Aspiring New Patriotic Party Chairman, Nii Ayikoi Otoo, says when elected National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, he would align the rules such that every member of the Party would be treated fairly.
This is part of his plan to work on the apathy in the party and unite the NPP as the 2024 general elections draw near.
According to him, apathy is the greatest enemy of any political party, and it is important to practice fairness and transparency in order to avoid it from festering within the party.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he noted that the unfair treatment meted out to the Member of Parliament for Bekwai, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, and his subsequent exit from the party to run as an independent candidate was a classic example of the apathy grwoing within the party.
“We’ve done so well in 2017, then in 2020 we end up in a tie – 137,137, and then you needed someone to break that tie. That person happens to be our former member, what happened to him?
“Because of the way he was treated, you know, in trying to secure somebody’s position and letting him get out of the place and the rest, so if the party…I remember I issued a statement that when the rules for internal elections are not properly managed or applied, it leads to apathy and it’s very serious.” He said.
He continued, “Here is this gentleman who only wanted to go to Parliament, he ended up becoming a Second Deputy Speaker, you understand, because we now had difficulty. If we had managed the internal elections properly, that thing would not have happened for somebody to say I’m going to run as an independent.
“And once he becomes an independent it means that you’ve gone against the Party’s constitution and that you should even be sacked. But when we wanted to determine who will become the majority in Parliament, you had to fall on such a person.”
He noted that the failure of the Party’s leadership to apply the Party’s laws fairly and manage internal wrangling fairly and appropriately is what has caused the festering of apathy.
He said this has led the Party waste [precious time on reconciliation committees when they should be concentrating on strategizing for the next election year.
“But most of the time after internal elections then we begin to talk about a reconciliation committee. What are they going to reconcile? Instead of beginning to think of the next election and mapping up strategies, we waste a lot of time trying to put people together.
“It seems to me that those are difficult things that we have to do. If there are any ways and means, why do you do your ways and means against your own people which rather lead to apathy and people will say no, I’m no longer interested, I won’t vote.
“I see that as one of the greatest problems that we have. You finish and you see also apart from the reconciliation committee a lot of cases. People going to court, asking for injunction, so so and so.
“I want us to break that thing, to allow the internal processes to work and then get people to be interested, unite the party, you know, aligning the rule to be applied fairly.”