Endorsing sitting NPP MPs alien, dangerous— Nana Obiri Boahen

The Deputy General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Obiri Boahen, has said suggestions that the party considers endorsing some incumbent Members of Parliament (MPs) for the 2024 parliamentary election is alien to the party, and must not be entertained.

“The suggestion is not only dangerous but unwarranted,” he told the Daily Graphic on Wednesday December 21, 2021.

Nana Boahen, who is also a private legal practitioner, said that in reaction to a statement made by the Majority Leader in Parliament, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu at the NPP National Delegates Conference in Kumasi, last Sunday.

Majority Leader’s proposition

Addressing the conference, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who is also the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, said there was the need for introspection on how the party conducted its parliamentary primaries.

“We should recognise that the party today is at a critical juncture and if we don’t handle the process of choosing our parliamentary candidates well then we may end up losing more than one half of our sitting MPs as we did in 2020.

“In this regard, I would like to propose to the party that the constituencies should be encouraged to the largest extent possible to adopt the incumbent Members of the Parliament for the purpose of the next general election as any free for all election that is not guided or guarded would take over our great party,” he said.

Unacceptable

However, Nana Boahen described the Majority Leader’s proposition as unacceptable.

“His [Majority Leader] suggestion is dead on arrival, and I dare say that it is even sacrilegious to make a suggestion of such nature in a tradition like the NPP where we welcome competition,” he posited.

He added: “Busia enjoyed competition, Dombo patronised competition, Danquah was a proponent of competition, Prof. Adu Boahen was a product of competition, Kufuor took part in competition, and Nana Akufo-Addo is a firm believer in competition. Therefore, the Majority Leader’s suggestion is outmoded.”

Lessons

Nana Boahen said it was important for the party to learn lessons from the near disaster that befell it in the parliamentary election of 2020.

“We lost so many seats in 2020 because of the idea of protecting many incumbent MPs of which the Majority Leader was a beneficiary,” he stated.