Ashanti NPP Chair mad at Nana Addo

Posted: The Chronicle |Friday, January 22, 2010

By Charles Takyi - Boadu

A meeting between the 2008 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and 15 out of the 39 constituency chairmen in the Ashanti Region, has resulted in tension among the executives of the party.
The meeting, which was held at the Ahodwo residence of one of Nana Addo’s chief campaign strategists, Dr. Kwame Amoako Tuffuor, over the weekend, has angered the remaining 24 constituency chairmen who were not invited to the programme, since they were perceived to be supporters of Alan Kyerematen.

The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Yaw Amankwaa, who confirmed the tension in an interview with this reporter, alleged that at the said programme, Nana Addo mentioned the names of certain individuals as his preferred choice of candidates for specific positions in the party.

Nana Addo, reportedly, told the chairmen that he supports F. F. Anto for the position of Ashanti Regional Chairman, and Jake Obetsebi Lamptey as National Chairman, instead of former National Vice Chairman, Stephen Ntim.

The Regional Chairman could therefore not fathom why Nana Addo took such an initiative by inviting only 15 out of the 39 constituency chairmen in the region for the said meeting, since it breeds disunity in the party.

To him, somebody who is seeking re-election to lead the party should not have indulged in such as an exercise.

“As a man who is seeking to become the president of Ghana, he should be seen as unifier, so if in his own party, we have 39 constituency chairmen, including all the party executives, and he chooses 15 as those he can deal with, and also backs candidates who are contesting for both regional and national chairmen, and openly stating that he cannot work with Ntim, but Jake, then he has drawn the battle lines,” he said, adding, “even if you are elected as the flagbearer, what are you going to tell the remaining 24 of the 39, since you have already chosen 15?”

He accused Nana Addo of dividing the party, stressing: “this has become a major source of worry and pain for members of the party in the region, especially the executives. I think some of us should sit down with him and advise him so that he would either rescind his decision, or render an apology to the other party members he says he will not be able to work with.”

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer for Nana Addo, Herbert Krampa, confirmed that Nana Addo was in Kumasi over the weekend.

Mr. Krampa also admitted Nana held a series of meetings whilst in Kumasi, some of which were held behind closed doors with some individuals and group of persons, but could not tell whether he indeed met the 15 constituency chairmen.

He however denied Nana Addo asking the constituency chairmen to vote for his preferred choice of candidates in the impending regional and national elections, since according to him, Nana Addo would not do any such thing, let alone give them monies to influence their decision in the impending elections.

Meanwhile, firebrand NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for the Assin-North constituency, and known supporter of Nana Addo, Kennedy Agyepong, has criticised a list of names making rounds in the party, suggesting certain names and individuals as preferred candidates of the presidential aspirants.

He could not fathom the extent to which factionalism was gaining roots in the party. Speaking on Oman FM’s ‘National Agenda’ morning show on Tuesday, the MP, whose no-nonsense attitude has earned him the nickname ‘Akompreko,’ asked delegates in the impending national congress of the NPP, to vote for competent people, regardless of their supposed camps.

He particularly did not understand why a person like Stephen Amoah, who he described as hard-working, loyal and competent, should not be voted for to become national youth organiser of the party.

When most party people were scared to come out during the 2008 presidential run off, he noted that this gentleman was visiting about nine radio stations a week, all in defence of the party.

His comments are said to have sparked a debate in the Nana Addo camp, since some people feel he is breaking ranks.

Mr. Agyepong, however, repeated his comments on Citi FM’s ‘Eye-witness’ programme, hosted by Shamimah Muslim, the same day, saying that the supposed Nana Addo, Alan factions were tearing the party apart, and could possibly affect the chances of the NPP in the 2012 general

WHY NPP BOYCOTTED NDC CONGRESS

…Was denied entry into congress grounds
Posted: The Chronicle |Wednesday, January 20, 2010

By Charles Takyi - Boadu

Details have started emerging as to why the largest opposition party in the country, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), did not put up an appearance at the just-ended national delegates’ congress of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), and though initial speculations were that the party deliberately failed to turn up, this has turned out to be false.
The Communications Director of the party, Kwaku Kwarteng, told The Chronicle in an interview in Accra yesterday, that they duly received an invitation from the ruling party to attend the congress.

The National Secretariat also delegated their northern regional executives to represent them, but they were denied entry into the congress grounds, for the simple reason that they did not have accreditation to enter the place. “When we got there, the people at the gate said that we needed accreditation,” he noted.

This, according to him, compelled the NPP General Secretary, Nana Ohene-Ntow, to call his NDC counterpart, Asiedu Nketiah, but because he was apparently busy, he could not pick the call.

According to him, though the NPP delegation explained to the security men that they had been invited to attend the congress, they would simply not listen to them, so long as they were not having the necessary accreditation.

After several attempts to reach Asiedu Nketiah had proved unsuccessful, the delegation decided to leave venue to avoid any confrontation with the security men on duty.

“They were issuing accreditation badges, and properly speaking, we should have been given some of those badges, or when we got to the invitation, we should have gotten to the NDC (I don’t know I’m just guessing) and then, they would prepare accreditation for those going or something,” he stated. However, the NPP Communications Director does not think the NDC did that to deliberately prevent the NPP from appearing at its congress, since according to him, they would not get anything from doing that.

To him, some of these things would not occur next time, since the NPP had nothing against the NDC, so-much-so that it would deliberately fail to attend its congress.

