Bagbin's win: Adomako Baafi wants NPP to stop blame game

Former Director of Communications for the ruling New Patriotic Party, Lawyer Yaw Adomako Baafi has asked his party to be wary of what he says is a blame game that has engulfed the NPP following the failure of their MPs to ensure victory for their nominee in the race for Speaker of Ghana’s 8th parliament.

Going into the election for the speaker of Ghana’s newly inaugurated parliament, the NPP despite having an equal number of MPs as the opposition NDC were sure of victory as the only independent member of the house had declared his support for the party he was recently kicked out from.

Voting was anticipated to be along party lines but when ballots were counted after a chaotic nine-hour long secret balloting, the NDC nominee, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin won by gaining 138 votes whiles the NPP candidate, Professor Aaron Mike Oqauye polled 136 votes with one ballot counted as renounced.

The situation has led to blaming and name-calling in the NPP that threatens to further deepen cracks in the party.

Speaking in a Facebook live video monitored by GhanaWeb, Mr. Adomako Baafi said despite the loss being painful and a costly one, there is the need for the NPP to deal with the aftermath judiciously.

In Mr. Baafi’s assessment, despite losing the speakership, the NPP still has other important things such as the majority in parliament and the presidency itself and must also find consolation in the qualities of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who he believes can use the situation to prove his leadership qualities.

“I believe the majority is still in the hands of the NPP and all the same we are fortunate to get the president who is more accommodating and he is more than a warrior. He has gone through the mill; he understands every situation and he is an astute leader. So what has happened today, God wants him to prove that he is actually prepared for the presidency, the administration and governance of this country,” Mr Baafi said.

However, he asserts that the blaming that has followed the speaker election can be detrimental to the progress of the party and must therefore be curbed.

“My little problem is that a lot of blame game is being raised out there. Please, I don’t think it is going to do us any good because I understand that about just one or two votes caused the whole thing (defeat). Yet about 20 of MPs, their names have come up that they caused it, ‘so na who cause?’ It will not be out of place when the next time you hear that some of us who are not Members of Parliament and didn’t even go there also caused that. Please blame game is not going to help us, if anything at all, at the appropriate time we are going to address it,” he added.

He thus called on the party’s membership to rally behind the president in pursuing good governance and building the party.