two Parties had different programmes. However, it was agreed that the CPP should accept a limited number of District Chief Executive positions to help rebuild the Party structures at the grassroots.
By and large, the memorandum of understanding the two Parties had agreed prior to the run-off of the Presidential election on 28th December 2000 became abrogated by reason of non-implementation. Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom’s involvement in the NPP government from 2001 was therefore a personal decision that was not approved by the CPP leadership at any time.
Dr Nduom’s Denial of the Skirt and Blouse Politics Dr Nduom has consistently denied campaigning against CPP candidates in the 2004 elections, in contravention of the Constitution of the CPP.
Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Freddie Blay and Kojo Armah, all CPP parliamentary candidates entered into personal agreements with the NPP for the 2004 elections under which the NPP would not field candidates in the three constituencies thus allowing the three CPP candidates a free run against the NDC. In return the three CPP candidates would canvass support for President Kufuor in the presidential race. This became known as the ‘skirt and blouse’ voting system in Ghanaian politics.
Thus all three CPP parliamentary candidates campaigned for President Kufuor against George Opesika Aggudey, the CPP candidate in the presidential election. As part of their campaign, the three candidates printed posters and ‘T’ shirts depicting their photographs and that of President Kufuor.
In the Cape Coast constituency, for example, Dr Nduom campaigned for the NPP parliamentary candidate, Christine Churcher, against the CPP candidate, Araba Bentsi-Enchill. According to an interview Ms Bentsi-Enchill granted The Chronicle that was published in its edition of 27th January 2006, Dr Nduom shared the same platform with Ms Churcher.
Dr Nduom on the Aggudey Votes Any time Dr Nduom has come under attack for his ‘skirt and blouse’ politics, he has falsely claimed that George Aggudey’s got his highest vote in any constituency in the country in Nduom’s KEEA constituency, and that this was more than Aggudey got in his own Sege constituency.
According to the published results of the 2004 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections , George Aggudey obtained 2,381 votes in the KEEA constituency and 1,074 votes in the Sege constituency. However, Aggudey highest vote was in the Mion constituency in the Northern Region where he got 3,757 votes representing 12% of the popular votes. In percentage terms the 1,074 votes Aggudey got in the Sege constituency amounted to 6.5%, which is higher that the 5.28% Aggudey (2,381 votes) got in the KEEA constituency.
The Formation of a new Political Party There has been a lot of speculation about whether or not Dr Nduom considered forming his own political party, although he has not been bold enough to speak candidly on the subject to date.
In my opinion, one can only get an insight into this conundrum if one looks at it vis-à-vis Dr Nduom’s presidential ambition.
In 2005, Dr Nduom commissioned a paper titled “Is there a need for a New Party?” He used this paper to call a closed conference at his Coconut Grove Regency Hotel in Accra on 2nd December 2005. The objective was to discuss arrangements and structures for the formation of a new political party, headed by him.
A careful analysis of the events that unfolded from 2005 onwards indicate clearly that while Dr Nduom was primarily interested in forming his own party, he was smart enough to keep his options opened. In the initial stages he sought to recruit individuals with the capacity for organizational work, regardless of their political persuasion. This was to ensure that Nduom attracted a mass following cutting across political, ethnic, social, religion boundaries.
Dr Nduom was quick to understand that to achieve his overriding political ambition to become a President, he had to build a political organization of h is own that would be responsible to him and unimpeded by the nuisance and bureaucracies of mass political organizations. Dr Nduom therefore started building his own organization called the ‘Movement’, cells of which started springing up throughout the country. The privileges of his ministerial offices and personal wealth provided the resources needed for this Herculean task..
The most far-reaching venture Dr Nduom undertook was the extent to which was he was prepared to publicly undermine and discredit the leadership of the CPP as a prerequisite for advancing his own political career and shoring up his persona.
