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Opinions of Friday, 20 November 2015

Columnist: Eric Bawah

NPP: Time to patch it up together

Opinion Opinion

It is good that what is happening to the NPP is happening now. In fact, it is a blessing in disguise since the party has come to know who has the party dear at heart and those who wish the party bad omen. If what is happening had happened, let us say six months to the 2016 General Election it would have been too difficult to patch it up together.

Since the murder of Alhaji Mohamed Adam, the Upper East Regional Chairman of the NPP and the stabbing to death of Mr. Abubakar Saddiq, a staunch NPP member at Asawase, I have been down with sorrow. I felt like having a broken wing which would not allow me to fly.

Thank God I have mustered courage to soldier on. Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution. We have to put all what happened behind us but we will surely forever remember what happened to serve as a reminder and a lesson to learn in the coming years. We must come together to fight the common enemy. In fact, we must define our terms but not defined by anyone. In our grief and anger we have found our moment. Even grief recedes with time and grace. Lives ended but there is a task that will never end until success comes knocking on our doors. We need to have confidence in the victory to come.

When the internal squabbles started I knew the NPP was a party awaken to danger and it must do everything possible to surmount it before it generated into another thing. I had cause to write several articles condemning the attitudes of some people in the party who live in Accra and continue to besiege the party headquarters at the least provocation as if Accra is Ghana. I condemned the daily radio war which was tearing the party apart and called on the leadership of the party to sit up and call everyone to order. Whether they did that or not, the troubles kept raging on until Chairman Afoko was suspended.

For those in Accra and Kumasi they do not know how the common men or women in the rural areas are feeling. People are really angry with the NPP supporters in Accra and Kumasi who continue to muddy the waters. When Nana had his Rise and Tour campaign, the signs were clearly written on the wall that the NPP is poised for power, come 2016. The spirit of party supporters were rekindled and even some supporters of the NDC were calling on the NPP to fight hard to wrestle power because they have come to realize that only an NPP government can bring the country out of the woods.

It is very unfortunate the appeal Mr. Afoko presented to the National Council was rejected and his suspension has been extended until after the 2016 General Election. Mr. Afoko should accept that and continue to support the party in his own small way.

Those who are urging him to form his own party are rather doing him more harm than good. Life is just like that. Sometimes you meet challenges but it takes a man with huge heart to meet the challenges with strong determination. Mr. Afoko should see his suspension as an act of God.

If his suspension should pave the way for the party to come to power, so be it. Mr. Afoko will have the opportunity to tell his story after 2016. Who knows, with Afoko still at the helm of affairs some criminals will still use his name to commit crime like what happened at Bolgatanga and Asawase.

To those whose main occupation is to stir the waters in the party in order to make money like those who ‘bussed’ people from the length and breadth of the country to picket at the NPP Headquarters in support of Afoko, I want to make the following demands: Stop the nonsense and get to the grassroots to campaign.

If you think you can make money in the party anytime there is problem you are warned to think again because we will not allow a few greedy bastards to destroy our chance of coming back to power to save the good people of Ghana from want and abstract poverty.

Avoid knocking heads together for your own parochial interest because yours truly will go down the gutter to teach you a lesson worth learning. Remember these demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. We are simply not going to allow these madness. Period.

HOW TO MEND BROKEN HEARTS

No one apart from God can bring back a dead person to life. Since the squabbles started in the NPP two lives have been lost and some are maimed. Now that the chickens have come home to roost with the decision of the National Council being observed, I think the time is up for us to mend broken hearts.

In the first place, those who have found themselves in the arms of the law should face the music and no party guru should intercede in anyway. If your hands are bloodied by the death of Alhaji Adams and Mr. Abubakar Saddiq, you should bear your own cross.

This will serve as a deterrent to those whose main occupation in the party is to mess up and put the name of the party into disrepute. What is criminal is criminal and the law should be allowed to take its cause. After all, no one is above the law.

The NPP as a political party should not leave the wife, children and parents who lost their lives to their own fate. This is the time they need our sympathy and if they left children, their education should be a top priority of the party.

The party should see those who died because of struggles in the party as heroes who died at the war front. Tears have been shed already but what is most important is not to make it look like a nine day-wonder. The names of the fallen heroes must keep on ringing in our ears till thy kingdom come. Their names should be written in gold and history should hide them on its chest for generation yet unborn to remember and adore them.

STILL THE BATTLE IS THE LORD’S

When Gideon was going to war against the Midianites, he thought he needed a huge army to defeat them because the Midianite army were strong, well armed and had everything to defeat the Israelis. The Good old Lord of Israel told Gideon that his army was too large and that he should leave some of them behind.

A surprised and confused Gideon had no choice but to follow the Lord’s instruction. The Lord told Gideon that He will give the Midianites into his hands through His Mighty hand lest the Israelis would vaunt themselves against Him saying: “Mine own hand hath saved me”

Even after reducing the size of the army of Gideon so drastically, the Lord still told Gideon that the army was still too large and that when they reached a river where the soldiers will drink water he will tell him the number of soldiers he will take to battle. When they reached the river the Lord instructed him to let all the soldiers who will lap the water like the way dogs do stand aside and set aside those who will go on their knees to drink.

At the end of the day, those who bowed down their knees to drink the water were just three hundred men and the Lord told Gideon to fight the Midianites with the three hundred soldiers. Gideon went on to defeat the Midianites with only three hundred soldiers. The mighty hand of He who delivered Israel was at work!!!

What happened in the days of Gideon is going to happen in Ghana in 2016. The NDC people have stolen so much money from the state coffers and they have the army and police at their disposal. After leaving office with clean hands about eight years ago the NPP has nothing left in their coffers. However, when you leave the fight for the Lord, he will fight for you like he did to Gideon.

In 2016, the Lord of Abraham will lift up His mighty hand and Ghana will be free again from the hands of thieves, vampires and nation wreckers. With the support of God, what the NPP should do now is to direct the few resources at their disposal to the total defeat of the NDC. The party should adopt one of the principles of Judo which says “Hit your opponent and hit so hard that he will not rise up again”