Barely three weeks to the opposition New Patriotic Party’s national delegate’s congress in Tamale to elect new executives, aspiring candidates in a bid to warm their way into the hearts of majority of the delegates have began firing deadly salvos at opponents.
Business magnate and leading contender for National Chairman position, Mr Paul Afoko, has launched a blistering attack on incumbent Chairman, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, blaming the party’s inability to snatch power from the ruling National Democratic Congress in the 2012 election on his poor leadership.
‘Cutting’ the incumbent chairman to size and painting him as undeserving of leading the party into the 2016 election is a youth group bearing the name of Mr Paul Afoko’s campaign slogan, “New Plan for Power.”
In a press statement signed by National Coordinator of the New Plan for Power Movement, Nana Poku Frefre, and copied to The Al-Hajj, the group stated that, the NPP lost the 2012 election due to poor leadership on the part of current national executives, particularly the incumbent national Chairman.
According to the New Plan for Power Movement, its research across the country and among the grassroots of the NPP has shown a burning desire to replace Mr Jake Obetsebi Lamptey with Mr Paul Afoko and his “new plan for power” strategy.
“We don’t have to wait till 2016 before looking for and sending resources out for party work. We believe that party work is a professional duty which must be carried out in a professional manner to get the needed results around the clock, and not only in the election year or a year or two to an election. Mr. Afoko has a programme to continuously build and develop the capacities of our party officers to ensure efficiency in the discharge of their duties.” The statement added.
The group said Mr. Afoko is a unifier, the kind needed at this trying moment to unite all fronts of the party as it prepares to wrestle power from the ruling NDC in 2016, adding “He respects all views and all persons equally and is prepared to work with everyone to help make our party take its rightful place in government.
He has a plan for the youth of our party; an investment in our next leaders. He believes the youth must be groomed and trained for the sustenance of the vision and tenets of our party.”
The New Plan for Power Movement noted that as the party prepares for victory in the 2016 elections, the NPP needs a national chairman “with an inclusive, forward-thinking, strategic plan that would not only brings us back to power in 2016 but ensure that we become the best alternative political party in Ghana.”
The group urged supporters of Mr Afoko to engage in a clean campaign ahead of the April 12 congress, devoid of mudslinging and personality attacks, adding “We also admonish the various bodies responsible for this process to exhibit a high level of neutrality, which will go a long way to eliminate the acrimony that accompanies such processes.”