Cracks in NPP

-over Minority Boycotts

The simmering troubles in the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) on the way forward after it lost the December 7 and 8 elections is beginning to manifest, with leading members of the elephant fraternity pitching camp with those who have earlier dissented from the party’s decision to challenge results of the election at the Supreme Court.

What seems to have reignited the problem to a different dimension is what some top ranking members of the party described as “imposition of unilateral” decisions on the party by the Nation Executive Committee, which dissenting views claim is likely to pose a serious threat to the future survival of the party. Aside the Chief Executive Officer of the defunct Ghana @50 secretariat, Dr Charles Wereko Brobbey and the Communication Director of the NPP in the Tain Constituency, Charles Akowuah-Tuffuor who have chided the leadership of the elephant party of their approach to challenging results of the 2012 election at the Supreme Court, the latest to have join the fray of dissenting views from the party is the garrulous Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyepong.

The foul mouth NPP stalwarts did not mince words, when he descended heavily on the leadership of the party of taking ill-fated decisions that will not add any shine to the soiled image of the party, but will collapse it in the near future. An obviously furious Kennedy Agyepong’s vituperation comes on the heels of recent directives from the NEC, which led to the boycott of the investiture of President Mahama and the subsequent boycott of the ongoing vetting of ministerial nominees by the Appointment Committee of Parliament by minority MPs. The NPP’s apostle of insults revealed on a Kumasi based radio station, Nhyira FM over the weekend that, the party’s decision to boycott the President’s investitures and the vetting were all imposed on the party; a decision the Assin Central said, does not sink into the position of majority of NPP party members. He argued that since the NPP NEC did not contribute anything to the election of the MPs, they should have left them to their faith to take decision on their own, whiles the party challenges the legitimacy of the President, adding “the decision that NEC took was a bad one”

Mr. Kennedy Agyepong could not fathom why the minority MPs collected the housing allowance signed by President, but fail to partake in the vetting of his nominees because the NPP is challenging his legitimacy.

According to him, but for his absence in the country when the decision was imposed of the minority MPs by the NEC, he would have exposed the double standards in their position and advise his colleagues in Parliament to brush aside the decision, which he said is not in the best interest of the NPP and by extension, Ghana.

Meanwhile, a sources within the NPP disclosed to The Al-Hajj that Kennedy Agyepong’s outburst on the matter have opened the Pandora box and in the coming days leading members of the NPP who don’t share in the decision of the leadership will come out openly to state their case.

“My brother, the NPP is now in turmoil, I can tell you that a lot of our party bigwigs who call the shot in the NPP, are not in tune with the decision of NEC…the party leaders must prepare themselves in the coming days to handle such pronouncements” the source added

The opposition NPP rejected the results of the 2012 general elections declaring President John Mahama as winner and has petitioned the Supreme Court to invalidate the declaration of the President as the legitimate winner.

The Minority MPs, through the explicit instructions of its NEC boycotted the inauguration ceremony of President Mahama and the ongoing vetting of ministerial nominees under the notion that their participation in those events will undermine its case in court.

This decision was sharply rejected by Dr Charles Wereko Brobbey, a founding member of the NPP and Charles Akowuah-Tuffuor, the Communication Director of the party in the Tain Constituency, who advised the party to forgo its intended legal battle, “lick” its wounds and prepare for “a better performance in 2016 and beyond.”

Dr. Wereko-Brobby said the NPP would just be throwing dust into the eyes of its supporters if they kept on harping on the likely positive outcome of its intended court case.

Mr. Akowuah-Tuffuor argued that the NPP’s loss was largely because of the poor performance of its polling agents and other party officers on the grounds during the elections, adding that the party executives are only giving the members and supporters false hopes with their court action.

In outright support of this position, the Assin Central MP loudly remarked “I can tell you for a fact that about 85 percent of the NPP MPs are against the NEC decision, but they lack the balls to voice out their concern…but I am not afraid of anybody. NEC did a bad job by taking that decision” According to him the participation of the minority MPs would have helped to properly scrutinize the nominees for the various positions they have been nominated, but their absence has left the nominees off the hook.