NPP MPs must respect party constitution
Since May 21, 2015 when Mr Adams Mahama, the Upper East Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), died after acid was poured on him, many theories have been developed by a number of people both from within and without the NPP.
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One of the strongest of the theories is that because Mahama publicly called on the NPP National Chairman, Paul Afoko, and General Secretary, Kwabena Agyepong, to respect the party’s structures after the two had attempted to hold a meeting with some party officials in the Upper East Region without his (Mahama’s) knowledge, the two might have planned his killing.
Though this theory has not been given any basis on which people would accept it as no one has so far given any evidence to prove that Afoko and Agyapong engineered Mahama’s death, very senior members of the NPP have strangely trumpeted this theory to the point of calling on the two top party officers to resign.
Some media reports even suggest that the Council of Elders of the NPP has written to Messrs Afoko and Agyepong to resign, though other media reports sourced to some members of the same council have rubbished this claim, insisting that the council has not made that call.
Strangely, while this blame game continues to consume all the party’s time and energy, with some members blaming almost everybody from the party’s flag bearer, Nana Akufo Addo, to former president, Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, the various regional branches hurriedly organised meetings at which they reportedly resolved that Afoko and Agyepong should resign from office.
Laws
One thing is clear about the NPP. There are many high-profile lawyers in the party. This makes it more difficult to understand why a party with such number of lawyers will behave like people who know nothing about law.
Another point is that the NPP prides itself on being a party which respects the rule of law, yet one is at a loss as to why the party would pick and choose which laws to respect.
The NPP as a party has a constitution. This constitution stipulates how party activities must be conducted, including the election of officers and how to remove them. Strangely, however, nobody seems to care about these constitutional provisions.
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One would have also thought that for a party which believes in the rule of law, its senior members, some of whom are lawyers, would not try Afoko and Agyepong in their mind and sentence them without any evidence established against them.
Killing is a crime. Criminal issues are supposed to be handled by the police who are tasked with the responsibility of investigating them to establish the culprits.
In the case of the killing of Adams Mahama, Afoko and Agyepong were found guilty of killing him even before the police started their investigations, and they are yet to announce their findings. It’s incredibly shocking, but it’s real and live, that this is happening in the NPP, a party full of lawyers and with a claim of being a respecter of rule of law.
Only a few of the lawyers in the party, such as the former Attorney General, Mr Ayikoi Otoo, have publicly condemned the unlawful action of party members, including very top and senior members.
MPs too?
The last group of NPP members expected to join this blatantly unlawful act is made up of members of parliament (MPs).
Media reports say the leadership of the NPP members of parliament has called on the party Chairman, Afoko, and General Secretary, Agyapong, to ‘step aside’.
“. . .That in the circumstances, the two national officers be requested, in the interest of peace, unity, trust and stability in the party, to step aside to allow for an impartial investigation into these matters, especially the gruesome murder of Mr Adams Mahama, the Upper East Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP),” states a resolution by the MPs to the party’s Council of Elders, signed by Minority Leader Osei Kyei Mensa-Bonsu last Wednesday.
What do these lawmakers mean by ‘step aside’? On which of the NPP laws or national constitutional provisions do they base their call to ‘step aside’?
One would have expected our lawmakers to be the first to observe the laws of the country, but many of us are shocked by the unlawful act of these NPP MPs.
Would they also agree if members in their constituencies tomorrow ask all of them to ‘step aside’ for other NPP members to contest the 2016 parliamentary election because they have already served in Parliament and that it is the turn of others?
Another weird and absurd position was advanced by the MP for Efutu, Mr Afenyo Markins, last Wednesday when he said that given the tension in the party, the only way to calm tempers and focus on unity for victory 2016 was for them [Afoko, Agyepong] to step aside.
I became instantly sick when I read what was attributed to Mr Markins, one of the young politicians I have recently started to respect. He has in recent times taken cases to the Supreme Court, so if as a lawyer, he were to face the Supreme Court tomorrow over his statement, would he be able to defend it?
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Accusations
The common sense approach many had expected these hot-headed NPP officials and members to adopt was to await the results of the police investigation before organising this mock-looking “no confidence votes” by the regional branches, and calls by other members for the two to resign.
A week before the death of Mahama, this column said that the NPP was digging its own 2016 election defeat grave, and called on the party and its leadership to sit up and put their acts together, but little did we imagine that the ugliest scenes were yet to come.
Now it is the supposed Akufo-Addo faction against supposed Kufuor faction; and Afoko supporters versus anti-Afoko members – with accusations and counter accusations being the main occupation of members of a party which says it wants to take over power from an incumbent government.
We have said many times in this column that our main priority is to ensure that no parties are allowed to derail the country’s young democratic path by spilling out their internal wrangling into the national political atmosphere.
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Gradually, the NPP is making itself an ungovernable party, and if it does not immediately apply the needed remedy to the destructive cancer which is fast spreading, it should not blame anyone after December 7, 2016. In fact, there will never be Supreme Court sittings.
The author is a Political Scientist, and Media and Communication Expert. fasado@hotmail.com