NPP leaders must shut up – Fred Oware
Former vice chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Fred Oware has stated that the seeming division in the party is being fueled by a lot of misconceptions about certain individuals.
“I think there is just too much noise in the NPP at the moment and misconception. The issue isn’t who is right or who is wrong or whether somebody should have done this or didn’t do that but we just need to keep quiet and focus on the main agenda of the party,” he advised.
The emergency steering committee meeting organized on Monday May 4 in the absence of the party’s General Secretary, Kwabena Agyepong and party chairman, Paul Afoko has deepened perceptions of the existence of factions within the NPP. The NPP’s first vice chairman, Freddie Blay who called the meeting denied usurping the powers of Paul Afoko.
However, Kwabena Agyepong in a media interview on Thursday claimed that some party members were working to destroy his relationship with the NPP flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo.“Some people are bent on causing a rift between the two of us because they don’t want us together so anytime they see that Nana Addo and I are getting close, then they start spreading lies about me,” he said.
Mr Agyepong said he was convinced that there are deliberate attempts to denigrate him and Paul Afoko saying “some people deliberately want to disgrace me and the party chairman because whatever is happening in the party, I don’t understand.”
Speaking on Eyewitness News, however, Fred Oware was of the view that the current happenings within the NPP is not “any huge issue except that we seem to have taken our eyes off the ball which is doing the party’s business towards the 2016 elections.” According to him, the issue has been magnified in the media because “we are making it so otherwise the issues themselves are nothing for anybody to worry about. It can be dealt with internally.”
He argued that people take stance to express their opinion on issues; “they just want to speak their mind on any matter at all and if we allow this to continue, we will be speaking our minds up to the point where we wouldn’t have any mind to speak.”
“We do have some processes to deal with such issues. It’s not every single matter that anyone of us should take to the radio station just so we are heard and we can then restate our position and exonerate ourselves from any accusation.” Fred Oware also denied the existence of factions in the NPP saying, “we have people taking positions on various issues but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there is a rift between certain groups or whatever.” He appealed to the party’s national council to issue a statement on all current happenings at the moment “and just ask all of us to be quiet to allow the national officers to work.” He stressed that NPP members need to keep their eyes on the price [winning 2016 elections] “and such bickering and noises will perhaps take us out of course and that is why I am saying this issue is not as big as what we should be doing towards 2016.”
citifmonline.com