The National Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Freddie Blay, has appealed to all party members ‘to show their loyalty and stand solidly behind the party’ as they hold parliamentary primaries in 111 constituencies across the country on June 20.
He said the party’s primaries are ‘internal affairs’ and so “there is no need for true supporters of the party to be at each other’s throat since NPP is one family dedicated to improving the lives of Ghanaians.”
In a statement released yesterday to cool tempers as a result of bickering and accusations in the run-up to the primaries, the National Chairman said, “The party appreciates the contributions of all aspirants who are determined to stand on the ticket of the party because of attractiveness of the party following the sterling leadership of the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, during his first term in office.”
According to the National Chairman, “All those aspirants who could not get the opportunity to contest in the primaries should not despair since there are a lot of opportunities for them when the party retains power.”
“The party pleads with all displeased aspirants to consider the stand-aside and give-way beckoning by leadership as part of the sacrifices and contributions they would have made to the party in the long run when the party is victorious again in the December polls. There would obviously be more openings for new opportunities and challenges that would require more hands on deck,” he said in his statement.
He called on all regional chairmen in the spirit of the party’s resolution to work with leadership of their various constituencies to immediately begin negotiating the process for collaboration and reconciliation, involving sufficient consultations with key party stakeholders at the grassroots level.
He said every decision taken by the leadership of the party is in the best interest of the party to ensure that that party gets absolute majority in Parliament to ensure NPP’s agenda of transforming the economy and the nation becomes a reality.
“Let us appreciate the fact that the NPP is an evolving political party in a young developing democracy, and we must find ways of discussing openly, the strengthening of the party’s frontline in Parliament, including building consensus on the exit plan for long-serving Members of Parliament mainly at leadership level,” he said.
He stressed that there should be a better structured system that dignifies exit of such long-serving NPP MPs, whilst nurturing younger parliamentarians and preparing committed and competent new entrants into the party on the ticket of the party.
He said it is now time for all committed NPP loyalists and members to jealously guard the great achievements of the party across the different sectors of the Ghanaian economy and remain committed to sharing the success story of the party with all Ghanaians in order to retain power for the larger interest of the party.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr
