The name Bryan, of Irish or Bretton origin can mean noble or high. And in the New Patriotic Party’s presidential primary contest, there is an aspirant who is noble and high, with qualities and achievements that can make him go places. He is Dr. Bryan Acheampong who is proving to be the man of the ordinary people.

During the good old days of the party, members focused more on the success of the party than of their individual pockets. While the rich and well-to-do, donated cash, vehicles and logistics to help in campaigns and ease pressure on flag bearers and parliamentary candidates, those with little or nothing volunteered their services without anticipating any cash rewards.

Things changed when a new era with its moneyocracy was introduced in the party. Then people did all they could to be elected into positions where money would be directly handed over to them.

But there was another problem here. When money comes from the top, before it gets down to the grassroot base, the polling stations, where real work is done, unauthorised charges and commission would make the amount nothing to be able to work with.

Even goods and wares meant for the grassroot base, to entice the polling station members to work harder for victory, can be transferred to commercial warehouses far away from the constituencies and sold and the money going to swell up individual bank accounts.

There was one occasion in 2012, when a regional office, sent down money to a constituency to be distributed to all officers to be used as transportation to the district capital for a meeting. Everyone, including the constituency chairman was to get GH¢4.00 each. The chairman decided that his position in the constituency did not allow him to receive the same amount as a polling station chairman should receive, so he deducted GH¢1.00 from everyone’s money and handed the balance to them.

There was also this case where a benevolent party supporter donated GH¢20,000.00 each to all the parliamentary candidates in his region and also a handsome amount for the regional executives. The regional chairman decided which constituency would perform well and gave them GH¢20,000.00 each, but to the ones which were likely to lose the elections had either GH¢10,000.00 or GH¢5,000.00. Where did the difference go?

There are cases when items like electronic appliances, cloth, cooking wares, etc meant for the hardworking polling station members, rather get distributed to NDC members with the reason that it would lure them to join the party and vote for it.

Meanwhile the NDC beneficiaries had another idea. They see their NPP relatives and friends, still like destitutes with nothing to show and they concluded that if they become members of the NPP, they would never get those goodies, so they would still remain steadfast members of the NDC and continue to vote for that party and every four years goodies will flow from the NPP.

The NPP grassroot member looks poorer and poorer while constituency and regional officers were very wealthy having access to funds meant to run the party.

But for the love of the party, these wretched souls look up for the future when they would be regarded as valuable assets of the party and treated right.

Hope seemed to be coming when Alan Kyerematen promised to start paying the grassroot party officers some monthly allowances. This was unacceptable to the Establishment and he was condemned openly on television that he was liar and could not do what he said he would.

Chairman Paul Afoko who knew the worth and value of the grassroot officers, paid GH¢10,000.00 into each of 275 constituencies’ accounts to be use in the constituencies. This spelt disaster for him and he was unconstitutionally removed.

There is this story of Memuna, a porridge seller in Accra, which summaries how the grassroot officers and members are treated.

She sells kokoo for living and from this she takes care of her family including putting her children to school. Memuna is a die-hard NPP activist, living in an NDC dominated community. In 2016, she was asked to support the party in the electoral area so that when the party comes back to power, she would be taking care of. With her little resources she worked hard for the party to win in two of the three polling stations in the community. But when NPP came to power no-one came to reward her.

In 2020, she was approached again and again she did the best she could for the party.Getting to Election Day, pick-ups loaded with goodies from NPP office arrived at her community. This time no one called for her services and she watched as her NDC friends and siblings were freely given valuable items with the hope of enticing them to join the NPP. She and all her hardworking NPP friends were left out, with the promise that, theirs would come later.

Meanwhile, some of the party officers and members who had direct links to the top started living life in wealth and luxury.

Come 2024, the same cycle got repeated with a solemn promise that in 2025, they will be fully settled. Memuna doubted this promise but still worked hard for the party while most of her colleagues decided to lay down their tools. The rest is history.

Meanwhile in the Eastern region, someone who values the grassroot members of the party and sees them as the root and foundation, decided not to follow the status quo but to bring hope and encouragement to those members so that they would work hard for victory for the party in the 2024 Elections.

That fellow is Hon. Dr. Byran Acheampong. Even though he had a constituency to fight for, as a sitting MP for Abetifi, Bryan took up the whole region as his project.

Money must get to the grassroot and he did sent money down there. A miracle happened when the exact amount meant for the grassroot officers got to them without any ‘charges’ deducted. For the first in the history of the NPP in this era, the grassroot officers had what they needed and they worked harder with gladden hearts.

How did he do it? He only had direct links with the grassroot and paid directly through that link. With twenty thousand polling station-based officers, each received GH¢200.00. The idea that parliamentary candidates receive less than is budgeted for them depending on their chances at the polls, Bryan provided a flat rate of GH¢100,000.00 per each of the 27 PCs he took upon himself to cater for.

Each PC had this amount for every month from June to October 2024 and in November 2024, the amount was doubled.

Recently, when Dr. Bryan Acheampong declared what he did to achieve victory in the Eastern, some people descended on him, saying that other people spent money on the party, as well.

This is accepted, but the question here is, do such people make sure that the money gets to where it will be needed most? There is a case where GH¢1,500,000.00 sent down to a constituency for work to be done, did not get to the grassroot, and strangely enough not all of the constituency executives heard of any money coming in. But in the case of Bryan, the GH¢100,000.00 he sent to each of twenty-seven PCs got to them in one piece and they gave their constituency officers their due and every one worked happily.

