NPP In A Fix �As Quattara Accepts Afoko�s Congratulations

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cote D’Ivoire has accepted a flood of felicitations from around the world congratulating President Allasssane Quattara on his reelection.

News trending on the internet tells of Mr. Charles Koffi Diby, Ivory Coast’s Foreign Minister, relaying the congratulatory messages to the President-elect in the capital Yamossoukro.

Among the numerous letters relayed by Mr. Diby is one by the suspended Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Paul Awentami Afoko.

With Mr. Quattara reported to have eagerly accepted all congratulatory messages, including Afoko’s own, the import back home in Ghana leaves the New Patriotic Party in an awkward fixture, as Mr. Afoko had written in the capacity as Chairman, even though the party claims he is no longer Chairman.

The awkwardness worsens with the fact that Nana Akufo-Addo, the party’s flag bearer, who has endorsed Mr. Afoko’s suspension has on his own also sent Mr. Quattara a separate congratulatory message.

Cote D’Ivoire’s election agency, judged Alassane Quattara as winner of that country’s first ever election after Civil war in 2011.

Mr. Quattara won by an 84% landslide, with international observers judging the poll free and fair even though some opposition leaders had pulled out of the race citing attempts by the incumbent to rig.

Two days before the Cote D’Ivoire elections, the NPP had on 23rd October, the NPP suspended its Chairman indefinitely.

With the Chairman dismissing the suspension as an illegality, the party’s flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, who endorsed the suspension, rushed to congratulate Mr. Quattara upon his victory in the Ivory Coast election victory.

This action by Akufo-Addo had all the bearings of a deliberate calculation to show Paul Afoko where power lay in the NPP, but Mr. Afoko soon replied by sending another congratulatory message in his capacity as NPP Chairman!

“May the fraternal relations that exist between the Rally of the Republicans and the New Patriotic Party continue to flourish for the benefit of our people,” Mr. Afoko had emphasized in the letter.

Mr. Afoko’s letter is one of the numerous letters from around the world that have reached the desk of Mr. Quattara, internet news has it.

It is not clear if the Ivorian President will reply, and if he will, whether he will write separately to both Akufo-Addo and Afoko.

The situation clearly leaves the NPP in an awkward fixture with Akufo-Addo’s leadership of the party under massive question marks.

Meanwhile some supporters of Mr. Afoko have gone to court to overturn his suspension.