“If we do not listen and restructure our party, the NPP will become as irrelevant to the politics of Ghana as the CPP has become … I don’t agree with the top-to-bottom up. We are trying to get the young people running the party to halt, look and listen so we get the direction right”. – Kwame Pianim – Statesman, NPP Founding Father
Some of us have not only studied Ghana’s political history – we have lived it. Awards in history, among others – English, Physical Education, Music; Yes, Music – tone, tone, semi – tone. Time was when Ghana had only two radio stations relayed from Accra Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and GBC 2, commencing from July 31st 1935 code-named Radio XOY (when we had not been born). The ‘Sunshine Governor; Sir Arnold Wienholt Hodson stated: “One of the main reasons for introducing the Relay Service is to bring News, Entertainment and Music into the homes of all and sundry …”.
In 1965, the Ghana Television was opened, and pictures were seen in ‘black and white’ and in 1985, Colour television was introduced. As we write now, there are many radio (FM) and TV Stations, mostly private, numbering over 150. In those days, news could only be obtained from one source; there was hardly any possibility of cross-checking from other sources – unlike the present situation, with a plethora of TV stations: GTV, Metro TV, TV3, Onua TV, Royal TV, Angel TV, Adom TV, XYZ TV, Pan African TV, Kessben TV, GH One TV, Police TV…
Why would any person sympathetic to NPP restrict himself or herself to one TV station and listen to one voice when there are several others churning out the same facts but with different interpretations and lines of argument?
Objective NPP “political watchers” will not take the “warning” or “advice” from the Statesman Kwame Pianim lightly. We know the “die-hard” but “un-objective” NPP analysts will just dismiss this, and argue loudly and think life will go on unabated, and NPP will push on and succeed in their political life – deviations notwithstanding.
Kwame Pianim, speaking on Accra-based TV3 on 13th August, 2025 this year stressed: “I’m hoping that we’ll soon get our act together to rebuild, restructure and build a united front to move forward.” Mr. Pianim continued “Once 50% of the solution is identifying the problem and posing the question, they have to listen, because it’s their future. If we do not listen and restructure our party, the NPP will become as irrelevant to the politics of Ghana as the CPP has become”.
He criticised the decision to elect the party’s flagbearer before choosing its polling station, constituency, regional and national executives, saying: “I don’t agree with the top-to-bottom approach instead of bottom-up. We are trying to get the young people running the party to halt, look, and listen so we get the direction right”.
He asserted further. “I know a lot of founding members of the party who are unhappy with the state of the party and are contacting the current leadership, both in Parliament and at the National Secretariat?
On Monday, September 8, 2025, Dr. Arthur Kennedy repeated Kwame Pianim’s “warning” or “advice” (refer to p 18 of the Monday’s (September 8, 2025) edition of the Daily Graphic). Dr. Arthur Kennedy is no stranger to Ghanaian (and for that matter, NPP) politics. After the 2008 elections in which the NPP lost, he authored “196- page book: “Chasing the Elephant Into The Bush: The Politics of Complacency”.
And save for President Kufuor’s reaction to p 148 with regard to the Tain election (where President Kufuor had proceeded to Wenchi to canvas for votes for the NPP candidate) the book serves as a guide “for critical evaluation and guidance for posterity”. One may note in the book “the Kyebi mafia …in their eagerness to serve Nana’s interest, they ruffle feathers … (and) … it pays to put competence ahead of loyalty …”.
This time around, Dr. Arthur Kennedy expresses deep concerns about NPP’s current state, warning that it is heading towards collapse if drastic measures are not taken. He cited the disillusionment over corruption, patronage and perceived abandonment of founding principles as key factors contributing to the party’s troubles. The 2007 presidential aspirant of the NPP notes: “The NPP, like the proverbial elephant, has lost its way and is in the bush”; ominously stating the obvious: “if we don’t heed the voice of the people, the NPP will die, like the Whigs of North America, the Liberals of Britain, the UGCC and CPP of Ghana”.
In a lamentation, Dr. Kennedy reminded the party faithful the effect of the splintering of the Danquah–Busia–Dombo family in 1979 “due to pettiness and selfishness” which created room for Dr. Hilla Limann’s PNP rise, leading further to two decades of Rawlings’s rule.
He highlighted the recent electoral setbacks including the abysmal performance of the NPP in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections; the Prof. Mike Oquaye’s Committee Report; the Ablekuma North re-run and the results of the Akwatia by-election – being clear reminder that something is amiss. He gave the example of Lord Halifax who in 1940 stepped aside as a potential Prime Minister of the U.K. in favour of Winston Churchill at a time of war, hinting: “I want to be Prime Minister but Churchill will, at this time, be a better Prime Minister”. You see, where “the greater good” is placed above “personal ambition”?
If NPP will not take advice, the party (at this time in our history) stands to lose further some of the 88 seats they have in Parliament. You may laugh it off, just as ex-President Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia will heartily laugh off (showing their 32 teeth) at the late Lumba’s funeral. Can you imagine: Members of the NPP (MPs for that matter) will mass up at EOCO office, sit on the floor insisting they would not leave until Chairman Wontumi was released! “Ghanafoɔ ee, monsore oo, NPP foɔ ee, monsore oo; afei deɛ mennyɛ Ghanani bio?”. The NPP MPs appear not to have done O-Level Music: listen to their husky voice; “… mo mma yɛn nyinaa mmom, obiara nnyɛ n’afamu deɛ … Oman! Bɛnya nkɔso, Ghana betu mpon …”.
And a man calling himself “Chairman of NPP at Bono Region “with eleven parliamentary seats now reduced to only one (1) would sit in his studio (Ohia TV) and insult the hard-working President Mahama and the affable IGP, Yohunu – what!
A Communications member of the NPP Benjamin Asare calls on NPP faithful not to defend the acts of the Bono NPP Chairman: “In all aspects, it is not right to insult people regardless of their age, to the extent that you insult the first gentleman of the land. It is not right and shouldn’t be tolerated or defended”.
After insulting Kennedy Agyapong with unprintable words, Abronye now goes a pitch higher, and he expects “docile” NPP members to come to his aid? You will not be wrong to ask: “what training did Abronye have at home or school? Kevin Taylor has gone scot-free after all his insults, so Abronye with his putrid mouth should also go …? The song we heard in our childhood days was “Akoko ne kra ne obirekuo deɛ nse, obiara na ne nkrabea” Ramblers Band it was that sang it. Correct for 3 points! Take the CPP beat …!
