I am not returning to CPP – Nylander

The call by the chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Prof Edmund Delle, for all defectors to rejoin the Nkrumahist party ahead of the November 7 polls is a “dreamy” and “unserious” one, former chairman of the CPP, Mr Ladi Nylander, who is now a member of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), has said.

“I think those are words that are sweet…,” Mr. Nyalander told Prince Minkah on the Executive Breakfast Show on Class91.3FM on Friday, June 17, adding: “I think that the call is a dreamy call, I think so, at the risk of sticking my neck out, let me say so. I don’t think that it’s a serious call. I think it’s just a political call, which I don’t think strikes any political chord with anybody in the PPP. Certainly nobody in the PPP is going to heed that call”.

“The most important elements of the NDC [governing party],” he said, “are all CPP-based”. [Late] Prof Mills, the current president, the Ahwois, these are all from the CPP. Is Prof Delle telling us that everybody must go to CPP? Surely, here is what I will say is a political call, but whether it’s a practical call I’ll say is another [thing]. He is certainly not asking the personalities I’ve mentioned and people like Prof Akilagpa Sawyerr and all those, to leave the NDC and go and join CPP,” Mr. Nylander said.

CPP’s 2008 flagbearer Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom left the party to form the PPP ahead of the 2012 elections following disagreements with then chair Samia Nkrumah, daughter of the party’s founder Kwame Nkrumah.

Despite being a young party, the PPP performed better in the last elections than the CPP.

Asked if he misses the CPP, Mr. Nylander said: “Not in the least. No, I don’t.”

Responding to a question about why he left the party, Mr. Nylander said: “I think politics is through association, through people you feel you have like minds with. Every party evolves and we felt that the CPP was evolving into something that we could not be part of. I think that we in the PPP are pragmatists. …In my personal estimation, the CPP was getting a bit too ideological. There are things that need to be done: corruption needs to be tackled, jobs must be created…so, I felt that that ideology can actually get in the way. … We [those who left CPP for PPP] felt that we didn’t want to be constrained by ideology because (yes ideology is part of your belief) but at the same time there are situations that are practically on the ground that you need to deal with. Corruption to us is the single most dangerous element in Ghana’s politics; that one, you don’t need ideology [to fight], it’s there. …To us, corruption is corruption and you got to deal with it and you got to be pragmatic and we wanted to deal with it pragmatically, we wanted to deal with the job creation pragmatically, we wanted to deal with self-governance pragmatically, so, yes, ideology is fine, but when you want to do something and you are looking ahead, sometimes ideology can be superfluous.”