Shed egos, personal interests – Kufuor tells ruling party

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has urged the rank and file of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to shed their egos and personal interests for the greater good of the party.

“We must swallow our individual egos for the greater good of our party and unity of all. Let us sail together; do not do anything that begins to bring rancour within our ranks and when we do that, I assure you the people of Ghana will vote for us in the subsequent elections and we could become the party of the country,” he said.

Conference

Addressing the 26th National Delegates’ Conference of the NPP in Koforidua last Saturday, the former President asked the party faithful to remain magnanimous and be team players for a positive future.

 Quoting a former Chairman of the party, the late B.J. da Rocha, to support his call, he said: “Being in the same party does not make us friends, but we must share a common vision. We must know the destination we all want to reach, and to do this, there must be good governance and prosperity.’’

“We cannot do these two things effectively and efficiently together without a solidly united party;  and this is why there is the need for a stronger and united party to deliver to Ghana as a whole,” he added.

The conference, which attracted 6,100 delegates drawn from all over the country, was on the theme: “Building a united stronger party, delivering prosperity for Ghana.”

Power

“Power has a way of treating people, even if they have good intentions. Power, they say, corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, so if you are not careful, you become complacent, conceited or discriminatory,” former President Kufuor cautioned, and urged the government to take a critical look at the grass roots.

He said in most instances “we would want to make progress, be it social interventions, at the macro-economic front or sustainable development, but power can make you complacent, conceited or discriminatory”.

That, according to him, must not be encouraged, adding: “Unfortunately for us, the tenure of office of our government is so short. We have only four years and you don’t change the world within four years. But we want to change the world; we want to transform Ghana.”

He indicated that “to be able to do that, we need a very solid and united party for the great mission and the policies the government is launching”.

Describing himself as an uncle of the party, the former President said he was now playing the role of an elder, which was to advise as and when necessary.