Has Ntim Fordjour, MP for Assin South Become A 'Goalkeeper Without Defenders', Instead of The 'Striker' The NPP Minority Tried To Make Him?

It is amazing how the embarrassing defeat of the NPP in the 2024, presidential and Parliamentary elections has exposed the NPP party as a disorganized and undemocratic political party in Ghana.

It began with the indiscriminate sacking of their constituency executives to hide their incompetence towards the elections and the over reliance of a magic expected from the Electoral Commission in their favor following the loading of the commission with some party faithful that backfired.

The woes of NPP will continue when Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia hurriedly came out to do the honorable thing at the displeasure of many of them who thought they could use incumbency to frustrate the power and voice of the people. Bawumia knew what was ahead was more than what had been seen and there was no way the over 57% voices of the people could be drenched by the 38% of the noise from the few.

The Electoral Commission Chairperson will put a nail in their elephant coffin with her famous “it is finished” statement to Ghanaians on that fateful day to cure every nervous symptom Ghanaians battled with for days.

No doubt the ‘elephantiasis’ of confusion will begin swelling in the body of NPP executives locally and globally. The UK executive member will be seen in a video angrily blasting some of the local executives claiming the NPP General Secretary Justin Koduah did not make available a Pick-Up truck they the UK branch donated for the electioneering campaign when they arrived in Ghana and needed it. The claim went further to blast the general secretary for subjecting them to Uber rides and expenses.

The minority will be infuriated with the ‘micro minority’ tag placed on them almost everywhere on social media forcing some of them to frustrate some ministerial appointees of President Mahama at the Parliamentary vetting committee. Some even went to the extent of lifting and breaking chairs, tables and microphones at a vetting committee sitting.

As if that was not enough, they will begin calling their colleagues in Parliament names and extending disrespect to former presidents, as in the “Daughter of a murderer” outburst, and even boycott orientations slated for new MPs citing some flimsy proximity and venue reasons.

A recent dimension is the rejection of a so-called study done into why they lost the 2024 elections by some of the MPs and leading party members claiming it was an armchair exercise, and that the real people on the ground were not spoken to.

Former MP for Dome Kwabenya, Honorable Adwoa Sarfo’s recent outburst and revelations about some ills that took place in the party relative to the School Feeding Program under Nana Akuffo Addo’s government and how she was treated further confirms the deep cracks in the party. The Bawumia and Kennedy Agyapong’s divide is not helping a party put to a coma by the NDC at all.

They will not cease displaying the withdrawal symptoms associated with heavy defeat and becoming a ‘micro’ minority in Parliament from their previous majority label and as the then party in power. Instead, they resorted to daily press conferences almost after every Parliamentary sitting to amplify their drowning voices but in the process end up saying nothing logically different from what they had the opportunity to express in the Parliamentary chamber. At least to them, there is that consolation when their pro NPP media houses carry their stories to remind Ghanaians they still exist in their one-third ‘Parliamentary corner’. These press conferences often go to the extent of being a medium to defend some media personality believed to be a sympathizer of the NPP party who was arrested for some statements made that bordered on national security that required invitation for questioning.

The minority seem to have run out of press conference topics and resorted to elevating one of theirs who is a ranking member of the interior and defense committee of Parliament to go out there based on mere suspicion without any evidence to try and tarnish the current NDC government and by extension Ghana because of the overwhelming votes NDC garnered in the 2024 elections. Ntim Fordjour, MP for Assin South was placed in a striking position at one of his minority's usual press conferences to make wild pronouncements relative to two aircrafts that landed in Ghana citing reliable information he had suggesting those aircrafts carried cocaine and money in dollar notes into the country.

If indeed he had that reliable information, the question many are asking is why did he, as a lawmaker who is expected to know better, not contact the security services first, or at least inform his Parliamentary committee where he happily sits as a ranking member? Was he trying to score a cheap political ‘goal’ with that brief press conference opportunity given him and under the guise of performing his oversight function, without evidence?

Ntim Fordjour now seems to be moving the goalposts having come under intense heat to collaborate with the security agency to investigate his wild claim based on suspicion he now claims it is instead of his initial reliable information he alluded to. A call H. E. President John Mahama has equally made.

The minority members that flanked him during the press conference seem to have left their new striker to wander on the field alone to the point he Ntim Fordjour MP, has become a goalkeeper defending himself alone without defenders who once flanked him at the press conference. Instead of eating a humble pie and apologizing after many call for evidence he seem not to have, and with the government releasing video footage showing all the security scans exercised on the aircraft and the inside of the flights he claimed had drugs and money, proving what he an MP and a reverend claim not to be true at least with the evidence available currently, he continue to be stubborn and worsening his situation.

Is it an issue of what the NPP government did during their reign that Ntim Fordjour believes will continue under the NDC government that he is being proven wrong and find it difficult to comprehend and accept? Did somebody at the Airport provide him with that wrong information and he believed it without verifying and asking for concrete evidence? Did the NPP leave spies in some strategic government sectors to be informants? Is NDC aware of these NPP spies and informants if they indeed exist, and are trying hard to remove them to avoid sabotage? Is it why the NDC is reversing the many employment and some recruitment done after December 7, 2024, by the NPP? Can this be the reason NPP is aggressively fighting NDC not to sack those employed after December 7, 2024, and even using the Courts?

Just asking, and if the questions posed hold, then Ghana is a threat from its own citizenry and Ghanaians must be extremely worried. They must immediately begin weaning themselves from the addictive partisanship approach to everything governance, for you can be political always and not necessarily be partisan round the clock.

Partisanship must be reserved for electioneering seasons during political campaigns. Once campaigns are over, and officials are elected, all must commit to removing the partisan lenses and see through a national lens. It is the surest way to build trust and develop the nation together.

I rest my PEN.
Mustapha Alhassan,
Pennsylvania, USA.