Kofi Jumah: Lack of defined roles making NPP lose focus

Former New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Asokwa, Maxwell Kofi Jumah, has blamed the bickering in the party on the lack of defined roles and responsibilities that National Executives, Presidential hopefuls and the members are supposed to play in the party.

According to the former Mayor of Kumasi, the recent call by the ten Regional Chairmen of the party for an early congress should be critically looked into to ascertain its relevance rather than simply lambasting them as being ignorant of the party’s constitution.

Kofi Jumah, who was a former Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, made this statement in response to comments made by Nana Ohene Ntow, spokesperson for Alan Kyerematen, one of the seven NPP flagbearer hopefuls, who strongly disagreed with the position of the regional chairmen.

Ohene Ntow reportedly described the action by the ten regional chairmen as an attempt to undermine the powers of the current national executives.

He believed it was a crack at imposing on the leadership of the party to do their bidding against the constitution and the general good of the party.

But the former NPP MP said he sees nothing wrong with the expression of the ten regional chairmen since they were only airing their views on matters of concern within the party.

“What I think is that, some of us have lost focus and we don’t know our core responsibilities in the party and the roles we are supposed to play including the National Executives, and the Presidential hopefuls; everybody has a role to play in the party. Those who want to be Presidential candidates have their specific role to play; the past and the current executives have their roles to play and the party members as well. I believe somewhere along the line; we are losing focus, and we can’t see the roles we are playing. We don’t have to reduce ourselves to commentators of those who are aspiring to be Presidential candidates but rather turn our attention to the new registration by the Electoral Commission and issues regarding the bloated voters register…where we lose in 2012, we have to go back to rectify the mistakes we made, and this should be the roles of those of us who are not aspiring for any positions in the party as not commentators of Presidential hopefuls,” he asserted on Okay Fm’s “Adeakye Abea”.