NPP Council Of Elders In Flagrant Violations Of The Party’s Constitution

By: Mavis Bills/GhanaPoliticsonlibe.Com (PhD), Leading Member of the NPP, Manhyia South Constituency.

An elder is defined by the wiki encyclopedia as “someone with a degree of seniority”. In our society, an elder is deemed as an older person. An elder can be good or bad depending on the lifestyle and the life lived by such a person.

In the NPP, framers of our constitution envisaged the likelihood of differences in a human institution such as our party, thus, their wisdom in reserving a provision for Elders. Proponents of our constitution , knowing that, not all elders are necessarily of good behavior and of fair mind; explicitly defined who fits the bill as a Council of Elder. Article 15 clause 1 of the party’s constitution states inter alia that, “There shall be a National Council of Elders composed of Members who have given of their best and have contributed significantly to the formation, welfare and progress of the Party and its forbears.” Put briefly, this clause means that, an elder in NPP is someone “who at all times uphold truth to seek the progress of the party”

On Monday, November 9 2015, Ghanaians listened with utmost incredulity on TV3, where a member of the Council of Elders, a certain Ambassador Adjei Bawuah who spoke with TV3’s Ashanti Regional Correspondent, William Inkoom, in reacting to party executives who were fretted about the illegal decision sift from a ludicrously vexatious petition that had resulted in a coupe d’etat against the National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party and accordingly thronged the streets of Accra from their various constituencies to exercise their unforfeitable ‘human rights and freedom to demonstrate’, by way of protesting peacefully against such contagious decision by certain ODD people in the New Patriotic Party. Hear Adjei Bawuah say “If the fortunes of a party depends on a single individual then the party has no business existing. Therefore if by the NPP disciplining one person constitutes a lose of the election, as long as the reasons for suspending him are genuine and proper and fair, well investigated then maybe for the NPP’s own sake it is better to loss the election without him. It is better to lose the elections without Afoko”

Pardon me to veer off a bit. In 2008, Was Chairman Afoko the flagbearer or anywhere near the party’s hierarchy for such a person of the caliber of Adjei Bawuah to suggest, the losing fortune of the NPP depends on him? Obviously, Chairman Afoko was not the flagbearer or anywhere near the executives of the party in 2012 when Akufo-Addo struggled to reduce our votes from 52% to 49% to 47%. We have lost elections three times in a row with a changed party executives on three occasions em bloc but Akufo-Addo remains unchanged , yet a sane mind finds it convenience to attribute the bad fortunes of the NPP to a new face Chairman Paul Afoko who was resisted, fought through petitions from faceless strangers and later sent as far far as INTERPOL in UK to be cleared of spurious lies raised by ghost? Admittedly, since the inception of our tradition in the last 7 decades, Chairman Paul Afoko is the first and last to have been sentenced to INTERPOL for clearance. This, I am not sure Akufo-Addo can survive investigation by INTERPOL into a niche of his past life on earth.

I beg to ask, from the above definition of an elder in Article 15 clause 1, is the comment of Adjei Bawuah seeking the progress of the NPP? In the same vein, Article 15 (clause 2 ) paragraph 1 states that ” The National Council may be called upon from time to time to Solve disputes and differences among Members”. From the responsibility statement above , Adjei Bawuah’s abusive and vituperative comment has not only breached his core mandate, but has betrayed his conscience and dignity. A reasonable politician(s) does not need a clairvoyant to remind them of this basic political principle- “Politics is about numbers and we only count thumbs on election day”. The Holy Bible remind us that, “in the abundance of the heart speaketh the mouth” . Adjei Bawuah saying “is better to lose without Afoko” means that, his primary wish is to see the NPP lose the 2016 elections in order to continue poisoning the NPP with his idle blabbing of diatribes. Adjei Bawuah shouting from rooftops, demanding the sacking of chairman Afoko has never for a second thought that, Suspending Chairman Afoko means you have suspended his thumb. Yes! He and other surrogates of Akufo-Addo failed to realize that, Chairman Afoko’s core supporters are from the soul of the party’s stronghold, Ashanti region. Thus, any attempt to frustrate him (Chairman Afoko) will incur the wrath of the good people of Asante.