As Nana Konadu, Spio sail through

SHADOW BOXING @ NDC CONGRESS
… Unabashed JJ attacks Haruna, Mosquito et tal
Posted: The Chronicle |Monday, January 18, 2009

By Charles Takyi - Boadu

Characteristic of him, former President Rawlings last Saturday took the opportunity granted him, at the just-ended National Democratic Congress (NDC) National Delegates’ Congress in Tamale, to launch blistering attacks on some leading members of the party.
First to appear in the crosshairs of the gun-sight was Haruna Iddrisu, whose description of his military rule as “authoritarian and dictatorial” did not go down well with the former military dictator.

“Some people were just ten years old and did not know what happened,” he told his audience, and went ahead to explain how his wife was nearly crashed to death, when she was carrying a seven month old pregnancy during a civilian rule.

He claimed a Member of Council of State, who is a Gonja Chief, was behind the attack that nearly caused the life of his wife. Digressing from his prepared text, the former president then turned the heat on the leadership of the party for failing to provide mattresses for the delegates

to sleep on, as they would have done during funerals of departed colleagues.

He did not end there, but went further to launch what appears to be attack on Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the re-elected General Secretary of the party, who had previously spoken against the role of the 31st December Women’s Movement, founded by his wife, in the party.

According to him, when his wife was moving from one place to other trying to establish the movement, the wives of some of the people were doing pedicure and manicure, and yet they have now turned round to attack her.

Atta the mortuary attendant

Just when everybody at the packed-to-capacity West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Hall, the venue of the congress, thought he had finished his ‘assassination’ agenda, Mr. Rawlings bowed his head as if he was reading something on paper, raised his head, and told his audience that he had a story to tell.

With the delegates, including those at the high table, listening with rapt attention, the NDC Founder decided to tell a story about a mortuary attendant at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, called Atta.

In a long winding and sarcastic tale, he narrated that Atta was always drunk due to the nature of his work - attending to corpses at the morgue. Atta was also a heavy smoker, who he occasionally met and gave out a few notes of money to. He then cast his mind back to a teacher who happened to be a member of the NDC who died years ago at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

When his wife, Nana Konadu and her colleagues went to visit the corpse, he said they noticed that the body had virtually been dumped into the coffin unprepared.

According to him, they therefore took a decision to help prepare and dress the corpse before it was finally flown to the United States. He made this narration to enable the delegates, who through, what he described as determination, had to sacrifice and sleep on hard tables, to understand the difficulties in politics.

“I am saying this, because I in guess situations like this, if you do not tip the mortuary attendant, you will not get your face powdered, you will not get your hair combed properly, so that you’ll look dignified in the box,” he said.

One day, somewhere during his second term in office as a democratically elected president, Mr. Rawlings said he met this Atta friend at the 37 Military Hospital where he worked, looking sinewy and very dry, with his eyes looking red, always smoking and smelling of alcohol. Sometime later, he claimed to have gone to visit this same Atta, and saw him completely transformed, “looking so good, there was meat on his skin and his eyes were no longer red.”

Obviously surprised at his sight, Mr. Rawlings said he was compelled to ask this same Atta, the mortuary attendant, the secret to his new look, “and he said he had quit drinking and smoking.”

At the time, the former president confessed to being a heavy smoker too, but was somehow able to gain some strength from this mortuary attendant that “if he can stop smoking, and I was doing three packets a day, I could also stop smoking.”

Since the story had no link with his address, some of the delegates became agitated, especially those at the high table including the sitting President himself, who bears the name ‘Atta’, his Vice, John Dramani Mahama, party Chairman, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, party stalwart, Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, and the Majority Leader in Parliament, Alban Bagbin, except for his wife, Nana Konadu, who was smiling.

Whilst admitting that some of the points made by Vice President, John Mahama, who had earlier delivered his speech, were quite valid, Mr. Rawlings said: “there is lot of pain on the chests of many of us,” stressing: “the country needs inspiration from us, can we provide, can we give that inspiration?” This, according to him, was because there was a painful truth out there, but could not tell as to whether they in the NDC would be courageous and bold enough to face those painful truths out there.

At this point, somebody in the crowd said in Twi, ‘ka ninyinaa’, literally meaning ‘say all’, and Rawlings responded ‘meka’, which translates “I’ll say it.” He therefore went on to unveil a catalogue of issues he has grappling with all this while, most of which had to do with leadership.

After delivering his prepared text, the former president revisited the issue of ‘Atta’, his mortuary attendant friend at the 37 Military Hospital.

This time, some of the delegates started murmuring, which made him say “no, this is a true story, one day you must go to visit the 37 Military Hospital and ask for Atta, “he’s a friend of mine, I know what am talking about.”

The clever rebuttal

But, after his long and winding narration of the story about Atta, President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills also took the stage to address the delegates and candidates.

His first comment was that based on the story narrated by his Founder, he would consider dropping ‘Atta’ from his name, and cleverly moved away from the unsolicited attack into other issues raised by Mr. Rawlings.

After listening to him, the President: “if I have persevered with the NDC over the years, it is because of my determination to address the concerns which bother former president Rawlings.”

In confessing that he and his government had not been able to please everybody, President Mills expressed optimism over what he described as “a better tomorrow,” and therefore asked the doubting ‘ Thomases,’ especially the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), “that they should spare us their sanctimonious and self-serving effusions and statements.”

He said: “the country that we took over was certainly not a country which had seen eight years of ‘positive change,” saying “my brothers and sisters, we are certain that with unity, cohesion, with the singleness of purpose, there is nothing that we cannot achieve.”

Meanwhile, both Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings and Dr. Ekwow Spio Grabrah sailed through the keenly-contested election, to become vice chairperson and chairman respectively of the party. Dr. Kwabena Adjei and Johnson Asideu Nketiah, aka General Mosquito, also won landslide victories to retain their positions.