Opare-Ansah pledges to strengthen NPP structures

An aspiring General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Frederick Opare-Ansah, has pledged to strengthen the party’s internal control systems by providing the requisite structures and mechanisms for making sure that instructions and assignments are rolled out downwards.

That, he said, would include restoring the channels of communication between the party and the base of the party.

He said it would involve communicating through the regions, constituencies down to the polling stations “instead of issuing press releases or press announcements, which in my view is wrong.”

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Opare-Ansah, who served as a Member of Parliament for Suhum for 16 years, said he intended to remotivate the base of the party and get them to refocus on the objectives of the party.

“People are quite unhappy with the party. The government is still doing well but you will notice that internally, the party is bashing itself rather than focusing on projecting the good that the government is doing. So as it is now, the government seems to be like a baby without a parent.”

“Instead of the parent overlooking the activities of the baby, the baby has been left alone. The government is putting all the necessary measures to strengthen the economy,” he stated.

Mr Opare-Ansah explained that what was happening on the economic front was not the doing of the government.

“This is happening all over the world but maybe people have averted their minds from it. So clearly, it is a global problem but the government is putting in all the measures that it can to reduce the shock on the people. But in all these, who is there to speak for the government? You can’t even find the party,” he lamented.

Strong party

Mr Opare-Ansah said everything his administration would be doing internally would be to provide a better and stronger party.

“We can strengthen our relationships with government – the party and government relationship; the party and parliamentary relationship.

“You can see once again what is happening in Parliament. What is the role of the party in Parliament. You can see how the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as a party outside of Parliament is chaperoning its party inside Parliament to a certain direction and getting them to take action,” he said.

Citing the E-Levy as an example, Mr Opare-Ansah said because the NDC as a party said no to its passage, the NDC MPs had to comply.

“The national party is exerting the necessary controls over the parliamentary caucus. So you can see the relationship is there. So that relationship ought to be strengthened,” he said.