In Tamale, when it dawned on the INTOLERANT MILITANT WING that the industrialist Paul Afoko has won the National Chairman of the NPP, this very Adjei Bawuah , spoke with Journalist of Ashanti Region’s Luv FM. He out of frustration passed these words in presaging the evil machinations Akufo-Addo was up to . Bawuah said “S3 ) sii, wey winii chairman, )nko Di na y3n hw3″ to wit ” If Afoko thinks he has win the Chairman, he should come to the office and he will not last his term”. This same tirade and flak was divulged by Bugri Naabu as part of the plan of Akufo-Addo to hurriedly oust Chairman Afoko from office even before the 2016 elections calendar.

What is more dreadfully petrifying is the obnoxious frequenting of the Accra High Courts at the Law Courts complex by these Council of Elders led by their Chairman Mr CK Tedam in frantic support of one faction in a tussle. IC Quaye, Mike okwey, Osarfo Marfo, Adjiri Blankson, Adjei Bawuah, Yeremia, to mention few are members of the party’s Council of elders who are on all times present at the Law court . Understanbly, the representative of the party in any law suit as defined by our constitution shall be the General Secretary or National Chairman. Hence, it was prudent for the criminal and dubious Freddie Blay who diverted and shared the party’s Ghc 6 million with Nana Akufo-Addo and has been elevated to acting chairman, or the acting general secretary John Boadu to represent the party at the courts , and not any Council of elders who are sincerely ignorant about what their core responsibilities are.

The uninspiring faces and tongue-lashing attributes of these mercenaries of Akufo-Addo (Council Of Elders) defines their long walk in the life of dishonesty and deception. The very primary essence of a political party is to win elections by keeping the government on it toes. Sadly, it is ironic that, the only time in the last decade, Mr CK Tedam was heard speaking on media was on how he was deliberately determined in infesting the public with senile lies, malicious untruths, and bizarrely unfounded allegations instead of attacking the government of the day. I blame his family for allowing Akufo-Addo and his gangs to use their surviving nonagenarian as the hatchetman.

Similarly, Article 15 (clause 2 paragraph 1) of our party’s constitution has been thoughtlessly bruised and shredded by the CK Tedam led Council of elders. It states that “The National Council may be called upon from time to time to Solve disputes and differences among Members”. Now there is a dispute and this same Council of Elders have mischievously taken an entrenched position to support one party in the feud thus, breaching the party’s constitution with impunity. Instead of taking a neutral position and advise the party on how to make peace, the CK Tedam Council of Elders have allowed their legendary hatred for Chairman Paul Afoko and their dislike for fairness and truth to corrupt their sense of reasoning and morality. Further deepening the cracks with their repulsive and extremely objectionable posture was in exercising Article 15 (clause 2 paragraph 3) . They busied themselves in a crusade of lies and tongue-lashing through their abusive spokesperson Adjei Bawuah, that it was better to lose the 2016 elections without Chairman Paul Afoko. A friend after sighting these “takrawogyam” squad of Council of elders at the Law courts complex described them as “Mentally enslaved fanatics of Akufo-Addo who make venture out of division”. Considering the rate at which this crop of Council Of Elders have reduced the dignity of such organ of the party to such farcical level, by initiating the coupe d’etat against Chairman Afoko through a vexatious petition from them to a disciplinary committee which had these same crop of people as its members – Some Council of Elders doubling as Disciplinary Committee members who seeked to be judges in their own frivolous case against Chairman Afoko are: Prof mike Okwey, Dr Addo Kufour, Madam Ama Busia to mention few.

Alas, it would not be farfetched for one to conclude that , the worst group of Council Of Elders who had acted in a very bad faith is this current Council Of Elders. Enough of the violations of our party’s constitution by people who ought to have known better!

Stop Desecrating Our Party’s Constitution with impunity !

Let the Ears Listen to the wise words!!!!