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The National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Paul Afoko, is optimistic the ground is ripe for the party to wrest political power from the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

He, however, admitted that winning Election 2016 “will not be a stroll in the park” but a task that required party members to work hard with unity of purpose, commitment and dedication.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra Monday, he opined that although the 2016 elections offered a unique opportunity for the NPP to assume the reins of government, the NDC would not sit idle and watch power slip through its hands.

Internal bickering

On the internal bickering which had plagued the NPP, Mr Afoko enjoined members, supporters and sympathisers of the party to eschew mistrust and complacency and close their ranks in the party’s quest to win power in 2016.

It appears that while the grass roots members of the NPP seem to be united behind the party, there is an air of mistrust among the national and regional leadership.

It will be recalled that some thugs organised by a section of the Upper East Regional Executives disrupted a meeting expected to be addressed by Mr Afoko and the party’s General Secretary, Mr Kwabena Agyepong, in the region last Thursday.

“What happened in Bolga is very unfortunate,” Mr Afoko told the Daily Graphic, and disclosed that the party leadership would put together a committee to investigate fully what happened and take the necessary action to prevent such an occurrence in future, as well as preserve the integrity of the party.

He said the work of the committee would not be to witch-hunt but bring members of the party together in a disciplined manner, saying, “No undisciplined army won any war.”

Constituency meetings

He noted that while what happened in Bolga was astonishing, the meeting with constituency and regional executives, as well as the council of elders of the NPP in the Northern and Upper West regions in separate engagements as part of his working visit to those areas went on successfully.

Messrs Afoko and Agyepong have started a nation-wide tour to interact with the party’s regional and constituency executives.

Mr Afoko said already meetings had been successfully organised in the Western, Central, Ashanti, Volta, Northern and Upper West regions. 

He charged that “everybody should keep calm and work together as a united party towards victory in Election 2016”, since their interaction in the Northern and Upper West regions had been a big success and a source of joy, making the Bolga incident pale in terms of its effect.

He said he had taken the incident in Bolga in good faith, since the region was his  constituency and the interaction had been meant to strategise and position the party to retain the Talensi seat.

He also said since the region was a stronghold of the NDC, the Talensi seat was a source of pride for the NPP to work hard and make inroads into the region to retain that seat.

He called on members of the party to be wary of people who were bent on dividing their ranks, saying he hoped incidents similar to the Bolga one would not occur in the region, since that would “be a big shame”.

New plan for power

Mr Afoko alluded to the NPP’s New Plan for Power and reiterated the commitment of the cur­rent national executive to work extra hard to make Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo the next President of Ghana in 2017.

Under the plan, the party’s structures throughout the country were to be reinvigorated and rebranded to make them attractive for power in 2016, he said.

Afoko, Agyepong mean well 

Meanwhile, the youth of the NPP in the three northern regions have expressed their gratitude to Messrs Afoko and Agyepong for availing themselves to the people of the north and giving directions on the core mandate of winning Election 2017. 

In a statement, the youth said the three-day working visit to the northern regions by the two went on without the usual attempt by certain persons to distract them from doing their work. 

“As members of the NPP in the north, we condemn the shameful act that happened in the Upper East Region and call on the national leadership of our party to reprimand Mahama Adams, who masterminded and brought thugs to attack his own regional and constituency officers in Bolgatanga,” the statement from the group stated. 

The statement, signed by Anyass Gazale, Badawe Abdullah and Tahiru Iddrissu, stressed that “the visit by our leaders has rejuvenated the base of the party and we are more committed today to making Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo President in 2016”. 

“The NPP is working again and we are grateful for the continued commitment to instil discipline within the structures of the party,” it said. 

The youth called on “all those hidden hands that have made it their desire to see to the downfall of our national officers to desist from doing that. Afoko and Agyepong mean well for the NPP and we give them our unflinching support in the discharge of their duties”.