Sammy Awuku To Pianim: If You Don�t Have Any Help To Offer, Don�t Demoralise Us

"I think the comments of some of our leading members are extremely provocative and offensive. If you don�t have any help to offer, please don�t demoralise we the youth. Anytime they (senior members) say these kinds of things then we the youth have to be defensive and save the situation.Clearly, I think that we have gotten to a point where the party is not about one or two people but I believe it is about the collective future of the party and the country...� These were the words of a Deputy Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Samuel Awuku, reacting to the recent �outburst� by one of the founding members of the NPP, Mr Kwame Pianim. Mr Pianim in an interview with Africawatch blamed the NPP national executives for exhibiting �intellectual and mental laziness� during the 2012 elections. He added that; �the boycott [of the President�s inauguration] somehow portrayed the NPP executives as confused people�. Samuel Awuku in what he calls an emotional presentation, expressed worry about the utterances of the man who was once tried to lead the NPP as the party's flagbearer. Contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM�s Morning Show programme�Kokrooko� with host, Kwami Sefa-Kayi, Samuel Awuku called on the Party�s National Chairman, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey to as a matter of urgency, stamp his authority and put an end to the recent �offensive� comments that has been coming from some of the leading members of the party. "He has shared his opinion but looking at his background, he could have seized himself with the fact. It would have been more painful if it was one of our polling stations executives...While the youth was working during the electioneering period, some of these senior members were in air-conditioned rooms sipping tea and watching sports...the national chairman of the NPP must stamp his feet and I plead with former President Kufuor and Nana Akufo-Addo to help the chairman because it gets to a point you feel some people want to hold us hostage,� he said. Sammy Awuku complained bitterly about the attitude of some of the leading members towards the petition they sent to the Supreme Court; claiming that the December 2012 Presidential elections was rigged in favour of President John Mahama. According to him, since they started with the court proceedings, none of them have been to the court premises not to even talk of attending the proceedings. �They will not even come to look at the kind of work being done in the court...if you are not seized with the facts, why do you have to say that leaders of the NPP are leading the party down the slope. I think Kwame Pianim has contributed his quota but I believe some of us the youth have contributed more than them. The most painful aspect is that instead of encouraging the youth to do the work, they (senior members) are rather engaging in a divide and rule tactics,� he said curtly.