A political science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr Edward Brenya, has questioned Nana Akufo-Addo’s leadership qualities after the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flag bearer said the party would say ‘thank you’ to any member who decides to quit as a result of losing an internal election.
During the Greater Accra leg of his campaign tour, the NPP flag bearer said members who quit after losing internal polls were not true members.
“Our party selects leaders though internal elections. I, myself, was elected through such a process. True party people stay with the party whether they win or lose. My colleague Alan Kyerematen, who I beat in our primaries, is still here with me. He even speaks on my behalf. However, if you lose internal elections and you get disgruntled and decide to leave the party, then you are not a true NPP member. So, if you say you are quitting the party because you lost an election, we will say: ‘Thank you very much for your services, you go, we will stay and fight the fight and make the way to bring the victory to the NPP.’ We don’t give up, we don’t fret, come what may, we are solidly behind the Elephant,” the three-time flag bearer told party members at a rally at Shiabu, Dansoman, in the Ablekuma West constituency on Tuesday, 4 October.
But speaking to Class News, Dr Brenya said this kind of posturing raises more questions about the kind of leadership Nana Akufo-Addo will offer Ghanaians once elected as president.
“He is already being questioned that he is not the type that can unify people. I don’t think that whatever has happened with Afoko, Kwabena Agyapong and others should have happened if Nana Akufo-Addo, right from the beginning, had actually exercised a level of [commitment] to unify people. He would have been able to handle it. NPP is not the first party to have seen these kinds of things that emerged but what have we seen? …Other people were sacked in constituencies and it is going on and on. Now we have people that are going independent and the only thing you can tell them is ‘thank you because you are not patriotic’? What kind of leadership is that? … He needs to look at the human side of issues and remember that winning elections is about numbers and you do everything that it takes to get the numbers to support you,” he stated.
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