Is Sir John being paid to make statements that affect the NPP?

A Political Science Lecturer of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has questioned the motivation of the Chief Scribe of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, for continuing to make utterances he knows very well are injurious to the forward match of his party.

Amakye Boateng posed this question on NEAT FM’s ‘Me Man Nti’ programme in reaction to an assertion that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia will be the best person to lead the party in the event that front-runner, Nana Akufo-Addo, declines to contest.

“We will not send Bawumia to the gallows to defend this party and when it comes to the ultimate, he will not be there? He will be there…those who see themselves as presidential materials can contest, but my fear is that if Bawumia does not get the nod, they will say because he is a Northerner, we did not vote for him. This NDC propaganda will kill us,” the NPP General Secretary was quoted as saying.

But Mr. Boateng is of the view that with the upcoming national contest within the party, all national offices, including the office of the General Secretary must exhibit a high level of neutrality, which will go a long way to eliminate the acrimony that accompanies such processes.

He further described the suggestions of Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, also known as Sir John, as “comparadorial Democracy,” where people adopt ‘crookish’ means to win power.

“..Sir John’s utterances are serious and with all the experience; his brilliance as an economist and an administrator, definitely, he is the quality a political party like the NPP could need, but it is not the place [for] the General Secretary [to] openly make such statements. If you continue in that tangent, Mr. General Secretary, you would be dividing the party on factional lines,” he opined.

Mr. Boateng could not believe how a Lawyer of the stature of Sir John would make such statements knowing its full implications.

“Sir John is a Lawyer. He is supposed to be brilliant. He definitely knows and understands the outcomes of statements of this nature. So why does Sir John do that? I want to believe that he is making money out of it”.