NPP Wahala: There can be no winners only losers

Since the Members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) returned from Tamale where they elected their new National Executives, one thing has become clear; those who did not get their way in Tamale have resorted to their plan B which is to paralyze the Chairman and the General Secretary (GS) and run the party through Committees where they clearly dominate.

These people have convinced themselves that the Chairman and the GS belong to some imaginary faction in the NPP and even though the two have repeatedly denied the allegation and have tried to demonstrate their neutrality, the Nay-Sayers will have none of it and continue to hold on to their belief.

For these people, the Chairman and GS should not take any decisions for the party at all. They should let the status quo remain. And if they want to take any actions such decisions should be discussed at the Committee level where they are sure to hold sway. Maybe, it will be useful if these people were to take some time to read the party’s constitution and to find out each person’s role.

It has been five months since the new executives took over, and yet no deputies have been appointed to assist them because the Chairman and GS are not allowed to bring anyone on board except those that these people prefer. The GS is forced to work with a Communications Directorate that goes on radio and television and the social media daily to berate their leader the GS.

The first change the Chairman and the GS made was with the Director of Finance and Administration and the man immediately went on to the media to pour scorn and abuse on them. And yet this person became Director of Finance and Administration only after the previous one was removed by the then General Secretary. Now he is even vowing to return to the party’s headquarters and to break locks and occupy his position. Question is who will assign him and who will he report to?

The next action the Chairman and the GS took was to ask a Deputy Communications Director to proceed on leave and then appointed some nine other Deputy Communications Directors to beef up the Party’s Communications. That is what sparked off the recent violent acts at the Party’s Head Office. How a decision by the boss of a party to send one of his staff on leave can result in such chaos that has the potential to compromise the party’s chances at the polls baffles some of us.

This Deputy Communications Director, who was asked to go on leave, must be so important that the NPP is prepared to drag itself in the mud and forgo their chance to govern the nation. This person must so important that a potential Flagbearer of the party who is taking his last shot at the presidency is prepared to sacrifice his ambition just because a deputy communications director was asked to proceed on leave.

This deputy communications director is so important that the First Vice Chairman of the NPP was willing to immediately jump on radio to lambast his boss, not caring about the implications for the party’s fortunes at the general elections.

This deputy communications director is so important that even when the Chairman and GS attempted to explain themselves at a press conference thugs were organized to disrupt the conference and to bloody peoples’ noses.

There is seriously something wrong with this party. It is a tragedy. Can these people pause for moment and ask themselves what will happen to the party if the National Chairman and General Secretary are pushed to the wall and they too decide to explode on the airwaves like all these social media boys and girls and the hired Regional Chairmen are doing? Since when has it become normal for Regional Chairmen of the NPP to go on radio to insult the National Chairman of the party?

The former director of finance and administration also went on radio and described the National Chairman and the General Secretary as “empty barrels” and vows to come back to work in the party office. Surely this is unprecedented in the history of this party. Something is wrong in this party, and this tide is definitely a destructive one. One thing is clear in this ‘wahala’ there can be no winners only losers.