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Whoever tells you elections are won on voting days must be deceiving you. It is true that the winners of all electoral contests are known after the polls, the winners won long before the voting day. I�ve been wondering for some time now whether or not the New Patriotic Party (NPP) knows this fact� that elections are not won on voting day. In recent times the party has been in the news for very bad reasons, becoming of the biggest opposition party clamouring for power, and hoping to unseat an incumbent government in an election to be held in about two years. Prior to the elections which brought Afoko and his team to office, the crescendo of acrimonious attacks and accusations against the candidates were very disturbing. Many party members and concerned Ghanaians expressed worry because whatever happens in any of our political parties affects the body politics of our dispensation. With the national elections over, one would have thought that the newly elected executives and other party gurus would re-direct their attention and energies towards building a united party. Surprisingly, this has not been the case. A few months ago when a scheduled meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) was postponed due to a court suit, some of the members of the NEC used the media to lambast the party chairman and general secretary for postponing the meeting without their consent. Though they deserved to be informed immediately there arose the need to cancel the meeting, their choice of the media to launch their complaints was very bad. Mockery Last Tuesday, Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyapong, party Chairman and General Secretary, respectively, had to address a press conference to respond to accusations of �one-man show� levelled against them by other members of the NEC. What a mockery! Agyapong is being accused of earlier sacking Opare Hammond, the party�s Director of Finance, and now following it up with the sacking of Perry Okudjeto, the acting Communications Director, with the backing of the chairman without the knowledge of other executive members. First, if it was true that Afoko and Agyapong took those decisions to sack Opare Hammond and Okudjeto without the issues being discussed by the Steering Committee of the NEC, then what kind of administration is Afoko running? This definitely raises concerns to anyone who has the political development of this country at heart. If there was no need for other executive members apart from a chairman and a secretary, no party would waste time and money to conduct elections to fill other positions. I�m not sure the NPP constitution gives such powers to only two persons, considering the rule of law orientation of the party and its members and the numerous �booklong� people in the party. For this reason, if Afoko and Agyapong begin to take the laws into their own hands and do things their own way, disregarding the presence of other executive members, then, like Kennedy Agyapong has noted, they would be digging their own graves. If Kwabena Agyapong and Paul Afoko are proven to have acted outside the constitution of the NPP and taken decisions without informing colleagues on the NEC, then they have indeed disappointed many NPP members and Ghanaians who in one way or another campaigned for them to be elected. Allegations I recalled using this column to condemn those who were using some communist inferior tactics to prevent Afoko from being elected. Equally, I openly called on delegates to not vote for Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, former General Secretary, for not being decorous in his discourse with the public. Therefore, if what we have in place of an executive committee disliked by a party�s members is a dictatorial and autocratic chairman and general secretary, then not only the NPP has lost but Ghana�s democracy too. The alleged actions of Agyapong and Afoko notwithstanding, some of us are appalled by the reaction of, first, the other executive members and, second, some grass� roots members of the party allegedly led by Hajia Fati, who turned themselves into �azonto� warriors and invaded the party headquarters at Asylum Down in their attempt to physically attack the party chairman and general secretary. First Vice Chairman, Freddie Blay, third Vice Chairman, F. F. Antoh, and two regional chairmen, Daniel Bugri Naabu and Adams Mahama of the Northern and Upper East regions, respectively, have been in the news attacking their national chairman and general secretary. Granted that all the accusations levelled against Afoko and Agyapong were true, couldn�t these high-ranking officials of the party have chosen to address their concerns and grievances in a more mature and dignified manner than using the media? Aren�t there more senior and respected dignitaries in the NPP who could sit Afoko and Agyapong down and talk to them to amend their ways? Use of media There is this Akan adage which says �se obi fom kum a, wo nso wo nfom ndwa�, loosely translated as �You don�t use the same wrong method one used to commit an offence to correct the one�. Therefore the use of the media by the other NEC members to engage their chairman and general secretary was as bad as the alleged offence committed by those they were accusing. And if I may ask, what is wrong with Dr Arthur Kennedy, who was Nana Akufo Addo�s former campaign manager? Kennedy is reported to have stated that: �It is obvious, upon careful reflection, that these hooligans�from Kufuor�s house through Tamale to the party headquarters are being organised, encouraged, inspired and motivated by or on behalf of the 2012 presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. While he is a good man, he has permitted a lot of bad things to be done in his name.� And funny enough, Arthur Kennedy still calls himself a �leading member� of the NPP and goes out in the public to accuse his party�s two-time presidential candidate of being violent or promoting violence. Gradually, the NPP is leaving the hands of the decent people we have known the party to possess if people like Arthur Kennedy are allowed to make such childish, imprudent, and shameful allegations against any of the candidates for the party�s flag bearer position. Let me remind the NPP that while its leadership continues to divide the rank and file of the members with their ill-thought pronouncements and infantile and acrimonious media battles, it is gradually smoothing the route for the NDC�s victory in 2016. PS: Is the Ghana Police Service being responsive to the citizenry or it believes it is above the law. What about its Public Relations Department? This is the 32nd week this column has sought answers from the Inspector-General of Police over the unlawful killing of Adjei Akpor, the 22-year-old man his men killed at Adenta on January 6, 2014 but both the IGP and the Police Service have not deemed it fit to respond, neither has the service instituted any enquiry. The widow and children of the deceased deserve justice and we shall continue with this fight until the IGP and his service behave as modern policemen who are responsive to the public. One lawyer has graciously offered to take up this case, but the family needs funding for the court fees. Meanwhile, we still await other human rights lawyers to join in fighting this case for the defenceless family, as well as philanthropists to donate to cater for the court filing and other fees. ^The author is a journalist and political scientist. He is the Head of the Department of Media and Communication Studies, Pentecost University College, Accra. - [email protected]