The Democratic UP Tradition Being Bastardised
This is the second time I compelled to express my opinion, Hon Atta Akyea. This time it is on his thoughts about his New Patriotic Party and the UP Tradition.
As a lawyer, Hon. Atta Akyea knows too well that laws are not meant to be broken, so his attitude that clearly violates the Riot Act of the NPP, which states that no party or government official must declare for any aspirant, is most, inappropriate.
From the way Hon. Atta Akyea is going about loudly pushing for the Vice President to be automatically made the Party’s flag bearer, clearly demonstrates that his camp knows that H.E. Dr. Bawumia has no chance in the presidential primaries.
I am not suggesting so, but Atta Akyea’s recent attitude clearly demonstrates that.
So, the question is, why is Atta Akyea and people who think like him, seriously using any means, mostly foul and against the constitution of the NPP to push Dr. Bawumia through?
Has it got anything to do with the Agyapa Deal and making sure it becomes a law and operational in Ghana?
There must be some reason, because these are expressions on the streets and what Atta Akyea is going about saying proves that his very life depends on the victory, for Dr. Bawumia, at the primaries and at the Presidential Elections.
Hon. Atta Akyea spoke a deep meaning English phrase in his previous interview with Paul Adom-Otchere.
He stated that there is the need to change history in the NPP. By definition of, to change history, it means to try to change the way that people think about an event in the past, often in a way that is not honest or correct.
In 1992, the Party went into congress and elected Prof. Adu Boahen as flag bearer. He contested the presidential elections and lost.
He entered into Congress in 1996 again but lost to J.A. Kufuor who went on to contest the presidential elections but also lost. JAK came back again in 1998 for the Party’s primaries.
And lot of derogatory words were used on him, to imply that if he lost once, he should not be given a second chance. But none of such words were used on Adu Boahen when he came for a second chance.
J.A. Kufuor went ahead and won the Presidential Elections in 2000 to become the second president of the republic.
Fast forward, in 2008, victory was ceded to Nana Addo for him to become Party flag bearer and he however lost the 2008 presidential elections. He went for a second bite of the mango in 2012 but again lost at the Presidential Elections.
Still with strength in him, he proceeded to contest the Party’s Presidential Primaries for the third time and won.This time round he went on to win the Presidential Elections to be the fourth president of the republic.
Atta Akyea should explain what went on here, for it is important to know why the same people who did not understand why someone should go for a second time, would watch on and cheered on while another person went on for a third.
If Hon. Atta Akyea is sticking his head out for the Vice President, he has every right to do so, but he should go about in a conduct that would be line with the Party’s rules and most importantly he should not insult the intelligence of the entire Party membership.
What he and others like him are doing, is rather making that fine gentleman, Mahamudu Bawumia look bad in the sight of many.
Atta Akyea finds problems with our election of presidential candidates and chooses to call the process, a selection and adding that it is too costly.
I do not want to believe that because we had a pure-bred blue blooded socialist and Nkrumaist as our national chairman, Atta Akyea had been schooled on the way Socialists do their selection of their leaders.
The socialists have a committee which would sit and appoint who should lead the party. And this is what Atta Akyea wants to introduce into a pure bred, blue blooded democratic party like the NPP.
So, in the wishes of Atta Akyea, the NPP should have a Politburo and a Central Committee. While the former to takes all the decisions of the party, the latter will only approve or reject them.
So now, who chooses membership of the Politburo? The Central Committee, I presume will be the National Executive Committee which the party members elected into office. But with this new arrangement what will party members do?
With Atta Akyea’s idea fully implemented, members of the Politburo will nominate members of the Politburo and the Central Committee to be approved by the Central Committee.
Then the polling station executives, electoral area coordinators, constituency and regional executives will become reductant. Parliamentary and presidential candidates will be appointed by a few and not elected by the Party membership.
The only way to be on the ballot paper during elections, is to have godparents on the Politburo and Central Committee, who one should worship and pay homage to.
Meanwhile the poorly resourced party members on the ground will be directed to put in their best to make the party candidates win the elections. The UP Tradition is bastardised.
Hon Daniel Dugan
