Akufo-Addo’s cousin clashes wth NPP Minority

As the buildup to the 2016 elections, moves by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to secure a selling propaganda against government seems to be taking on the character of a Frankenstein monster.

Dogs have begun eating dogs in the NPP, and Dominic Nitiwul, Deputy Minority leader in Parliament, has the insults to show for being an NPP MP today.

He, together with the Minority leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, and the rest of the NPP MPs in Parliament, has been branded as not only incompetent, but so useless that Civil Society Group, Imani Ghana, towers over like a colossus in the matter of who is government’s best checkmate.

Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, former head of the Danquah Institute, who insulted the NPP MPs and the rest of the Minority in Parliament on Oman Fm’s “Boiling Point” talk show, even rated OccupyGhana, an amorphous CSO/pressure group, higher in the pecking order than the MPs.

“The type of opposition we have in Parliament is irresponsible!” Mr. Otchere Darko declared last Friday.

According to him, for the past 12 or 18 months, the largest opposition group in Parliament, the NPP, have been tickling themselves and laughing about who is more ugly than the other while CSOs do the Minority’s job.

According to him, if it was not for IMANI and other CSOs, the Mahama administration would have gotten away with a lot, including the two tier pension fund opposition, which has led to 12 labor unions embarking on strikes.

While the Minority in Parliament was asleep, he said, IMANI-Ghana was raising alarm about the tier two pensions fund.

“I think it is the heights of irresponsibility that up till now, we haven’t heard from the Minority: if Minority leader and his Finance Committee are listening, they should do something,” Gabby said.

In contrast, the former DI head and popular cousin of Nana Akufo-Addo, the NPP’s flagbearer for 2016, said IMANI Ghana was praiseworthy because when IMANI, long ago, started raising alarm about the tier two pension funds, even workers on whose behalf it was shouting did not understand the issues involved.

Gabby’s praise of IMANI, which was in the general contest that the CSO had taken over the duties of the opposition in Parliament, which is so irresponsible that it is not heard tackling government on major national issues.

The praise is also a reaffirmation of IMANI as being a pro-NPP and anti-NDC CSO.

Even so, the observation did not go down with Dominic Nitiwul, Deputy Minority leader, who called into the Boiling Point program on Oman FM to vent his anger.

According to the Member of Parliament for Bimbila, Mr. Otchere Darko’s insults on the Minority MPs were a great disservice to the former DI boss’ cousin, Nana Akufo-Addo, and his quest to become President.

According to him, the insult tantamount to a rundown of the 123 NPP MPs in Parliament and the arming of members of the ruling NDC with propaganda arsenals good enough to cause the NPP MPs to lose their seats in 2016.

Countering Gabby’s claims of laxity with claims that the Minority MPs have held, at least 15 press conferences on national issues, Mr Nitiwul dared Gabby to come up with statistics that show that IMANI or any CSO has done better than the Minority in taking on government on national issues.

He wondered why Gabby would not just make enquiries to find out party strategies before the former DI boss would go and shoot off his mouth on radio.

Hon. Dominic Nitiwul, in his anger, then exposed that the Minority NPP had all along been strategizing to make the best political capital out of every national issue, including the pension funds issue.

The Bimbila MP’s anger also led him to reveal that Nana Akufo-Addo, since becoming flagbearer of the party a month ago, has migrated from a hero-worshipped prima donna into a demigod.

The entire NPP, including the NPP Minority in Parliament led by Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, he revealed, is now tied to the apron strings of Akufo-Addo.

“The Minority does not take any decision, not even hold a press conference, without consulting Akufo-Addo! I and the Minority leader have decided that we will not do anything, not even run a press conference without running to flagbearer,” he said.

Before he signed off, Mr Nitiwul, who said that he was in pain because of the insults heaped on him by Gabby, dared Gabby to go and consult the flagbearer who is his cousin on the issue of the tier two pension strikes for instance and see if the issue was not raised at the Steering Committee.

But almost immediately after he had signed off, Charles Owusu, a member of Paa Kwesi Nduom’s Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and a friend of Nana Akufo-Addo took on Hon. Nitiwul.

Reiterating Gabby Asare Otchere Darko’s position that the Minority in Parliament is useless, Mr. Owusu actually managed to push the whole minority failure on to the head of Dominic Nitiwul.

Speaking hailing Twi, the PPP man said, Dominic Nitiwul had jumped from frying pan into fire with the decision to call into the program and comment and that in the issue, silence on his part would have been golden.