Nyaho Guns For Greater Accra NPP Chair
New Patriotic Party (NPP) heavyweight Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe has declared his bid to contest for the chairmanship of the party’s Greater Accra branch.
He was relaunching himself into domestic politics at the weekend, after his tenure as Ghana’s Ambassador to Serbia.
The election for the office, currently held by Mr Sammy Crabbe, is scheduled for later this month.
A retired military officer and practising physician, he is also a founder member of the party and served in the past as chairman of Accra Hearts of Oak and later, chairman of the Ghana Football Association (GFA).
Some observers have reacted to his current bid, however, arguing that the pedigree and the leverage he wields within the party rather put him in good stead for a national rather than a regional office.
And Nyaho knows it. “Some of my colleagues said it to my face when I discussed the idea with them. But our recent history has taught us that Greater Accra holds the key to victory at the national level.
In 2000 and 2004, we did very well in Greater Accra and won the national elections. But in 2008 when we lost miserably in Greater Accra, we also lost the national elections,” he added, to justify his bid for the regional chair, and said “that is where the work is”.
Another baggage Nyaho may have to deal with is that image of a brash, militant administrator often prone to controversy, which he appears to have acquired from his previous public engagements.
As a 44-year-old chairman of Hearts of Oak in 1986, he did the unthinkable by dismissing 24 celebrated players of the club after accusing them of corruption and insolence.
He replaced them with unknown stars in an unprecedented “revolution” in Ghana football. Strangely, the little boys succeeded and that helped their chief executive to weather the storm and the outrage which he had courted from the millions of fans who idolised the sacked players.
Part of the opposition to his revolution came from rival clubs who loathed the idea that the “bug” of mass transfers could infest other clubs if the Hearts experiment should succeed.
Nearly two decades later when he re-emerged in football as chairman of the GFA, Nyaho quickly demonstrated that age had not diluted his penchant for controversy.
He dared what many considered a suicidal move when he challenged the authority of the then Executive Council (EC), accused its members of frustrating his plans and called for its dissolution.
The ensuing stand-off and confrontation generated between the F.A. chairman and the EC incurred the wrath of FIFA, the world football governing body, which reacted by demanding reforms that would insulate football administration against political interference.
Ultimately, those reforms swept away all government appointees, including Nyaho. “I like to take the bull by the horn and I am happy that the present F.A. is enjoying the maximum support of all its agencies with no parallel authority to disrupt its programmes,” he said in defence of that action, when his attention was drawn to it with reference to what political risks he could be liable to.
Author: Sam Okaitey