Nothing has been affirmed yet within NPP — Jake
The chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Mr Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, has said the party is currently receiving various suggestions for the 2016 elections from the rank and file of the party.
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Among the many suggestions coming up, he told the Daily Graphic, was for the party to consider electing a presidential candidate early enough for the 2016 elections.
In a telephone interview, he confirmed that the NPP was doing everything possible for the party to beef up its structures so as to position itself strongly for the 2016 polls.
He, however, said that “nothing has been affirmed yet; we are simply receiving suggestions and it is up to the National Executive Council to take definitive positions.”
In the past few days, a section of the media has reported that the NPP was contemplating electing a presidential candidate first before conducting other elections as part of its congress before the 2016 elections.
The proponents of the proposal, according to Deputy Minority Leader, Dominic Nitwit, in a radio interview, argued that electing a presidential candidate before concentrating on the lesser elections would greatly help beat down factionalism and dissension in the party.
He said since elections were won or lost at the polling stations, whoever emerged as the presidential candidate would be able to superintend over the election of officers who would be able to serve the party properly at the polling stations so as to secure victory for the party in 2016.
However, former Information Minister, Stephen Asamoah Boateng, has described as “dangerous” and “disastrous” the proposals by some people within the party for early presidential primaries.
He said not only was the timing wrong, but also the proposal was a covert attempt to “stampede” dissenting voices into accepting a preconceived idea.
Mr Asamoah Boateng, who pulled no punches in expressing his disagreement with the proposal, told XYZ Breakfast Show yesterday that the move could be part of moves by a clique within the national executive to hijack the party.
“…I can tell you [that] what they are trying to do is to take us to a special delegates conference; they would have thought their thing and then they will push it through by ‘hey hey, hey this is my Kingdom, shut up’ and then we go”, he said.
Mr Asamoah Boateng fears implementing the proposal would entrench the phenomenon of ‘hero-worshipping’, ‘praise-singing’ and ‘sycophancy’ in the party and thereby, worsen the factionalism and rumpus in the party and possibly lead to the hounding and ostracisation of dissenters.
He warned: “…while you are pushing things down people’s throat in your own party, others who are standing outside watch you and they look at you and (wonder), if they are doing that to their own people inside there, how do I join them?”