Don’t believe the hype; there is no disunity in NPP – Nana Akufo-Addo

• Posted on October 17, 2014October 17, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Although he admits there are factions within the New Patriotic Party (NPP), lead contender in the party’s flagbearer race, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says talks of divisions in the opposition party are over-estimated.

Also, according to Akufo-Addo, what appears to be deep animosity within the party, is only “a misunderstanding of the processes that take place in any normal democratic political organisation”,.

He was speaking on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana — a current affairs programme hosted by Paul Adom Otchere, Thursday.

The 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate of the NPP believes that beyond the party’s fundamental principles of public accountability, support for free market economy and commitment to social justice, the belief  that members of the party have the right to think independently accounts for the perceived disunity.

According to him, at any one time, differences in opinions are bound to occur, stressing these differences reflect the letter and spirit of the party.

“What has kept the NPP together and continues to keep the NPP together …is that when those decisions as to leadership [and] strategy are made, or concluded in a manner in which the party’s own principles, constitutions and culture permits, it allows the party to form itself around and go forward”, Akufo Addo explained.

In August this year, the NPP headquarters was a scene of violent altercation between factions of the party, disrupting a press conference called at the behest of party Chairman, Paul Afoko and General Secretary, Kwabena Agyepong.

Angry supporters — who had allegedly gone to the headquarters to attack the Chairman and General Secretary — wielded machetes and guns, heightening fears acrimony within the party had reached a tipping point.

Ouspoken figure of the party,  Arthur Kennedy, for instance, cited that incident and others as evidence that the party’s disunity was at its peak.

The contest for the 2016 flagbearer of the party has also re-ignited strong but old lines of division between Nana Addo and Alan Kyerematen.

But Akufo Addo, who is tipped to beat contenders, former Minister of Trade and Industries Alan Kyerematen and MP Francis Addai Nimoh at the party’s October 18 presidential primaries, sees things differently.

“That there are factions in the NPP — there is nothing strange or unusual about it. I don’t know any of the parties  here in West Africa or the democratic parties in the Western world which are monolithic in terms of what leadership or the people think”, he averred.

The important thing, according to Nana Akufo Addo,”is that there are mechanisms [and] systems which allow people to come together” — he said on the special edition of Good Evening Ghana.

He admitted, however, that the knife and gun wielding incident by angry supporters at the party headquarters was “unfortunate”, describing it as an unusual.

It remains to be seen whether Nana Akufo Addo’s assessment of the tension within the party is accurate, especially with recent accusations by members of his camp that some party executives are deliberating starving the party of cash needed to hold National Delegates Conference on Saturday.

By: George Nyavor