Following the CPP National Executive Committee meeting on 10th November 2005, Dr Nduom granted a revealing interview to the Ghana News Agency, which was reproduced by The Statesman of 17th November 2005. In the interview Dr Nduom insulted the Party when he stated that “the leadership of the Party is not the best. It is difficult to be led by such people. It is a blot on the record of the CPP.” He also said in the20same interview that the leadership had “proved their inability to bring to a logical conclusion discussions on a pertinent issue such as the unity talks. All our members showed enthusiasm. The youth were represented and the ground was prepared for a full discussion. But the Chairman and his colleagues announced that the discussions on the unity with the PNC were inconclusive and ended the meeting abruptly.”
This is one of the most dishonest claims I have ever come across. This is because contrary to Dr Nduom’s assertions, the Chairman of the Party, Dr Delle gave a report on the steps taken to cement the merger with the PNC. In fact, the meeting did not end abruptly as claimed by Nduom; it ended with the adoption of a motion accepting the merger in principle, and for residual issues like the symbol and motto to be considered at a later date.
It should be placed on record that Dr Nduom opposed the CPP/PNC merger at the NEC meeting. Indeed, it is possible to discern the underlying reasons for Dr Nduom’s opposition to the merg er. The smaller the CPP, the better it is to manipulate it and use it to achieve personal, parochial political objectives. On the contrary, a bigger, larger Nkrumaist movement offered Dr Nduom no guarantee of automatic leadership. Besides, he was not certain of using the Party to do his bidding.
Political developments inside and outside of the CPP from December 2005 onwards compelled Dr Nduom to jettison the idea of forming a new political party. The debacle at the congress of the National Democratic Congress in Koforidua in December 2005 and the defection of the Obed Asamoah group from the NDC to form the Democratic Freedom Party must have come as bad news for the Nduom group. Initially, the Nduom group, who were by then far advanced with their plans to form a new party, sought an accommodation with the Obed Asamoah group. However, the cordial relationship between the two groups floundered on account of struggle for leadership positions, resulting in the defeat of the Nduom group.
But significantly, the emergence of the DFP on the political scene, with a=2 0centrist neo-liberal ideology, crowded the political terrain. An Nduom political party would be sharing the same ideology and appealing to the same constituency as the DFP.
Around the same time, a group called the Patriots had emerged in the CPP.. Like the Nduom group, the Patriots wanted to take to control of the party apparatus. In this vein they became competitors, but not necessarily opponents because the two groups shared the same membership in certain instances..
Thus while Nduom was privately promoting his personal political ambition, he was giving vague and evasive answers to questions relating to his ambition. Hence his statement to the Statesman of 13th December 2005 that “how can you become the Presidential candidate of a party that is not on the ground?”
The Disciplinary Record of Dr Nduom In my estimation the disciplinary record of Dr Nduom is inextricably linked to his leadership ambition and the extent to which he had to undermine the leadership of the CPP to get his way. From January 2006 onwards when he decided not to form his own Party but to take over the CPP, he threw caution to the wind and attacked the leadership of the Party indiscriminately. For example, in an interview published in the Daily Graphic on 9th January 2006, Dr Nduom stated how frustrated he was by the lack of good leadership to manage the affairs of the CPP. In the same interview he gave the Party an ultimatum to change its leadership by June 2006 falling which the Party should not blame anybody for either forming a new political party or joining another party.
This was the clearest indication yet that Dr Nduom was not committed to the CPP and was weighing his political options. But his threat was a mere bluff. Little did he care that the Delle administration was elected at a congress of the Party in 2003 for a four-year term. Why would a so-called liberal or Democrat wan t to stage a coup to oust a democratically elected leadership on account of a narrow parochial ambition to be the leader of the party? It is only opportunistic politicians blinded by their inordinate thirst for power who would sacrifice the wider interest of the party to pursue an unbridled political ambition.
