Are The Appointees Of The President Smelling Upcoming Defeat Of Nana Addo?

By Hon Salisu Be- Awuribe

When you see Appointtees of a President especially those occupying CEO and Deputy CEO positions, busily jostling for parlialemtary seats especially in Constituencies they hitherto held, these may be the reasons:

1. They have strong doubt and are most certainly convinced that their flag bearer ( President) is not capable of winning in the next elections. Otherwise, what is it? Being a CEO or a Deputy CEO is a Public Service, the same for MP. Most of Conditions of Service of the CEOs are far better than that of Parliament. As a CEO, Deputy CEO, Minister, Deputy Minister or Presidential Staffer, What ever you can do for your own people, you can still do that and even more even without being a Parliamentarian from the Presidency, Ministry, Institution or Company to which you are Minister/CEO or Deputy Minister/CEO. You can’t hold a position of CEO and Still be a Parliamentarian, unless a Board Chairman. By feasting on an elephant meat whilst struggling to snatch the rabbit in the hands of a malnourished MP or Constituent is a clear demonstration of an insatiable greed. Just as the President appointed you to be a Minister/CEO or Deputy Minister/CEO, if Ministerial or Deputy Ministerial position is what you crave for, you have already caught the eye of the President and could equally catch the eye of the President from that position if you are a CEO. Worse still, the CEO position you are leaving, it is most likely that, no one from your constitiency would be appointed to replace you. The effect is that, the Constituency would loose on either way. You are most probably not swapping that position with your MP. So why the greed? The only Plausible reason is that the zaid CEO or Staffer has the conviction that the President is on his way to a massive defeat, the reason he wants to guarantee a seat in Parliament. There is wisdom in the statement that everyman protects his head from the falling stone.
2. Another Reason is that the sitting MPs have performed abysmally and if no fresh face is injected, the party stands to loose the seat to their opponent, the NDC. Whether the New comer wins or loses, a self appraisal and verdict of Poor Performance of the Party in the Constituency has already been given and the Constituents are well aware of it and have taken note.
3. It is even worse when the party at the National Level through their so called intelligence and surveys identified 67 performers out of the 168 MPs from the Majority Bench. What that means is that, the party has passed a vote of confidence on only the 67 MPs from the Majority and the remaining 101 has failed their test of competence. The worse is even those who are ministers, deputies and Parliamtary Committee Chairpersons. The unexpressed words of the NPP at the National Level is to say that, those asked to go contest have performed below par, their expertise are not needed and can be replaced or that they don’t trust their performance in their constituencies and are suspicious they may be replaced by the Constituents or that they are invariably asking the party in the Constitiency to replace them. Sad isn’t it?
4. Another reason why CEO and other High Appointttees of the government will contest their own MPs is the never ending Political Internal divisions, call them camps. It is trite knowledge that those who get appointed to many of the endowed positions are most loyal to the President and may belong to his camp. There may be other MPs whom they suspect are of the other internal camp of the President or Vice President. The hunger of taking full control of internal Party delegates from constituencies leads the most resourced people, those of the Presidents camp, to move in to snatch the seats away from the perceived internal opponents to the President or Vice President. In NPP, everyone knows the Paa Willie/Prof Adu Boahene/ Nana Addo/ Bawumia camp and the Victor Owusu/ Kufour/ Alan Kyeremanteng/ Boniface camps. No pretence at all. This has made the President and Vice President to push their Appointtees to snatch seats from Mps they think belong to the other camps. MPs who were in the good books of the President and his Vice and Appointtees attempted to contest, they were whipped to withdraw, some through phone calls and others at close meetings. Recalcitrant appointtees who refused to heed the advice of the President have been dismissed from their positions and suspended from the Party. Hon Peter Wuni and Hajia Alima Mahama of Nalerigu Constituency on my Mind. My good Friend Hon Joseph ” Helicopter” Kofi Adda, Aviation Minister and my Sister Hon Abayage, UE Regional Minister comes to mind. Hon Dr Sugri Sagre B, Deputy Agric Minister and Hajia ” Aboboyaa” Lardi, one of the many Deputy CEO of Northern Development Authority, a ‘sister’ of Vice President Bawumia also comes to mind. Need I mention Asenso Boakye, Deputy Chief of Staff and Daniel Okyem Aboagye all of Bantama, David Asante of Let my Vote Count fame and CEO of Ghana Publishing Company also comes to mind. Well I will not Mention Hon Salifu Braimah of Salaga South and many other like him.

Please in all this writeup, I refused to fall to the shenanigans and traps of the ‘Marfia’ Hassan Tampuli who played a game of thrones on the Academic Hon Dr Ziblim Iddi, Deputy Minister of Tourism. Hassan’s Political Machevilian tactics is for discussion on another day and all political science students must note it as a case study.

Will the affected just fold their arms and cry in the quiet? Obviously not. That will be cowardice and anyone contemplating that has just sown the seeds of his or her own perpertual political destruction. In politics you fight back after destruction in other to remain relevant. They must fight back to be relevant either now or in the future. The Kufour dynasty in NPP is gradually being obliterated and crushed to irreducible pieces. They keep quiet at their peril. Dagombas say that “Baa wahi Toli”, to wit the barking of a dog moves not the Mortar. Bahi tora, di bi nya jensi mboo?

Truth be told, no amount of scheming within the NPP will save the Nana Addo led NPP from defeat despite they destroying the internal tenants of democracy in their political party against the requirements and underlying principles expected of all Political parties by the Constitution, 1992.

21st June, 2020.