The 2024 election results in the major blue constituencies won by the NPP in 2020, showed that out of 47 seats in Ashanti, the NPP held 42 seats going on to 2024, but lost 8 seats to have 34 seats; out of 6 seats in Ahafo, the NPP held 4 seats going on to 2024, but lost 3 seats to have one seat; out of 18 seats in the Northern region, the NPP held 9 seats going on to 2024, but lost 3 seats to have six seatsand out of 17 seats in the Western region, NPP held 9 seats going on to 2024, but lost 7 seats to have two seats.

In the case of the Eastern region, Bryan’s project proved very helpful, for out of 33 seats in the region, NPP held 25 seats going on to 2024, but lost only 1 seat.

The case of Greater Accra was even more pathetic. It was a region held by the NPP in 2016, with 21 seats out of 34 seats. In 2020 the party lost seven seats to hold only fourteen and went further down to losing nine more seats in 2024, ending up with five seats.

Today, Bryan Acheampong is contesting the presidential primary with a whole wealth of understanding and care for the grassroot in the party. He will make sure what is due them gets to them directly without any pesewa deducted. He is the love for the grassroot officers and members and know that the party can only smile when these grassroot has good reasons to smile.

I am not indicating that none of the aspirants gave out money for party works. At least Kennedy Agyapong spent on constituencies, however the question is how much got down to where the real work is done.

Only Bryan Acheampong has wired money directly to the trenches and to the relief of the hardworking party officers, down there. This is how the brain of Bryan works. If the grassroots want to get what they need, then they must consider the one who always has them in mind.

Hon. Daniel Dugan

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The Irresponsible and Illegal Mining (IIM), which includes illegal mining ((galamsey), could well place this country in a state of peril. More and more water bodies are getting contaminated, by the day, with unacceptable levels of toxicity from heavy metals.

The soils are longer in arable state to produce wholesome food crops. Health wise, more and more babies are born with deformities. Cancer cases are rising in under-aged children and adults are contracting new diseases.

We have been frequently warned by the Ghana Water Company that it is getting more and more expensive to purify water. The Company may soon shut down. And so the situation is such that sooner, much, much sooner, potable water will have to be imported from neighbouring countries and that would include foodstuffs, as well.

During the previous administration, there was an uproar from the then opposition, NDC, against the Nana Addo led government for its reluctance in taking drastic measures to halt irresponsible and illegal mining, which had resulted into serious environmental degradation.

Among many demands to put an end to galamsey, was the demand for implementation of state of emergencies in all such areas. Calls for arrests and prosecutions of top personalities, like politicians, government officials and traditional leaders who are in the galamsey business, were very loud. Unfortunately, the then president seemed not to have heard of the cries of the opposition and suggestions it made.

So, upon arrival of the NDC into governance, many Ghanaians thanked God, for the end of galamsey was near. Rather, we are told of the value of galamsey in our economy. Our gold production had jumped up, strengthening our economy. And a stop to IIM, will throw four million youth out of employment. In other words, galamsey was good and profitable. But why did the NDC, when in opposition did not suggest this to the ruling NPP and to Ghanaians?

And by the way, as it is obvious that this present government supports galamsey and all forms of IIM, why should it drag some people to court for their past activities in IIM?

And can the government say that benefits from sales of galamsey gold, supersedes the setbacks from the destruction of our environment? It is like this. The youth in the family are breaking down the perimeter wall of the house and selling the debris to a one-man contractor who fills pot holes in the streets. Every evening, they bring home money and the elders praise them for that.

Instead of cautioning the youth to desist from breaking the wall, the adults support them, for money has started flowing. Soon, it will be the walls of the main house which will be broken. And the rest will be current affairs.

Soon and very soon, all our renewable resources in the form of cash crops will be destroyed. Let us look at the cocoa story.

Because of IIM activities, Ghana will lose her second place in world production of cocoa to Ecuador. By 2026, Ghana will become the third top producer of cocoa in the world and much sooner, we shall drop to the fourth. It will look like this: La Cote d’Ivoire (1^st); Ecuador (2^nd); Indonesia (3^rd) and Ghana (4^th).

In 1911, with 36,610 MT, Ghana became the world leading producer of cocoa and accounted for a third of the world’s production.

Ghana held on to this position until 1977 with a production of about 500,000 MT. The following year we dropped to 159,000 MT and lost the top position to La Cote d’Ivoire.

Our highest cocoa production was in 2020/21 season when we hit over one million MT. Meanwhile La Cote d’Ivoire recorded over two million MT that season. Then in the 2024/25 season, Ghana dropped down to 617,000 MT with our neighbours recording 1.7 million MT.

Today, Ecuador is just behind with 450,000 MT and by 2026/27, it will be producing 650,000 MT to become world’s second top producer.

As things are today in Ghana, galamsey or IIM has devastated large tracks of cocoa farms, which have been converted to galamsey sites. From the way things are going, by 2030, Ghana could drop to the position of the fifth top producer of the crop.

The question is, in the exploitation of gold, must we destroy our renewable resources, so that we will be left with nothing when our gold gets finished?

Government can go the Arab-way by nationalising production of gold, diamond, oil etc, etc., in our country. It is about time that we turn the tables round. Instead of receiving 10% from the multinationals, we will take a maximum 90%. With that we will make a lot of revenue to keep us from the Bretton Woods Institutes and also make us resourceful enough to lend money to other countries.

Today, we all talk about Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAR and others and admire how wealthy they are. If they had not nationalised their oil, they might not have gotten here.

Let us immediately halt all irresponsible and illegal forms of mining, nationalised our oil and minerals productions and make good money to take care of this country.

Hon. Daniel Dugan