Features
The just-ended NPP national delegates conference held at the Accra Sports Stadium
• President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (middle) with the new NPP
National Executives Inset: A section of the
delegates at the conference
The new Patriotic Party (NPP) has always used the electoral principle for the selection of its officers to serve on various capacities in the party. Beginning from the polling station as well as all the constituency and regional levels, the party has successfully carried out internal elections to select the candidates to serve.
The just-ended delegates conference dealt with officers who are to serve at the national level including the position of National Chairman, General Secretary, Women’s Organiser and Nasara Coordinator, among others
The electoral principle adopted by the party as is done elsewhere is good for a number of reasons. In the first place, it allows candidates to freely offer themselves for selection by the party delegates. Additionally, it ensures that the delegates are given the chance to freely select candidates who, in their view, are qualified and fit to play different roles in the party.
Again, the electoral system helps to prevent the imposition of candidates on the party. By preventing imposition of candidates on the party,members are always encouraged to come out freely to support all programmes and activities organised by the selected officers. In addition to all this, the electoral principle brings about openness, transparency and helps to promote unity among family (party) members.
The just-ended conference was well organised. The choice of the Accra Sports Stadium was good because the venue was able to accommodate all the delegates as well as the party leaders and officials invited to carry out certain activities. This ensured that the atmosphere was condusive for the purpose of party political activities.
In the same way, the security of delegates was also ensured. In all, about 3,000 policemen came to provide security at the Accra Sports Stadium. The security was important because it guaranteed protection of the party officials and members from being attacked by any unscrupulous persons who may want to come in and create problems.
The officers from Electoral Commission who came to supervise the elections also played their role well so at the end of it all, the conference proved to be very successful. The success has sent positive signals not only to all parts of this country about good political party organisation but also to other parts of Africa and even the rest of the world. It has gone to re-enforce the view that the democratic credentials of Ghana regarding political party activities grow from strength to strength, making it enviable for the rest of the world
The nature of the campaign required by candidates who offered themselves for the elections was laborious because being a national election, each candidate was expected to go round all the 16 regions of Ghana and mount their campaign to solicit support for their election and re-election. At the end of the day, some of the candidates won the election but others were not fortunate enough to win. It was an endeavour meant to select the best candidates for the various positions declared by the party.
For this reason, all victorious officers ought to extend a hand of friendship in line with the desire for unity to all candidates who were not successful. This is important because it is an internal party affair that must not be allowed to degenerate into party disunity and destruction.
Similarly, all those who participated in the elections must know that they are one people belonging to the same political stock who are vying for victory in 2024. It is, therefore, important for the new chairman, Mr. Steve Ayesu Ntim as well as the General Secretary Mr Justin Frimpong Kodua and all other officers who won their positions, to come together for party unity, progress and development for the good of the country. This is how as a country, Ghana can portray itself as a politically mature country with a high degree of tolerance for one another with the NPP as a peaceful political organisation.
By Dr Kofi Amponsah-Bediako
Contact email/whatsApp address of author:
Pradmat201@gmail.com (0553318911)
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
