Features
Steve Ntim: The irresistible choice (Part 1)
As political parties in Ghana advance along the path of establishing themselves as democratic institutions, the individual parties are all working hard to ensure internal election of their officers before contesting the next general elections in 2024.
At the moment, it is the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that has organised internal elections for its members. Various positions have been contested in the different constituencies at the zonal, constituency and national levels. Some of the positions are constituency secretaries, regional youth organisers, regional chairmen and their respective first and second vice positions regarding some of the positions.
HOT CONTEST
The contest within the NPP is a hot one for all the positions. As the party moves forward, national elections will also be held for National Chairman, General Secretary, Treasurer and so on. After all this, a flagbearer will also be elected to lead the party in the next presidential election in 2024.
For now, we are focusing on who becomes the National Chairman for the NPP. This position is very important and it is being contested by a number of candidates and each of them is known in terms of their respective competence and organisational abilities.
The point must be made, however, that even though they all qualify to become National Chairman, it is only one of them who stands tall among them. This person is the man known as Stephen Ayesu Ntim.
HIS TRAITS
Mr. Stephen Ayesu Ntim is well known in the party as a mature and competent person whose commitment to the ideals of the party is beyond doubt. He has contested for the position over the years but without success and many people, unlike him, would have given up long ago to contest for the position again.
His commitment and desire to come on board to help in controlling the affairs in the party has encouraged him to stay on. There are many people in the party who after losing internal elections or are unhappy with certain things immediately announce to members of the NPP that they have left the party. Leaving the party on such grounds is not a matured way of presenting oneself to delegates and other members of the party to again contest elections after they have been persuaded to come back to the party.
In the case of Stephen Ntim, he has proved to be a matured person when it comes to remaining loyal and also exhibiting maturity even in the midst of loss in internal elections. It is for this reason that members of the party has great respect and support for him.
SUPPORT FOR EVERYONE
This man has made pronouncements that he supports everyone who would want to contest for the presidential candidate slot in the party. Once again, he has exhibited maturity in this direction since taking sides with any of the candidates can prove disastrous in terms of potential and actual disunity.
He also believes in the principle of free contest for all. For him, anyone who wants to contest for any position ought to be allowed to do so.
It is his intention to unify the party and make it possible for all and sundry to voice out their feelings in line with the democratic aspirations of the NPP. He is not a dictator and is a respecter of all persons. For this reason he must be given the opportunity to serve as a noble National Chairman of this great party.
COMMITMENT TO PRINCIPLES
Stephen Ntim stands for the principle of fair play as well as respect for all persons within the party irrespective of levels. He is of the firm belief that since it is party that gives birth to government, the government machinery should never look down on party supporters. This is why he is coming out with a very strong strategy to unite all fronts and ensure that the NPP is able to break the eight-year cycle that has characterised the reigns of governments in Ghana since 1993 when the political dispensation in this country began. In 2020, certain things did not go well for the party not because the government did not perform but simply because of bickerings and division within the party.
In an interview with him, he has made it clear that all factions within the NPP need to come together as a strong force in order to break the eight-year cycle in grand style.
COMMITMENT TO UNITY AND PROGRESS
He has made it clear that, inspite of the economic challenges going on around the world, an unfortunate development that has affected Ghana, he will be resolute in his determination to collaborate with the various segments within the party in both the rural and urban areas to establish unparalleled victory for his beloved party.
In conclusion, therefore, the party delegates and members ought to support no other person but Mr. Stephen Ayesu Ntim who stands for nothing but fair play, fairness, respect for each other, unique party progress, dynamism and victory in grand style. If this is what the NPP stands for, then the obvious and irresistible choice is Mr. Ayesu Ntim.
By Dr. Kofi Amponsah-Bediako
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
