Akufo-Addo picks Eugene Arhin for MP

Even before the New Patriotic Party (NPP) opens nominations for members who wish to become parliamentary candidates and organize primaries for them, President Nana Akufo-Addo has told the people of the Awutu Senya West constituency that his Director of Communications, Eugene Arhin, has parliamentary ambitions in that constituency and further appealed to them to support his ambition when the time comes because he would make an excellent and hardworking parliamentarian.

The President’s public calls for support for Mr. Arhin ahead of the primaries has raised questions whether he has not flouted the NPP’s code of conduct which states that “members, supporters, sympathizers of the Party at all levels shall desist from using their public office or portfolio within or outside the party to promote the interest of any prospective presidential or parliamentary candidate in order to gain unfair political.”

Indeed Justine Frempong Kodua the NPP General Secretary, last month issued a caution which read: “in obedience to the Party’s Constitution and the Code of Conduct, herein, all National, Regional, and Constituency Executives of the Party are once again cautioned to refrain from either endorsing or openly campaigning for any presidential or parliamentary aspirant.”

Nana Addo, speaking to the chiefs and of Awutu Senya last Friday September 2, noted: “As you know, one of your very own, the Director of Communications at the Presidency, has done a very good job in lobbying persistently for the road to be constructed just as he did for the Bawjiase-Kasoa road. And I assure you that it will be completed before 2024.

“It is public knowledge that he has intentions of contesting on the ticket of the NPP in 2024. If he is successful in the NPP parliamentary primaries, Nananom, I am confident that he would do an excellent job as Member of Parliament for you and I appeal to all of you to support him, if and when that time comes.

“You can see for yourself what he is doing for Awutu Senya West. Indeed it is evident and all of you can see that when the NPP is in power, Awutu Senya West develops”, President Akufo-Addo added.

Nana Addo made the remarks when he commissioned the APPEB Cylinder Manufacturing Company Ltd., in Chochoe in the Awutu Senya West Constituency in the Central Region.

This has not gone down well with some persons who have opined that President Akufo-Addo should have waited till after parliamentary primaries before publicly endorsing the parliamentary ambitions of Mr. Eugene Arhin.

One of such critics is a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo, who said the remarks of Nana Addo flouts the NPP’s agreed code of conduct.

“Respectfully, Mr. President, I cannot mince words. I think you are being lawless, I am sorry to put it bluntly. You were part of your Party’s National Executive Committee Meeting that approved the Party’s Code of Conduct. You are giving unfair advantage to Eugene Arhin, knowing very well that Parliamentary Primaries for the area hasn’t been held”, Prof. Gyampo noted on his Facebook wall in response to the endorsement from Nana Addo.

Prof Gyampo noted further: “You must not read everything written for you. Your speech makers always have their own agenda too and I expect you to be able to read in between the lines, to know whose interest is being served by the kind of things that are sometimes written for you to read.

“I expect Justine Frempong Kodua, the General Secretary of the Party to muster the testicular fortitude as a man who believes in fairness to summon you before your Party’s Complaint Committee. He did this to Hopeson Adorye and Assifua. No one is above the law and the application of the law must not be selective.

“Over to you, Justin. We knew John Boadu could not do this and that’s why we all worked behind the scenes towards your election. I know the pressures from high places that came on you to abandon your ambition to become the Party’s General Secretary. You stood your grounds as a man, damning the powerful voices against your ambition and you won.”