The National Organizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party(NPP), Sammy Awuku has urged NPP constituency chairmen to discourage mobilization of supporters to cheer Presidential candidate hopefuls during funerals.
He advised that for the NPP to break the 8-year rule cycle the party must remain united right after polling station to national elections and Presidential primaries which will begin this year to early 2024.
His admonition comes in the wake of a disturbing incident that happened at the funeral of the late father of Gabby Otchere-Darko in Koforidua, where a group calling itself Friends of Bawumia for 2024 (FOB) jeered the Trade Minister Alan Kyeremateng.
Over a hundred members of the group wearing the same branded T-shirts and holding huge banners in willy-nilly stormed the funeral grounds and forecourt of St. Georges Catholic Church auditorium during the burial Service to mob the Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in an uncomfortable manner and started to jeer his potential opponent in the upcoming NPP presidential race Alan Kyeremateng who was also present.
They were heard shouting in unison “wo y3y3 ya Bawumia beba” to wit ” come what may Bawumia will lead NPP in 2024″.
The situation forced some few women believed to be supporters of Alan Kyeremateng to also cheer him up while exiting the church premises.
But Sammy Awuku said such acts have the tendencies of creating disunity and disaffection.
“If we are disciplined as a party we can only break the 8 when we also get to understand that it is and would be a family contest. There is a growing sense and strategy of turning funeral grounds into campaigning grounds for would-be presidential candidates or aspirants.
“As much as possible, the constituencies are expected to preserve the unity of the party. But when it turns out that we are actively as constituency executives we play the ostrich, stand aside but send our youth organizers to mobilize people to cheer Mr A or Mr B, Chairmen it would make your work difficult.
“If you want to also re-organize our people at the base, now with the greatest of respect National Chairman, even when you want to manage polling station re-organization, you call five people and you want to discuss how the internal primaries and party discipline, we might end up breaking ourselves before breaking the 8. So we want to plead with you, President Kufuor’s statement still resonates in our ears – It’s better to be a messenger in a party in government than to be a General Secretary for a party in opposition.”
He made the point during a workshop and inauguration of the NPP constituency officers welfare fund in Koforidua in the Eastern Region on Saturday, July 17, 2021.
Source: Ghana/Kasapafmonline.com/Kojo Ansah
