Not even Jesus can successfully run NDC, NPP in their current state – Akoto Ampaw

The two main political parties in the country, the governing New Patriotic Party, NPP, and the opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, are not being accountable to Ghanaians but rather serving themselves when in office.

This is the view of lawyer Akoto Ampaw, a staunch human rights and good governance advocate, who was counsel for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during

Read full articlethe 2020 election petition case.

Ampaw in an interview on the state broadcaster, Ghana Television, on Monday, September 5, 2022; decried the spate of self-aggrandizement, patronage and general lack of accountability by politicians in the two major parties.

“We’ve allowed two parties to dominate our lives, politically, socially and economically and I don’t think that the dividends are anything to talk about. And the projector as I see it now is going downwards,” he told Kafui Dey.

He stressed that there was no magic wand to cure the anomaly except for a better-organized citizenry rising to make demands of the political class.

Failing to do so, he said not even Jesus Christ will succeed in leading NPP and NDC in their current form to deliver the dividends of good governance to the populace.

“People join the parties not because they believe in any ideals or anything of the sort, but because they see it as a route of making it in life.

“And the manner in which the parties are financed, there is patronage within the parties such that it isn’t going to change much even if you brought Jesus Christ to run the parties as we have it now, he cannot be successful,” he told Kafui Dey.

Asked how the status quo can be changed, he responded: “Until our people begin to assert their rights in an organized fashion, not in unruly fashion … but organized and purposeful fashion, people must believe in themselves as agents of change and organize to make our parties accountable to us.

“As things are now, they are not. The two main parties are not accountable to the people of Ghana, I don’t think so,” he added.

The NDC and NPP have alternated executive power since 1992. The two parties currently hold 137 seats apiece in Parliament with the final seat being held by Andrew Asiamah of Fomena – an independent candidate who is currently doing business with the NPP.

SARA/PEN