Indeed, Nduom made his most vitriolic attack on the Party in an interview published by the Crusading Guide on 17th January 2006 in which he claimed that “…without the three representatives in parliament the party would not exist in many ways.” He also said that the three MPs “are the ones holding the party because without us there wouldn’t be any CPP”, and further that “the party is existing because we are there and we are the ones who have won votes for the party.”
In the same interview in the Crusading Guide, Dr Nduom made a number of misleading claims which have become characteristic of him. He falsely claimed that “there is no party and there is no organization because there have=2 0been terrible traces of bad leadership.”
Indeed, he also erroneously alleged that “the leadership did not go anywhere during the 2004 elections”, and that the “bad leadership is fermenting talk of a new party.” He concluded by threatening that “if the CPP leaders do not step down there will be no CPP in 2008.” Interestingly, the CPP leaders he threatened then did not step down, but there is still a CPP today in 2008. The false prophesy must be a serious indictment on ‘Prophet’ Nduom.
But the Nduom group, which by this time has been enlarged to include his fellow two MPs, Freddie Blay and Kojo Armah, became emboldened by the weak leadership of the Delle administration, which prompted the Nduom group to call a press conference at the House of Parliament on 19th January 2006 to state what they considered to be the ‘leadership of the Parliamentarians’. In a statement titled ‘The state of CPP Political Party’ the three MPs made a number of unsubstantiated claims such as:
“…the leadership of the two parties (CPP and PNC) are fanning the negative flame of no unity, no victory in 2008.”
“…our leadership are demonstrating their inability to lead their parties to achieve our objective they themselves have loudly and proudly championed.”
“…it has been pointed out by some that having led the Party to achieve disastrous results in December 2004 elections, the leadership should have stepped down.”
“…the leadership has rather become more intolerant of opposing views on how to rejuvenate the Parties.” “…they seem content to hang on to their positions without regard to facts of the ground.”
“…we therefore call on the Leadership of the Party to resign their position so that an interim Executive can be put into place.”
But the vicious attacks by the Nduom group in on the leadership of the Party were not isolated; they were orchestrated and sought to give the impression that there was a crisis of leadership in the CPP. The conspiracy started with the resignation of the second Vice-Chairman, Mike Eghan, from his post at the beginning of the year in 2006. It was then immediately followed by carefully planned media attacks by the National Organizer, Akwasi Akoto, Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, a lecturer at the University of Ghana, and Nana Dumfeh, the Greater Accra Regional Organizer. Thus within a period of three weeks the co-ordi nated but spurious allegations against the leadership had started gaining currency.
The above attacks were unprecedented in their mischievous intent and viciousness. While the Nduom group were calling for the resignation of the Delle administration because of the bad results of the 2004 elections, the former failed to take responsibility for its role in the ‘skirt and blouse’ politics that produced the terrible results in the first instance..
When the Central Committee met in Kumasi a few days after the press conference by the three MPs, its decision that the three MPs deserved to be dismissed had the sympathy of a large section of the Party. However, like on previous occasions nothing came out of the disciplinary action because all kinds of forces inside and outside of the Party brought pressure to bear on the leadership to arrest the action.
The Benefits of the ‘Inclusive Government’ In order to justify his unpopular role in the NPP government Dr Nduom has also claimed that the ‘inclusive government’ of President Kufuor made it possible for others like Prof George Hagan and Prof Akosa to serve in government.
But the truth of the matter is that Professors Hagan and Akosa did not serve in the NPP government. Prof Hagan’s position as a member of the Board of the ECG and the Chairman of the National Commission for Culture is not akin to a ministerial portfolio.
The comparison with Prof Akosa is even worse because whilst anybody can be a Minister, especially in the NPP administration as we have seen, not anyone can be the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service. One needs to have in-depth knowledge of the medical profession and high managerial skills. Besides, Nduom did not apply for his post as a Minister, whilst Prof Akosa applied for his post which he could not have obtained without the relevant skills.
