A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Richard Amoako Baah, says President Akufo-Addo is presiding over a party of indiscipline.
According to him, the President has wrecked the country and is imposing Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on the party and the country to cover his tracks.
Speaking to JoyNews’ Evans Mensah, Dr. Baah said it was time for party members to speak truth to power and stop going around issues.
“We campaigned for Nana Addo, I campaigned for him and probably there is no one who campaigned harder than me. He has wrecked the country and he has wrecked the party.
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“You are leaving office so why will you need someone there and that is because there are a lot of malfeasance going on and he will need someone to cover his track for him when he is no longer there.
“When he leaves office, you will see how bad things are. You have not seen anything yet and those who are following him that is what they are doing.
“If he says he is not going to force anyone on us, then his words must match his actions but his words don’t match his actions. We were in Assin North, we were sharing money. The President is the first person who is supposed to uphold the law but he was leading the charge. He paid money to voters when we have laws against it.”
Again, the Political Science Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) accused National Organizer of the NPP, Henry Nana Boakye of being part of party officials who are misbehaving.
“Nana B is one of those in that camp who is misbehaving in the party. It is the President who is in charge and all the young ones are behind him misbehaving. They are misbehaving. This is what we are talking about and this is what people have said. This party is not like that.
“We used to think it was the NDC that had people misbehaving but we have become worse than them,” he stressed.
However reacting to the allegations, Henry Nana Boakye described the comments as unfair.
According to him, as the National Organizer, he has tried to maintain order and discipline and ensure that the elders in the party are not disrespected by the youth.
“First of all, I think yesterday or two days ago, I also heard him accuse me of grabbing the mic from Honorable Alan Kyerematen in Assin North, and I think it was an unfair comment.
“It was never the case, infact I was not even near the action that day. I apologized because I am the national organizer and I even said I was not happy about it but yesterday he attacked me.
“You see, he is a senior person and I am also not going to attack him in a similar manner but I think he got the facts wrong, I was not the person on stage, I never grabbed the mic from Honorable Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen. It was the Central Regional Organizer and I even reprimanded him and that is how as National Organizer I apologized because I was in charge of the organization.
“So Honorable Amoako Baah has been quite unfair. It is improper for him to say that I am misbehaving in the party, that is never the case.”
Meanwhile, Political Marketing lecturer, Professor Kobby Mensah says the NPP should not downplay the impact of Alan’s decision on its electoral fortunes.
He argues that a significant amount of party supporters and sympathisers may follow him.
“He has actually contested the flagbearer position of the party over a long period of time and it stands to reason that he has probably created a machinery that can be used to mobilise people in this country particularly in the Ashanti region which is the NPP’s stronghold.
“Now, if he leaves, certainly we are going to have a lot of people leaving that is not to say they are going to be in droves because people have so many reasons for connecting to a political party.
“It will be difficult to have through and through party people deserting the party to follow you but you are going to have quite a number of people also significantly following him because of the candidate and the personality and other kind of leadership qualities that he brings to the table and so I feel that yes, it is going to be significant in terms of its impact on NPP, but also nationally, you are going to have people who might have toyed with this idea but have never been able to boldly execute it.
“Now when there is an incident, then you are actually giving signal to some people that look, you can do it.”