Open Letter To President Akufo-Addo

I am forced to write to you this open letter. I decided to make it an open letter because of the enormous and weighty nature of the issue which must be greatly worrisome to all concerned New Patriotic Party folks in the Upper West Region and all right-thinking NPP folks including you.

The Survival of the New Patriotic Party in the Upper West Region largely depends on the kind of MMDCEs appointments you will make in the coming days.

Even though you have the Executive powers to appoint person's into the MMDCEs portfolios, I suggest the case of the Upper West Region demands collective thinking and dialoguing in finding appropriate and suitable people for the job.

The content of this letter, is therefore opened to all those who can help in suggesting effective and efficient personalities who can help you deliver your promises to the good people of the Upper West Region in your last term of administration.

One of the spinoffs and accelerants is the misinformation and disinformation to your good office concerning who is qualified for these MMDCEs positions in the Upper West Region. Names have been suggested to you and lobbying going on depending on the interest of the lobbyist. But how to find or understand whether the suggested person can perform your expectations and the general expectations of the grassroot base of the party and the total interest of the Upper West Region is difficult.

But the issue I am addressing here is very serious; it is the issue of the life and survival of the New Patriotic Party in the Upper West Region, for your good reputation and the attractive image of the party. This issue can no longer be ignored, treated with nonchalance, swept under the carpet or treated with a cuddling glove. The issue is hitting at the foundation of your party in the Region and if care is not taking will fast erode the gains of the party in the Region. I am very much worried and afraid that, the NPP which fastly gain promotion and good image, making it attractive for the teeming youth in the Region is on the precipice and dangerously reaching a tipping point where it may no longer be attractive anymore because of the failure of the incumbent MMDCEs to work assiduously to enhance the brand of the party and make it more attractive. Without being immodest, as an Upper Westner and a journalist who is a major stakeholder in the development of the Upper West Region and for that matter mother Ghana, it is imperative for me to draw your attention to certain key issues prevailing in the Upper West Region.

When Party folks are desperate and feel that they cannot have confidence in the ability of government appointees in addressing the concerns of the grassroot base of the party but who have preoccupied their minds in making enough wealth from their offices, the grassroot will take recourse to anything and everything that can guarantee their demands individually and collectively.

For over four years of your leadership of this country, your incumbent MMDCEs in the Upper West Region has menacingly ravaged the party and in spite of several complaints by teeming grassroot not to kill the attractive image of the party, which they played death ear to because the party grassroot was never consulted or have power in their respective appointments.

As a result, a very onerous cloud is gathering. A rain of party destruction, violence, disaster and disunity can only be the outcome. Nothing should be taken for granted, the clock is ticking with the cacophony of dissatisfaction and disaffection everywhere in and around the Upper West Region. You must understand and appreciate the implications and likely consequences in your attempt to retain the incumbent MMDCEs in the Upper West Region.

No one can stop the agitation and maybe, smouldering violent agitation of the grassroot base of the party, if you fail to take their grievances and consideration which is ultimately appointing new MMDCEs to help you administer the region very effectively and efficiently. A stitch in time saves nine goes the old wise saying. With wealth amassing and party disintegration the preoccupation of the incumbent MMDCEs of your first term administration, at the expense of party balance and unity, the aggrieved grassroot base are saying “enough is enough”. “We can no longer say with certainty that, the New Patriotic Party which saw enormous growth in the Upper West Region from the year 2000 after John Agyekum Kufour won the elections is fast dwindling in numbers due to the arrogant and toxic leadership of the incumbent MMDCEs. The grassroot base of your party are calling on your good office to please appoint new MMDCEs for the Region. I am quite aware of your interest in some old MMDCEs especially the feminine ones to be retained unless their situations look too terrible. You can continue to ignore the calls and cries of the grassroot base of the party to appoint new MMDCEs for the Region for your individual selfish interest. Remember, maintaining incumbent MMDCEs will certainly affect the chances of the party in breaking the eight-year circle rule in the 2024 general elections. Your party abysmal performance in the 2020 general elections in the Upper West Region and for that matter in most regions can be attributed partly to your ineffective and inefficient MMDCEs across the country who couldn't hold grounds for you at the local level of governance.

To be explicit and without equivocation Mr President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo, I am deeply worried about some avoidable calamities that may face the New Patriotic Party in the Upper West if you maintained your arrogant position of leaving the incumbent MMDCEs in office.

1.Abandoning The NPP ship at the local level into the hands of self-seeking politicians who are all being suspected, rightly or wrongly, as selfish, arrogant, unpatriotic who cannot spice up the good image of the party and also lacks the requisite administrative acumen to govern or deal with both the party and the general public with humility.

2. spontaneous or planned aggression against incumbent MMDCEs which may inadvertently or advertently mushroom into pogrom to distabilize the party's agenda of breaking the "eight" by voting against the party in the 2024 general elections.

3. Your incumbent MMDCEs has failed woefully the grassroot base of the party. They are both not easily visible and accessible to the base of the party. Remember accessibility and visibility is a very good Hallmark of a good politician.

4. Maintaining incumbent MMDCEs will affect the balance of the New Patriotic Party in the Upper West. Majority of the grassroot base of your party are into the vicious circle of "Poverty Olympics."

5. Almost all your incumbent MMDCEs in the Upper West Region contested the last parliamentary primaries of your party in which majority lost woefully. So if an MMDCE who presides over a Constituency or a municipal or district for four years cannot win an internal party primaries of delegates less than One Thousand, it means they were not in touch with the grassroot base of the party because most of the delegates form party of the grassroot base of the party.

6. The case of Wa Central Constituency is even more damning and difficult to comprehend. You have a sitting Mce who was the parliamentary candidate for the Party in the last two elections before the 2020 general elections. Which he represented the party in 2012 and in 2016 in the parliamentary elections and who came close to wining the seat by a deficit of 571 votes or so who after only four years came third in the parliamentary primaries leading to the 2020 general elections tells you the magnitude of the case for change in the municipal administration of the assembly and the Constituency.

Such is of the same typical cases across the length and breadth of the Region.

It happened to the NDC not too long ago. If you do not act wisely in your next appointment of MMDCEs, one or all of these scenarios may happen.

A couple of weeks ago in my many radio programs, I had said, among other things, that: the survival of the New Patriotic Party in the Upper West depends largely on the appointment of the MMDCEs for your next administration. One doesn't need a rocket scientist or further empirical evidence to attest to this fact.

Let me conclude here by humble appealing to you President, to please listen to the cry and demands of the Party grassroot in appointing New MMDCEs for the region. A word to the wise is ..............

signed

Umar Yakubu Kunateh (Asprilla)

Broadcast journalism with Home Radio Network limited- Home Radio 99.7Fm

0244174950

Proud Citizen not a Spectator