Retrieving the CPP Name and Symbol Anyone who is politically informed, or has a modicum of knowledge of Ghanaian political history should know that the struggle to retrieve the name and symbol of the CPP for political organization did not start with Nduom joining the CPP. The claim that he together with a few friends retrieved the CPP name and symbol is therefore not only false but hypocritical and cheap.
Is Nduom telling us that any thing good that happens in the CPP is because of him, just as he claims that he originated all the successes of the Kufuor government? Nduom’s father may have been a CPP organizer in the KEEA constituency, but that is as far as his CPP heritage goes. From 1966 until the CPP recla imed its name and symbol countless people contributed in diverse ways to this struggle.
Following the birth of the 4th Republic, the CPP set up a team of lawyers, including good old Johnny Hansen and Freddie to use the legal system to reclaim the CPP name and symbol. Before the matter could be adjudicated upon in the law courts, the Political Parties Law was repealed thus paving the way for followers of Osagyefo to start organizing under the name of the CPP.
I do not therefore understand where Dr Nduom comes in here, unless he can come up with some tangible explanation.
Representative of American Interest in Ghana One of the most obnoxious claims made by Dr Nduom is that he represents American interest in Ghana.
In the world of foreign and diplomatic relations every country is represented abroad by an Ambassador or a High Commissioner who is a normally citizen of that country. Until a few weeks ago, the American Ambassador in Ghana was Ms Pamela Bridgewater, who can be said officially to represent American interest in Ghana.
Not even Dr J. B. Danquah in his days of subverting the Nkrumah regime, as a paid CIA agent, ever claimed to represent American interests in Ghana. Maybe Nduom has a status higher than a CIA agent that we do not know of otherwise he cannot make such baseless claims.
Is it not the case that if we should vote for someone who is represents American interests in Ghana, the person would end up ha nding over Ghana’s interest wholesale to the Americans? Is Nduom not making himself a laughing stock by such ridiculous claims?
Supporting the Party During the years that Nduom spent his time, energy and resources supporting the NPP government he did very little to support the CPP, although he had made false claims in this regard. For the seven years that his Ministerial appointments took him to various parts of the country, he never for once took opportunity of his travels to network with CPP structures at the grassroots. Rather, he used the opportunity offered by his ministerial travel to open cells for the ‘Movement’.
Indeed, it was therefore the likes of Dr Delle, George Aggudey, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, the Patriots and a few benefactors who took up the task of organizing the structures of the Party and opening offices.
The state of the Party today is worst that it was in the period leading up to Nduom’s take over of the Party. So did we go or did we come? The Party structures have all but collapsed. Five months to the general election in December 2008, constituency offices are closed and party vehicles are not road-worthy. Yet Nduom’s campaign team feeds us with reports of how well he is doing. What happened to the “no mmobrowa” campaign under which Nduom promised to match the NPP and NDC boot for boot for vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles, advertisements and logistics in general? Has the CPP foot soldiers been fooled by Nduom?
There is nothing insight to give hope and encouragement to the foot soldiers. There has been no single fund-raising activity and the resources are not flowing. How on earth do you win an election in such a state of disarray and hopelessness?
Conclusion Never in the recent history of the CPP has one individual been enmeshed in masterminding devious schemes, half-truths and outright lies to serve a singular ambition to be President of Ghana.
People who should have known better ignored Nduom in his climb to power in the erroneous belief that he would not get anywhere. Now, he has taken control of the CPP, never mind the schemes he used to achieve his objective. This should make Nkrumaists sit up and take notice, because the next project is to strip the CPP of its radical Nkrumaist essence.
The consequences of this objective being achieved would have far reaching consequences for the political system as a whole. If the CPP cannot offer Ghana a viable Nkrumaist alternative, because of the conspiracy to keep the Party in a perpetual state of weakness, division and paralysis, then of what use would it be for the CPP to offer nothing more than the same neo-liberal policies currently on offer. Those who wish Ghana’s democracy to deepen and grow should put their thinking caps on.
Yaw Berfi
