NPP Must Expel Pianim From The Party
By Mr. Alex Asabere
GDM London
The last February edition of the Africa Watch Magazine saw a very irritating interview made by Mr. Kwame Pianim, who claimed to be a leading member of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). In the said interview, the renowned economist launched an attack on the NPP hierarchy for legally challenging the last general elections results at the Supreme Court.
He a attributed the party’s defeat to, among other things, ‘mental and intellectual laziness’, and as a result the party must concede defeat and prepare for the 2016 general elections. Mr. Pianim’s interview, which was ill-informed, irked and incurred the wrath of all the NPP bigwigs, who had so far, been granted interviews both in the print and electronic media. As an international businessman and politician, I believe Mr. Kwame Pianim’s altercations cannot be allowed to die a sound one without my candid opinion.
Ever since the NPP returned to opposition in 2009, my observations towards this man in question has shown to me that he is not the Kwame Pianim most NPP faithful used to know. He has indeed, changed like a chameleon in the last four years, and the earlier he is treated as an outsider of the NPP, the better. Mr. Kwame Pianim’s first frivolous comment came during the heat of NPP presidential primary in 2008, when Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng was launching his campaign.
This so-called leading member of the NPP said, among other things, that, ‘any idiot can hold a flag.’ This statement instantly over shadowed the primary, and soon gained currency among the media, and exposed the party to all manner of ridicule from our political opponents. As if this was not enough of a stab in the back, Mr. Kwame Pianim later painted the late President Mills as the cleanest politician as far as bribery and corruption were concerned. He blatantly stated that the late President did not take brown envelopes, and that he could stick his neck out for him.
But, Mr. Kwame Pianim’s testimony on President Mills was short-lived, as the ‘corruptless’ Mills led a team of unprecedented fraudulent ministers who boldly hid behind judgment debts and siphoned the state of its meagre resources. Mr. Kwame Pianim’s last salvo is the recent one on the party’s incontrovertible evidence to battle the election results in court. These uncharitable and deliberate comments, aimed at unsettling the NPP and its teeming followers, have compelled me to draw this conclusion on Mr. Kwame Pianim, and I think I sound convincing with my convictions about him. Some of us still wonder if he still harbours bad feelings towards the party, after he was disqualified by the NPP from contesting the 1996 presidential primary, due to his incarceration at the Nsawam Prisons by the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) government, led by Rawlings, for attempted but abortive coup d’etat.
In a very democratic systems of governance like ours, no one can deny anybody free speech. However, it does not mean that if someone has nothing reasonable to say, he or she has to open his mouth in the name of free speech. If Mr. Kwame Pianim has nothing meaningful to offer, he should keep quiet, assuming he is wise.
As a respected economist, most people would have expected Mr. Kwame Pianim to offer economic solutions to the problems haunting us daily. A government which has woefully failed to provide basic needs like power, water and gas to its citizens, and continues to ratio anything, Mr. Kwame Pianim would have sounded more prudent in the minds of the Ghanaians if he had given alternative but parallel solutions to our economic policies, and not make some of us believe the wild rumours making rounds that he has been beneficiary of the NDC since 2009. As a former UN economic kingpin, some of us who know your investment acumen in the 70s are of the view you can still provide some answers to the current economic challenges, and your continuous silence is breeding so much suspicion.
I want to appeal to the NPP party hierarchy to crack the whip on Mr. Kwame Pianim he still sees himself as one of our own. His recent comments on the party’s decision to drag President Mahama and the Electoral Commission (EC) to court depicts a betrayal attitude, and if he is not immediately expelled from the party, he will continue to hide behind the leading member title conferred on him by the press to destabilise the party’s unity. This is the time the party needs a united front to pursue the case to its legal conclusion.
He should be dismissed from the party, since elements of his calibre draw the party into an abyss. However, if he has not been reintegrated into the party, the press must be told, so that a better title is conferred on him in his subsequent stories. The party must also deal with Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobbey for similar comments made. I am calling for sanctions on the two, because if the due sanctions are not taken, some of the party members would follow their bad example, and in the long run, ditch the party’s hopes of seeking a fervent ruling from the Supreme Court.
Long Live NPP! Long Live Ghana!
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