Ablekuma West NPP executives grateful to National Council, Akufo-Addo
Some New Patriotic Party (NPP) constituency and polling station executives, together with some members of the Council of Elders from the Ablekuma West Constituency, have called on the party’s 2016 presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, to thank him and the National Council of the party for withdrawing some “controversial directives” issued by the National Executive Committee (NEC) regarding the upcoming parliamentary primaries.
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They were led by the former chairman of the constituency, Theoplilus Tettey, who acted as the spokesperson and who has resigned as chairman to contest the upcoming parliamentary primaries.
Demonstrations
He explained that in the aftermath of the directives by NEC, his constituents organised a series of demonstrations to protest against some of the directives issued by NEC, especially the one which required that only women aspirants would contest in constituencies held by NPP women MPs.
According to him, most party faithful, evident in the number of protests carried out in some parts of the country, were of the view that the “affirmative action” proposal would be detrimental to the fortunes of the NPP in the 2016 general election.
“We even took our protests to the doorstep of our leader, Nana Akufo-Addo. He urged us to halt the protests, which we did, and assured us that the leadership of the party would take a second look at the directives,” Theophilus Tettey said.
Withdrawn directives
He continued, “True to Nana Akufo-Addo’s word, the National Council met on Wednesday and have withdrawn these directives. We are here today to say a big thank you to him. The NPP has a listening presidential candidate and on behalf of all the constituency executives, we want to assure him that we will work harder than ever to make him President in 2017.”
Nana Akufo-Addo thanked the executives for the visit and reassured them that the directives issued by NEC were not meant to favour nor hinder any particular person. They were intended to promote the visibility of women in our parliament.
“When decisions are made by leadership and the grass roots disagree with them, as good leaders, you have to take those concerns on board. We are a listening party, Ye tie obiaa, and that is what the National Council has done,” Akufo-Addo said, to a rapturous applause from the gathering.
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He stressed that the party firmly believed in the ideals of the policy, describing it as a "firm step in getting the goal of equity and justice for women", and added that the party would in the near future, and with the full support of membership, seek to institutionalise the policy.
Confidence
He urged the executives to ensure that the upcoming parliamentary primaries were conducted in a manner that would give Ghanaians the confidence to entrust us with the mantle of leadership.
Also present at the meeting was Mr. Kwamena Bartels, a former Minister, former Member of Parliament for Ablekuma North and currently a member of the NPP’s National Council.