Mixed reactions greet calls for ceasefire in NPP
Veteran journalist, Kweku Baako Jnr, says any plan to oust NPP’s embattled National Chairman, Paul Afoko, and General Secretary, Kwabena Agyepong, won’t solve the internal party wrangling if they wish to win power in 2016.
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Instead of removing them, the party should rather work to neutralise any possible threat posed by the two in jeopardising the party’s chances of winning the 2016 elections, the Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide newspaper has advised.
He called this strategy, a policy of “containment” and “progressive neutralisation”.
Discussing the party in crisis, Kweku Baako pointed out that with elections about 18 months away, “it is in enlightened self-interest of the party that it does not create distractions.”
He also condemned an underground movement to collect signatures of party members as part of a strategy to use the party’s "rigorous" constitutional process to remove Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyepong.
Kweku Baako said he believed that if the two decided to fight back, the clashes would be “dirty” and “crude”.
To avert the possibility of dampening the morale of the party’s 2016 campaign machine, Kweku Baako advised: “the party should not be proceeding towards the exclusion of the two gentlemen.”
“I advocate a policy of containment and progressive neutralisation of whatever mischief they perceive,” he stressed.
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Nonetheless, Kweku Baako said it was difficult for him to imagine Afoko and Agyepong desiring opposition when power is there for the taking.
The veteran journalist called on anti-Afoko and anti-Agyepong plots to be abandoned in the spirit of the flag bearer’s call for peace.He also called on the party to “name and shame” elements who breached the flag bearer’s call for a ceasefire.
In worse breaches, Baako called for dissenting members to be suspended or expelled.
Relatedly, a leading member of the NPP, Dr Kobina Arthur Kennedy, has chastised Nana Akufo-Addo for not condemning the moves by some party executive members to remove Messrs Afoko and Agyepong, during his recent press conference.
But the party’s Communications Director, Nana Akomea, described as baseless the submissions by Dr Kennedy.
In an interview on The Big Issue on Citi FM last Saturday, Dr Kennedy said Nana Akufo-Addo should have “unequivocally condemned the impeachment procedures” against the two.
Arthur Kennedy said he was not satisfied with Nana Akufo-Addo’s press conference last Friday where he sternly declared he will not tolerate chaos in the party, and asked for the infighting to stop.
“When people go to congress and contest positions, they are entitled to hold the positions except for illness, death or something extraordinary. For some time now, it has been occurring that there have been some people who are determined not to let Mr Afoko and Mr Agyepong serve their term and the two of them as they are entitled, are determined to serve the mandate.”
He further argued that the current confusion in the NPP could stop “If people stop trying to hound them [Afoko and Agyepong] out of office,” Arthur Kennedy said.
But Nana Akomea, in a rebuttal, questioned the basis for Arthur Kennedy’s claims, saying he had no evidence to support his position.
In a response, he explained that Nana Akufo-Addo’s decision to refer those asking for Afoko and Agyepong’s removal to the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) was a step in the right direction.
“He [Arthur Kennedy] said Akufo-Addo should have come out clearly and condemn the cause of impeachment. Why will Akufo-Addo do that. These are opinions being expressed by party members so what Nana Akufo-Addo advised was for party members to follow the grievance procedure.”
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