NDC faces implosion

-Kofi Adams fights Yaw Boateng Gyan

The battle for the soul and heart of the National Democratic Congress is now taking a fierce dimension, with party gurus and groups affiliated to them engaged in spirited fight, employing all means possible, to undo their opponents in the contest for the various positions of the party.

Among the positions that are being fiercely contested are the National Chairman and the National Organiser.

Kofi Adams, Spokesperson for former President Jerry John Rawlings, is engaged in a fierce battle in his effort to oust Yaw Boateng Gyan from office as the National Organiser of the party.

The current Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, who claims he poses the biggest threat to the determination of the New Patriotic Party to win the 2016 general elections and so is the right person to take over the organization job of the party at this crucial moment, is said to be the candidate of President John Dramani Mahama.

Insiders say the president sees a good opportunity in using Kofi Adams as the party’s National Organiser to cement his new-found, or ‘induced’, political romance with former President Rawlings.

Also, according to our sources at both the NDC national secretariat and the presidency, President Mahama’s support for Kofi Adams also stems from the fact that he believes the incumbent national organizer, Yaw Boateng Gyan, no longer enjoys the kind of credibility he had in the past, following the exposure of his clandestine ‘enlistment’ of NDC thugs into the security agencies to carry out the dirty works of the party during elections.

Our information is that the incumbent NDC organizer is among the party gurus who are not happy about the kind of leadership being offered the party and the nation by President Mahama, and so he is not in the good books of the president.

The NDC will attend a national delegates’ congress on October 22, 2014, to elect new executives to manage the affairs in the party. Just like Yaw Boateng Gyan, most of the national executives hoping to retain their positions are facing stiff competition from others who deem themselves better for the positions they occupy.

The National Chairman, Kwabena Adjei, is facing a herculean task in his effort to retain his position following a stiff challenge from Kofi Porturphy, National Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organization, and Dan Abodakpe, former Minister for Trade and Industry who was jailed for causing financial loss to the state.

Incumbent National Organizer, Yaw Boateng Gyan, does not seem to understand why Kofi Adams, somebody he has had a long long-term excellent working relation with in the party should be interested in his position. He thinks his challenger should have concentrated on retaining his position as the Deputy General Secretary of the party and think of graduating to become the General Secretary eventually.

“We are the winning team for the party so it would have been beautiful if Kofi Adams had remained at the Deputy General Secretary position so that in 2018 he comes for the General Secretary, instead of Organizer,” Mr Boateng Gyan said in a radio interview.

Meanwhile, a Tamale based youth group of the party, “Victory for Yaw Boateng Gyan 2014”, are calling for the retention of the incumbent National Organiser in office.

According to the group, the NDC risks losing the 2016 general elections without Yaw Boateng Gyan as the National Organizer.

“Looking for an effective, efficient and result oriented National Organizer who will guarantee a sure victory for NDC in 2016 general elections, Yaw Boateng Gyan is your man; we therefore urge party delegates to vote for him to ensure the party remains in power beyond 2016.”

The Spokesperson of the group, Abdul Rahaman Hambal, at a news conference in Tamale yesterday described Yaw Boateng Gyan as “a time tested and intergenerational politician whose track record is unmatched with his competitors.”

The group says “The success story of NDC cannot be told without mentioning Yaw Boateng Gyan as he brought on board his rich political know-how in the party’s 2008 and 2012 campaign strategy formulation and played vital roles in the execution of these strategies which ultimately culminated in resounding victories.”

It has therefore asked all NDC delegates to ignore any vile propaganda against Yaw Boateng Gyan and retain him as the National Organizer for victory in 2016.

In a related development, a group of executives of the party have challenged Kofi Porturphy to resign from his current position as National Coordinator NADMO, to pursue his ambition of becoming the National Chairman, “in the spirit of fairness and the principles of the democratic tenets on which the great NDC was built."

According to the ‘Concerned Branch Executives’, the continuous stay in office by Mr Porturphy “is not only setting a very bad precedent to the youths but also, nurturing a very bad habit for most young politicians.”

“Our call is motivated by our strong belief in the tenets of democracy and fairness and the need to create a level playing ground for all who aspire to contest any position in the party. As a social democratic party, the NDC cherishes and upholds the virtues and values of morality, decency and integrity; values that remain the hallmark of a social democrat,” the group said in a statement issued yesterday.

The group accused Mr Porturphy of abusing his office to promote his campaign, alleging that some relief items belonging to NADMO were being carted to unknown destinations across the country to aid his campaign.

"His continued stay in office will run ultra vires to the President’s campaign against any form of corruption in officialdom. The ravaging perception of relief items being bussed to unknown destinations across the country must cease,” the group charged.