The Rise of Democratic Dictatorship.
On February 24, 1966, Nkrumah was overthrown by a combination of military and police forces. To this day, the Nkrumaists go about saying it was the UP who overthrew Nkrumah, when there is no evidence. Even as one of the architects, J.W.K. Halley was a staunch Nkrumaist and a top security officer, who had many innocent people thrown into jail, without trial, for allegedly saying something against Nkrumah and government.The Nkrumaists vowed to wipe out the UP Tradition.
The opportunity came in 1981 when Rawlings overthrew the constitutional government of Limann’spro-Nkrumaist,PNP. Businesses and industries belonging to known or perceived UP Traditionists, like Siaw’s brewery, Boakye’s mattress factory to name a few, were brought down.
Rawlings decreed that products from Safo-Adu’s pharmaceutical factory and Appiah-Menka’s soap among others should not be patronised by Ghanaians, because funds could be raised to finance political parties, to contest him.
But hard as he tried, Rawlings could not kill the UP Tradition, as if it has some force-field which protected it from attacks from outside. Rather, it grew from strength to strength in the form of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). But within the Tradition, the enemy was firmly taking root.
As far back as 1978, the erstwhile Progress Party leaders held an important meeting to find the way forward in forming a new political party with roots from the UP Tradition.Some very important members, namely, William Ofori-Atta (Paa Willie), R.R. Amponsah and others left the meeting, because others like Victor Owusu, Appiah Menka, Edward Akufo-Addo would not accept their proposal ofinviting non-UP members to join in the formation of the new party, which was later to be known as the Popular Front Party.
Paa Willie rejected anolive branch extended to him to come back into the fold; saying he had a calling to be a man of God. However, he went on to form the United National Convention (UNC), which contested thenational elections. The results of the first round were indecisive and warranted a run-off. Limann of the People’s National Party (PNP), secured 631,559 votes (35.32%) to be in the lead. Victor Owusu of the PFP, came second with 533,928 votes (29.86%) and William Ofori-Atta (Paa Willie) of the UNC came third with 311,265 votes (17.41%).
The PFP went again and offered an olive branchto UNC, begging for reunion so that the UP Tradition could win the presidential run-off. But preferring to be like a man who because of not being on good terms with his brother, gladlyteams up with a total stranger to beat up his brother,the UNC rather joined the PNP and help it to win the run-off. “If I can’t be president, Victor Owusu can also not be,”Paa Willie was alleged to have said.
The opportunity for the UP to come back to power and continue from where Busia left off, was put on hold for another twenty-two years.
With the return to constitutional rule in 1992, the UP Traditionalists came together again. This time the PFP and UNC elements, resolved to set their differences apart and unite to form a strong political party, based on UP Traditions, which came to be known as the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The first flag bearer was Adu-Boahen, a UNC element. He contested the 1992 Presidential Election, but lost. The presidential election was disgustingly rigged and the verdict of the people was stolen. The NPP took a decision to boycott the parliamentary elections and it was joined by Limann’s PNC; Kwabena Darko’s NIP and Eskine’s PHP.
It is being alleged that the real reason for the boycott, was to deny J.A. Kufuor from becoming minority leader when the party goes to Parliament, else he could build up his chances to contest and win the presidential primaries and become the party’s flag bearer for the 1996 General Election. A pro-PFP was not to lead the NPP.
In 1996, J.A. Kufuor, won the NPP presidential primary and contested the presidential election, but he also lost. He contested the 1998 presidential primary and won, and went on to win the 2000 General Elections and became the first UP Traditionalist in thirty-two years to win elections and form government.
H.E. J. A. Kufuor governed Ghana for two terms, which ended on January 6, 2009. His reign, was always testified as the best in recent times by vast majority of Ghanaians, including multitudes of NDC members and other socialists. The NPP became very attractive. Democracy and the freedom of expression which are associated with liberal democrats, were fully enjoyed during Kufuor’s time.
He picked appointees, not based on loyalty but on one’s ability to deliver. Despite this excellent rule of law and service to Ghana, the UNC elements were not pleased and did all they could to bring Kufuor’s government down. (More details in the second part of this feature). During this paxtemporibus, an Institution, was built within the party by the UNC elements.
