I would have loved to be in Kumasi over the weekend for the NPP’s Delegates Conference, which saw the election of the party’s national executives, the final chapter in its internal elections.
However, some urgent business in the capital kept me firmly grounded.
Of course, I am not a delegate, and ordinarily I would have no business being at the event grounds, but meeting up with old party friends and simply imbibing the ambience would have been worth it.
Watching proceedings on the television can never make up for being on the ground.
Spot of gloating
Before I delve into some of the substantive issues around the elections, I think a little bit of gloating is in order.
Do indulge me, dear reader, whilst I take these liberties.
You see, my alma mater, Opoku Ware School, featured quite strongly in the elections.
For the position of Chairman, we had Kat. John Boadu, who ultimately won in a spectacular comeback fashion after losing the General Secretary position at the last elections.
For the position of Secretary, as many as three out of the four candidates are Akatakyie: the incumbent, Kat. Justin Kodua Frimpong (who ultimately retained his job), Kat. Eugene Antwi and Kat. Charles Dwamena.
Essentially, therefore, we hold the two principal positions in the party at the national level, which is no mean feat.
It is only a matter of time before we produce a president of the republic from either of the two main parties.
‘Bamba’ shock factor
Gloating aside, like many within and outside the party, perhaps the most surprising electoral outcome was that of Mr Kojo Fosu Boadu (a.k.a ‘Bamba’), who beat party giants such as Messrs Nana Akomea, Henry Boakye (Nana B) and Dr Mustapha Hameed to clinch the position of First Vice-Chairman.
I do not think many saw this coming, and at best expected him to scrape through to the position of Third Vice-Chairman.
I certainly did not see it coming.
Apparently he conducted a rather quiet and focused campaign literally below the radar, away from the glitter of social media fanfare.
Perhaps what brings out one of life’s little ironies is that Bamba reportedly once served as Nana B’s driver and bodyguard.
Today, he is First Vice-Chairman of the party, outranking Nana B, who is the Second Vice-Chairman.
Politics is indeed a funny little game.
Shifting sands?
For several decades, the UP political tradition, from which the NPP descends, has been seen through the prism of representing elitism and intellectualism, featuring suit-wearing professionals with big degrees from top universities who spoke English with clipped accents.
Its opponents have used this as a battering ram in a mocking manner as being out of touch with ordinary people.
The running joke has been that in the NPP if one wants to progress, one must have multiple degrees, including almost obligatory law qualifications.
Au contraire, in the run-up to independence, Nkrumah’s CPP coalesced around the ‘verandah boys’ concept that represented ordinary working-class people, and which it mobilised effectively for political purposes.
The NDC and its immediate ancestors, the PNDC, also strategically positioned themselves as belonging to the ordinary man.
Interestingly, a core element of Dr Mustapha Hameed’s campaign message was that the party’s traditional intellectual base had deserted it and that he intended to woo them back upon his election as First Vice-Chairman.
The party’s rank and file heard him and politely ignored his message.
He did not even make it to Third Vice-Chairman.
That spoke volumes.
Perhaps the election of Bamba to the lofty position of First Vice-Chairman of the NPP speaks to a shift that seeks to bring to the decision-making table at the highest levels of the party men and women who do not necessarily have big degrees and certificates, but possess sheer grit, work hard for the party, understand the language of the ordinary people in the party and are determined to represent their interests at that level.
I believe Bamba’s election to this lofty position will energise and inspire ordinary party workers to work harder, in the realisation that they too can successfully climb the rather greasy political ladder without a degree certificate and the King’s English in tow.
As Prof. Otchere Addai Mensah has observed in a Facebook post, ‘The NPP has every right to evolve from a party whose leadership credentials are judged partly by social status and educational pedigree into one that places greater emphasis on political effectiveness’
Worthy blend
I believe some in the party would bemoan this apparent shift and argue that the NPP is abandoning its core appeal and thus driving away those who would otherwise be drawn to it almost as a matter of course.
I would disagree with such an assertion and believe that a political party needs a good blend of intellectualism and an appeal to its ordinary folks if it is to survive in the modern political space.
As my brother Krobea Kwabena Asante notes in a Facebook post, ‘We have the certificate politicians and we have the practical politicians.
We have those trained in the classroom and those trained in the trenches of grassroots politics.
A serious party needs both, and with Kwadwo Bamba as First Vice, we are building a political machine.’
I agree with him fully. Leadership is not solely a function of certificates.
Presidents Abraham Lincoln of the US, Lula of Brazil, Lech Walessa of Poland and Evo Morales of Bolivia all did not possess grand degrees but are acknowledged as formidable leaders of their countries.
Closer to home, Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda and our own Jerry Rawlings did not pursue education beyond secondary school and yet are admired by many as effective leaders.
Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s Krobo Edusei was a highly skilled and effective political operator who did not proceed beyond elementary school education.
Other examples abound.
In contemporary politics with its dynamics, I believe it would be politically suicidal for any serious political party to lean heavily either way on the ‘intellectual versus ordinary’ railings of the divide.
The NPP cannot, and must not, abandon its intellectual base, nor must it ignore its rank and file.
It is a tightrope that must be managed carefully and I believe the NPP got the blend fairly right at the national level in lacing its boots for the political battle ahead.
Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng.
E-mail:
