Former New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer hopeful, Boakye Kyeremateng Agyarko, has expressed concern about the current status of the party, which he said is drifting away from what a political party should be.

In a write-up cited by GhanaWeb, Boakye Agyarko asserted that the NPP has now become what he describes as a “LABEL”, which he says means a party that has lost its soul and is being captured by groups of cabals.

“Instead, we in our current form have become a LABEL (that is, a party that has lost its bearing, its soul, and the common strands of ideas, ideals, values, goals and principles that, hitherto, bound us together), under which groups of cabals seek to capture, through our internal elections, the NPP LABEL, and use it for their narrow ends.

“Stuart Stevens put it in a much harsher tone in his book, It Was All a Big Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump. He wrote, ‘… a political party without a higher purpose is nothing more than a cartel, a syndicate. There is no organised, coherent purpose other than the acquisition of and maintenance of power’,” he wrote in the write-up, which he titled “Teachings from Our Past: Things We Must Avoid.”

Boakye Agyarko, who was the Minister for Energy during the first term of former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, pointed out that the current status of the party has excluded a lot of the party’s faithful in its decision-making and it is what has made its internal elections so intense.

“These selfish and narrow ends only seek to exclude all who are not ‘with them’ from whatever gains power may bring. It means we are now marginalising and purging from our ranks all those who are seen not to be ‘in’ with the cabal, which has gained control over the LABEL.

“Herein lies the reason why our internal elections have become internecine. We fight to the brink of death instead of it being a process for selecting the best amongst us at all levels of our party. Sadly, many people have come to see our internal elections more as an access to and control of a meal ticket rather than an opportunity for honourable and loyal service,” he said.

The former minister opined that the only way to save the NPP is to register all of its members and make them partake in its restructuring efforts.

He said that the party’s internal election must be opened to all of its registered members.

“This menace will be curbed if, and only if, we register all party members and supporters — even in their millions — and make them responsible for electing all officers and candidates of our party, thus empowering them. Our present system is nothing more than a command-and-control system to aid cabals in the game of party capture. We must move away from control to growing the party by empowering the rank-and-file member of the party,” he reiterated.

BAI/AE

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