After H.E. J.A. Kufuor retired, the Institution took full control of the NPP and dictatorial tendencies crept into the party. Articles in the party’s constitution could be set aside to achieve the desires of the Institution. Earlier, Art. 13 (3 ii), which mandated that before any one could be running mate, he or she must have been at least a member for five years, was waived to allow Dr. Bawumia, an NDC member, to become running mate.
To push in its agenda, at the 2009 Special National Delegates Conference, the Institution again, brushed aside Art. 19 (c) and amended the Party’s Constitution by voice votes, instead of at least two-thirds (2/3) casting their votes in favour of the amendment.How can voice votes determine whether those in favour were at least two-thirds?
Again in 2015, when National Chairman, Paul Afoko was becoming a thorn in their flesh, members of the Institution set aside, Art. 11, which mandated that only the electoral college which elected a member into office, can remove him or her. Paul Afoko, Sammy Crabbe and Kwabena Agyapong were removed from office by the National Council of the party and not the National Delegates Conference.
The party’s internal campaign regulation mandates that no party officer or government appointee must openly support a candidate, but in the era of the Institution, party gurus came out openly to throw their weight behind Nana Addo, prior to the 2014 presidential primary and Bawumia prior to the 2023 presidential primary.Officers who openly supported other aspirants were severely dealt with.
On his third attempt at the presidential elections, in December 2016, Nana Addo won and became president. The party had 169 seats and NDC had 106 seats.
This was where democratic dictatorship became very manifest.
Kwame Nkrumah was known to impose PCs on constituencies, something the CPP youths in the then Ashanti region, were against. Head office sanctioned them for opposing the president and leader of the party and they left to join the NLM.
With Nana Addo as leader of the NPP, parliamentary candidates were imposed on constituencies, prior to the 2020 General Elections. This created divisions within and at least ten MPs and some non-MPs who were imposed on their constituencies, lost their seats.
In cases, where impositions were impossible, rigging was adopted to make the chosen ones to win. This undemocratic tendency, created gross dissatisfaction and divisions within the party in the constituencies. This resulted in the party losing 32 seats, to come down to 137 seats and at par with the NDC.
Democratic dictatorship in the NPP made it impossible for anyone to criticize the Institution,and things turn to only top-bottom approach.
Yaw Osafo-Maafo’s committee report on why the party lost seats in 2020, have not being disclosed to party members to this date. Maybe, the grassroot had something unpleasant to say about Nana Addo. No one could express diverse opinion about Nkrumah and no one could do likewise to Nana Addo.
As president, three of Nana’s men who opposed him, BoakyeAgyarko, OtikoDjaba and Gloria Akuffo, were either dismissed or made to exit government.
The plan to let the NPP disintegrate, was made manifest when a CPP convert, Freddie Blay became acting national chairman from 2016 to 2018 and substantive chairman from 2018 to 2022. So, for six years under the Nana Addo administration, the party was in the hands of someone who was an avowed enemy of the UP Tradition.
Elections for party officers were manipulated to favour favourites of the Institution. The elected officers rather herald the party into defeats.
In Greater Accra region for example, the hardworking Alfred Boye, who as acting chairman prior to 2016 General Elections, brought the party from 14 seats to 21 seats in the 34 constituencies in the region. On suspicion that he was an Alanite, he was twice denied the opportunity to chair the region in 2018 and 2022. When approached and told why he was made to lose, twice, he proved that he was not an Alanite and the response was, “Oh, if we had known earlier.”
The new regional chairman Divine Agorhom, favoured by the Institution, won the chairmanship in 2018 and the party lost seven seats in 2020 and he again won the position in 2022, only to make the party win just 4 seats so far with the hope of making it 5 seats out of 34 seats in the region, when Ablekuma North goes to NPP.
So, by the acts and designs of the Institution and the democratic dictatorship in the NPP today, the party lost 49 more seats to settle at 88 seats in Parliament.
And from the look of things, if the Institution is allowed to continue tohave strangle-hold on the party, with over 2 million supporters abstaining from voting in 2024, by 2032, the UP Tradition will cease to exist. The enemy could not destroy it from outside, but it seems to be succeeding from within.
Hon. Daniel Dugan
