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Discipline, internal cohesion vital for NPP 2024 victory – Stephen Ntim
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National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Stephen Ntim, has called on NPP rank and file to close ranks after the party’s presidential primaries, which will take place on Saturday, November 4, 2023, and rally behind the candidate who emerges as the winner after the internal polls.
Mr. Ntim noted that internal party cohesion and discipline among party faithful remain the most important prerequisites for the party to be able to win a third consecutive term in office in December 2024.
He made this call on Thursday, November 2, during an address to the media at a joint press conference held by the National Executive Committee and the Council of Elders at the Alisa Hotel in Accra.
“Saturday, November 4th, is crucial for the New Patriotic Party. By the close of the day on Saturday, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who has admirably led our party for 16 successful years, will perform the first of two handovers: first to one of the four aspirants who emerged victorious to succeed him as the leader of the party and second, to that same leader and flagbearer of the NPP, to succeed him as the President of the Republic of Ghana on January 7, 2025.”
“This is the nature and consequence of the November 4th flagbearer election. We are determined to win a third term because the development of Ghana depends on an NPP victory in the 2024 general elections. That victory begins this Saturday, and every member of this party has something significant to do with it. It requires that we are disciplined as a party. Failure to be disciplined, ensure internal peace and cohesion, and be responsive to our mandate will gravely imperil our electoral prospects,” Mr. Stephen Ntim said.
Cost of disunity
Stressing the damage that disunity and internal divisions can cause to the NPP’s election fortunes in December 2024, Chairman Ntim said he vividly recalled the 2008 general elections and some of the factors that accounted for the NPP’s painful loss after it led the first round of voting “with 49.13 percent of the total valid votes cast.”
“The most painful part of that experience is that we lost the presidential election in the second round after we had increased our votes by 321,000, whereas all we needed to win in the first round was a little over 100,000 votes.
“In other words, we gifted the NDC the elections in 2008 because our people did not come out to vote in the first round. We are at the same point today, and some of the factors that led to us losing the election in 2008 are rearing their ugly heads,” Mr. Ntim candidly observed.
“One of the chief contributors to our defeat in the 2008 general elections is the lack of unity of purpose or internal cohesion. We cannot afford to be disunited even briefly after the results are declared on Saturday. We must guard against any conduct, actions, or inactions likely to take us on a path of apathy and disunity,” the NPP National Chairman further cautioned.
Whip the slate clean
In his address, Mr. Ntim acknowledged that the 2023 flagbearer election has been hotly contested, and in the process, a lot of water has gone under the bridge. To that end, he called on the entire NPP fraternity “to wipe the slate clean and approach the Saturday, November 4 presidential primaries with a commitment to work together and support whoever emerges as the party’s leader and flagbearer.”
“There can only be one flagbearer at a time. I fondly recall the enthusiasm and unity that characterized our approach to the 1996 and 2000 elections. It was apparent we wanted to win as a party. But the height of enthusiasm and conviction with which we canvassed for victory in the 2000 general elections has waned considerably, and we must reignite it now,” Ntim said.
“The alternative to an NPP government is scary, and the alternative to us is empty. These statements are valid because the NDC has not put forth any policy ideas to address the youth unemployment challenge, which is the preoccupation of governments worldwide,” he added.
Presidential primaries
The NPP will, on Saturday, November 4, 2023, elect its flagbearer for the December 2024 general elections. For the last 16 years, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been the leader of the NPP. On Saturday, the party will have the opportunity to elect not only its flagbearer for the 2024 presidential elections but also a new leader to take over from President Akufo-Addo.
Four persons are aspiring for the position: first, the Vice President of the Republic, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia; second, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, former Minister of Food and Agriculture; third, Kennedy Agyapong, the sitting member of Parliament for Assin Central in the Central Region; and lastly, Francis Addai Nimoh, the former member of Parliament for Mampong Constituency in the Ashanti Region.
Source: Citinewsroom.com
A 24-year-old tricycle (Pragyia) rider, has been jailed three months by the Nkawie Circuit Court in the Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality of the Ashanti Region for biting a Community Police Assistant (CPA) at Nkawie.
Abdul Aziz pleaded guilty to the charge of negligently causing harm and was convicted on his own plea.
Police Inspector Kwaku Frimpong, prosecuting told the court presided by Mr Robert Addo that, complainants in the case were officers from the Nkawie Divisional Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service.
He said on September 3, at about 8:40am, the complainants led by Chief Inspector Abedi Larbi, were on their official patrol duty to ensure safety at Nkawie township and met the convict, who was in-charge of a Pragya tricycle with registration number M-25-A-3722.
He explained that, after a careful inspection, it was detected that the convict was without licence and other required documents, so Alhassan Seidu, the CPA, was instructed to lead him to the office for the next action.
On their way to the office, the convict took a different direction, so the CPA directed him to take the right route to the police station, but he disobeyed and attacked the CPA, resulting in a struggle between them.
In the process the convict bit the CPA on the chest, so he shouted for help and some nearby youth rushed to the scene and helped him to arrest the convict.
In his caution statement, he admitted the offence and after further investigations he was charged and brought before the court. –GNA
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The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has urged the government to place all 54,985 candidates affected by the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) placement exercise in schools and publish the final outcome.
The party says the government must ensure that the affected candidates secure actual school places rather than merely being allowed to access the self-placement portal.
In a statement signed by the Chairman of the NPP Policy Co-ordination Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the party expressed concern about the situation facing the candidates.
The NPP said the government had announced that 53,887 of the affected candidates could use the self-placement system after initially being told that they had not qualified for secondary school.
It, however, argued that access to the portal did not guarantee that candidates would secure their preferred schools or programmes.
“Ghanaian parents and candidates will judge the resolution of the challenge by one thing only: how many of the original 54,985 are sitting in a classroom, not how many were allowed to open a website,” the statement noted.
The party said the government’s own figures showed that the country had 859,828 declared vacancies for 623,072 BECE candidates.
It explained that the main challenge was the concentration of demand in a small number of highly subscribed schools.
The NPP noted that 313,283 candidates selected Category A schools as their first choice, while those schools had 76,417 declared vacancies.
It therefore called on the government to explore ways to improve schools with available spaces, including providing teachers, laboratories and better programmes.
The party urged the government to use the 85 private schools participating in the Free SHS programme to absorb candidates who remained without placements.
The NPP further called for clarification of the rule and pass mark used for this year’s placement exercise, saying parents were entitled to know the standard before their children sat the examination.
It urged the government to take urgent action to ensure that the affected candidates were not left behind in the transition to secondary education.
By: Jacob Aggrey
