NPP congress, Hawa complains

The Ghanaian Chronicle, writing on the NPP national delegates congress held last Saturday, says it was almost a perfect choreography and the script almost specific-and, more than a little alarming, if you are a democrat.

It carries that after several hours of voting, delegates at the annual event settled for the 'chosen ones', with the exception of Lord Enoch Oblitey Commey, the fiery 32-year old Ga, who did a major re-write of the script for the night.

“He snatched the post of National Organiser from his 63-years old competitor and favourite of the pro-Kufuor campaign team, Alhaji Sulemana Yirimea in the 'real' contest of the night.”

But his victory, which according to his key campaign member, Mohammed Haruna, came after they had refused to bow to pressures from party gurus to drop out and throw their support behind Alhaji Sulemana Yirimea.

Instead of the expected team of Chairman Haruna Esseku: Vice-chairpersons Stephen Ntim, Mrs Agnes Adzo Okudzeto, Eddie Annan; General secretary Dan Botwe; Treasurer, Michael Dugan, and National Organiser, Alhaji Yirimea, the Bukom-born Lord Commey changed the equation.

He swept the post from the Bawku-based Yirimea and gave the Ga caucus two posts; his and that of third Vice-Chairperson (Eddie Annan) and deprived the three northern regions (Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions) of representation on the National Executive Council.

Immediately, after the declaration of results, some members of the northern caucus raised their voices in protest, Tourism Minister Madam Hawa Yakubu expressed her disappointment at Yirimea's loss to Commey, though she agreed that Commey is equally a good material.

In an interview on an Accra radio station, she expressed the view that the northern caucus had been done in at the congress, adding that Yirimea's loss to Commey "shouldn't be surprising because it happens."

"Anytime there is a package, we keep to the package but others don't, so, that is life and I feel very bad. If we are told that don't contest this because of the interest of the party', we fulfill it. But others don't fulfill it and there's a lot of marginalisation in the party."

She continued; "Naturally, my constituent and my brother, Alhaji Yirimea, has suffered a lot and he's worked very hard and the pain of the conflict, with over seven of his relations dying and then the fact that it was quite a number of the regions who demanded that he should come and contest, I expected that they should stand by their words.”