I just read a story in which the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) declared that the party is ready to govern Ghana. I don’t know the source of Mr. Kwabena Agyepong’s confidence, but if it is based on the party’s performance in opposition, then we should all be terrified by the prospect. The NPP has been a disappointing opposition party. The NPP won 47.74 percent of valid votes cast in the presidential elections of 2012 and garnered 115 seats in Parliament. In fact, if executives of the NPP are to be believed, their candidate won the presidential elections. This was why the party challenged the results of the presidential election.
Throughout the hearing of the election petition, the party insisted it was fighting for Ghanaians. It wasn’t about power, but depriving them of the opportunity to implement their policies meant depriving Ghanaians a chance at improving their lives. Even though they lost the election petition, I didn’t expect them to be this weak, ineffective, and petty in opposition.
The leadership of the party has failed to question government or hold government accountable to the public. Except for some painfully repetitive press conferences, the NPP has not presented any alternatives to government policies. The leaders of the party refused to attend the national economic forum claiming their invitation arrived late. Then it took three weeks to respond to the Senchi Consensus.
We are yet to hear their outrage about the blackouts, the wobbly economy, and the shady deals like GYEEDA. Not even the recent World-Cup-related foolishness of government has caught their attention. That citizens had to take to the streets to demand accountability from government is proof of how detached the NPP is. But the party has been in the news alright. We know every little detail about the party’s internal wrangling. They have been busy infighting!
I’m concerned because it is the biggest opposition party and it could win the 2016 elections. The conduct of the party in opposition makes me even more worried about Mr. Kwabena Agyepong’s claim. We have already lived under a party with no ideas or strategy on how to turn this bedlam around. We don’t want to do that again.
If Mr. Agyepong and his team truly want to govern, they better get their act together. Quit bickering. Engage Ghanaians with their policy alternatives and be present in national conversations. If they don’t, they could win the 2016 elections and become the joke, the NDC currently is.
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Well stated.
I just blame the fact that we have too few capable journalists that are informed enough to ask searching questions.
‘Solutions’ for Ghana’s ills are often uncosted.
At this rate, I really can’t see any improvement in the short term.
Think about this: the same people who complain about lack of facilities, non-funding of NHIS etc etc are the same who resist any borrowing, new taxes and tax increases. Can we blame them when we have so little transparency?
Keep it up
Ben
Hmm the least said about NPP the better.
I share you fears about the ineptitude
This would have an ideal time to step up their game and make the next election a landslide victory for them.
But here they are in fighting.
Is it a lack of real leadership within the party?
A lack of foresight?
I can just imagine them coming into power and blaming every wrong thing on the NDC government.
I just feel worried for Ghana.
The painful truth.
Is the NPP the Opposition that is to come, or wait we for another?
What a brilliant article! The NPP is busy making itself politically irrelevant. What we see unfolding before our own eyes are the dynamics of neo-colonialist politics. The two main political parties are singing from the same hymn sheet, primed by a system of patronage from the “Metropolis”.
One could blame this on our economic dependence and underdevelopment, and the punitive consequences of “shirking”, but that only leaves us with two dominant political parties in competition with each other to make sweet-heart deals for their foreign benefactors!
It explains why the NPP kept quite on the Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU. That is why the NPP has been missing in action over the GMO issue. That is why the NPP has been silent over the Plant Breeders’ Bill! That is why the NPP is not going to even raise a finger over the current attempts to “smuggle” the same Plant Breeders’ Bill back into Parliament under another name!
Watch out for the ARIPO New Plant Varieties Protection Protocol. (ARIPO PVP). ARIPO stands for African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation. Compare the controversial Clause 23 of the rejected Plant Breeders’ Bill with Article 26 of the ARIPO PVP Protocol.
There is no difference! Parliament is going to be invited to vote into law, a bill that cedes critical areas of our sovereignty over our environment and public health unto the plant breeder, independent of any law or measures undertaken by the government of Ghana! Yes, you got it right. I am asking the same question: Where is the Opposition?
Is the NPP the Opposition that is to come, or wait we for another?