Dear NPP Delegates!!!  

It is with a very heavy heart that I pick my fountain pen to write to you today. It is not for nothing that the NPP organized a delegates' conference after the 2008 general election to expand the Electoral College.

At the Trade Fair Center in Accra where the conference was held, those who openly opposed the expansion of the Electoral College were hooted at and in some cases pelted with sachets of water. If today you are a delegate who takes part in the election of presidential, constituency and parliamentary candidate, you should thank those who resisted an attempt by some party gurus to maintain the status quo.

Some prospective presidential candidates who poisoned the minds of some delegates to vote against the expansion of the Electoral College laughed at the wrong side of their mouths when almost all delegates agreed that the expansion of the Electoral College will go a long way to save the party from internal wrangling anytime there was the need for the delegates to vote for a candidate.

Before the expansion of the Electoral College, only ten constituency executives were allowed to vote at the constituency level. As a result of the small number of delegates, 'monecracy' was introduced as aspirants paid monies to only the ten constituency members thereby creating anger among the teeming supporters of the party.

When seventeen aspirants criss-crossed the country to seek the votes of delegates to become the flagbearer of the party in the run-up to the 2008 general election, the ten delegates at the constituencies were paid monies ranging from one thousand Ghana Cedis to five thousand Ghana Cedis each. There was this funny scenario in one of the constituencies in the Central Region where candidate Captain Nkrabea Effah Dartey went to campaign and after delivering his message, he asked his aide to give each of the delegates, fifty Ghana Cedis. After receiving the money, one delegate retorted in Fante: Eyi na ope de odze ye president a? (Is that what it takes to be a president?) To that particular delegate the fifty Ghana Cedis was woefully inadequate because other aspirants had come to pay one thousand Ghana Cedis.

When the Electoral College was expanded, presidential and parliamentary aspirants did not have enough money to pay such huge sums of monies to the delegates again. In some cases, only food were served the delegates anytime they met the candidates. That brought sanity into the party and the 'moneycracy' vanished into thin air. The NPP led by then candidate Kufour in the year 2000 general election did not have money and the delegates thankfully did not demand any because the watchword then was POLITICAL POWER.

Mr. J.H Mensah told delegates wherever Kufour went to campaign that it was Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who once said 'Seek ye first the political power and all the rest shall follow.' Party faithful believed in the good old man and went about the electioneering campaign on empty stomachs until the party won power. When Ex-president Kufour started rolling out his social intervention policies, members of the NPP in particular and Ghanaians in general came to understand what Mr. J.H Mensah quoted.

So far the delegates have been able to clear all the necessary hurdles but what is left is the most difficult one which must be scaled else it could mar the process.

In the run-up to the 2012 general election, one of the difficulties which the NPP faced and which led to many parliamentary candidates losing their seats was the wrong choice of candidates. Some of the parliamentary candidates were surely unpopular but they forced their ways to lead the party in the constituencies. Because some of them had been in parliament before they applied the advantages of incumbency to bulldoze their way through during the parliamentary primaries. When the NDC realized that they had the majority seat in parliament, they convinced Ghanaians that the election was free and fair and that there was no rigging even though at the Finger of God polling station, twenty seven zero was recorded as the total result of a particular polling station and some foreign materials found their way into the ballot boxes.

For now those who want to be parliamentary candidates had picked their forms and the campaign had started in earnest. Already the vilification, insults and the use of intemperate languages have started in some constituencies as aspirants go about campaigning. Some aspirants were acting as if nothing was at stake and as if becoming a parliamentarian was the only position in the party if the party came to power. Delegates should listen to aspirants very well and vote against any aspirant who tries to cause confusion in the party. Delegates who are now in control as far as the parliamentary primaries are concerned, should remember that if they do the mistake by following money and vote for a candidate who is not a winnable one has done Ghanaians in general, a disservice.

Power is beckoning but it will come at a cost. Indeed there will be political infighting but what the NPP should know is that at the end of the day all contestants will need each other. If any aspirant, in his or her attempt to win the primaries destroys others, there will be apathy, come 2016. If for example, five people contest the primaries and one wins, it will be ideal for the four who lost to put everything behind and move in empathy for the winner. In fact, the four who lost should be part of the campaign team of the winner. Resources which they would have used to campaign should be channeled into the war chest of the winner.

The problem I have with the NPP is that members of the party practice democracy as if they were the world number one proponents of democracy. You see, consensus building is part of democracy but NPP shies away from consensus building. The NDC on the other hand practices consensus building perfectly well and it is always to their advantage. Take the issue of Sanja Nanja the MP for Atebubu in the Brong Ahafo Region, for example. When he was nominated by the late President Mills as theDCE of Atebubu, the Atebubu Traditional Council, led by the Paramount Chief kicked against the candidate because according to them he was not an indigene. They tried hard for the late President to withdraw Sanja Nanja but to no avail. According the chiefs of Atebubu, no indigene of Atebubu could go to Bimbilla and contest any political position and so they will not allow Sanja, a Konkomba to become the DCE of their traditional area.

Much as the chiefs of Atebubu tried, the NDC maintained Sanja Nanja and during the confirmation process, the NDC made sure the Assembly members voted overwhelmingly for Sanja Nanja. Sanja Nanja went on to become the Member of Parliament for Atebubu. The NDC knew majority of the voters in Atebubu District were Konkomba tenant farmers who supported the NDC and so they knew when they chose Sanja Nanja he would pull all the Konkomba votes and it came to pass.

All along the NPP had been choosing Akans to contest the Ejura Sekyere Dumase parliamentary seat and such candidates have been losing. Pangabu, a Konkomba won the seat on two occasions for the NDC even though he was not an indigene. This is a man who holds a Middle School Leaving Certificate but when he contested the parliamentary seat with Dr. Ayarkwa, the former MCE and lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Pangabu won easily. If you go to Ejura Sekyere Dumase and think because the constituency is located in the Ashanti Region, the majority of the voters would be Akans, then you have made a serious mistake. When the NPP saw reason and chose Salisu Bamba as their parliamentary candidate in 2012, the guy easily won the seat. If you go to the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions you will realize that the NDC had chosen many Northerners as DCEs and MCEs. And these guys were chosen from districts and municipalities where the greater number of voters were tenant farmers.

The NDC, from the days of Mr. Rawlings has successfully brainwashed the tenant farmers into thinking that the party is for the poor like them and so no matter how the NPP tries these tenant farmers will forever settle for the NDC.

NPP delegates should take into consideration what I have just narrated and vote for a candidate who can grab the seats for the party rather than candidates who have money but cannot win the seats. I do agree that if an aspirant gives you money as a delegate you will never refuse but after receiving the money you need to carefully access each candidate and remember that any wrong choice you make could affect the chances of the party in the general election.

In the 2012 general election, Nana Akufo Addo won in some constituencies but the parliamentary candidates lost. What this implied was that Nana was popular in such constituencies but the parliamentary candidate was not. So my dear delegates remember that the destiny of the NPP lies in your hands so handle it with care.

I rest my case for now but please turn your back because I am going to do my thing as usual. Today, I am going in for Montecristo Torpedo Cigar, one of the Top 10 Cigars in the world.