Prez. Aspirants In Cabinet Under Fire …Gabby Says What NPP Is Afraid To Say

Any Minister in the Akufo-Addo Cabinet on an undercover and subtle but strategic campaign to become presidential candidate of the party during the 2024 elections should resign and focus on the task of meeting delegates rather than remain in office with a divided attention and focus, Gabby Otchere-Darko, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said.

Mr. Otchere-Darko restrained himself from mentioning specific names but it is open knowledge that barely three months into the second term of the Nana Addo-led government, some of his appointees are meeting party leadership at the regional and constituency levels during which they express their interest in becoming the party’s flag-bearer.

“If your focus, as a member of Akufo-Addo’s government, is to first fight for your own ambition and transformation, then, please, feel free to move over to move on.  Please note: NPP in power must first succeed for NPP to succeed NPP! Build on this power we have now for your own power trip not to be tripped by your priority tripped wires. Be wise!”, the lawyer and founder of the Danquah Institute noted in a post on his Facebook wall.

The call from Otchere-Darko has been the heart beat of the party faithful across the country since news of the covert campaigns broke but leadership has not gathered the courage to openly take the bull by the horns and confront the creeping anomaly head on.

Perhaps they do not believe in the axiom of “ a stitch in time saves nine”  so are watching unconcerned, with their jaws rested in their palms for the hatched snakelet to mature into a full grown anaconda.

There are several reports that one of such Cabinet Ministers had met with all 47 Constituency Chairmen and other categories of party leaders in the Ashanti region recently and declared his intentions to them. Interestingly,  the party has not bothered to officially investigate and find out from at least all 47 constituency chairman in Ashanti if indeed the said Minister had declared his intention to them at such a forum.

The party has neither opened nominations nor conducted vetting for aspirant hopefuls to even determine who is eligible to contest the presidential primaries.

Meeting party members and campaigning in any form or style for a personal presidential  ambition at this time amounts to jumping the gun and could be politically suicidal as well as trigger intra-party  divisiveness .

It amounts to a clear lack of focus and an understanding of what the current challenges of leadership are and the concerted efforts needed to solve them with a sense of urgency.

Mr. Otchere- Darko, in the opening sentences of his post, noted: “The world is in crisis. Ghana is part of the world. Therefore, Ghana is in crisis. Which part of this, don’t you get, Mr Cabinet Member!

Governments everywhere have a big multi-task of fighting the virus, fighting economic hardships, fighting for food and jobs, fighting the debt and deficit and, here in Ghana, we are also fighting for transformation. This is not the time to be planting for delegates and votes.

“If your focus, as a member of Akufo-Addo’s government, is to first fight for your own ambition and transformation, then, please, feel free to move over to move on.

Please note: NPP in power must first succeed for NPP to succeed NPP! Build on this power we have now for your own power trip not to be tripped by your priority tripped wires. Be wise!”

The  same subject of minister-aspirants jumping the gun has been condemned by Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, a former Chief of Staff under  the presidency of J.A. Kufuor.

Mpiani spoke to Asaase Radio: “Look, if you don’t put the party on sound footing, if the government doesn’t do well, you may even want to put Jesus Christ there [but] I don’t think He can win. So let’s support the government to do well…

“You see, the government is in a very unfortunate situation now, because of this COVID-19 and all. The economy is not doing well and it is something universal…

“So, our attention should be on how to perform well, so that when we put up a candidate he will not have too much of a problem. Instead of doing that, when the government is not even in place, we are thinking of who will take over from Nana Addo. It’s a misplaced priority”, he added.