Bon Mots From Speaker Sekyi-Hughes

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

I wonder what Mr. Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen would tell contestants at the ongoing New Patriotic Party (NPP) regional elections of delegates and executive operatives of the party, being that he rudely walked out on the NPP Council of Elders in 2008 when he lost the party's presidential nomination to Nana Akufo-Addo. But at the Takoradi Polytechnic Institute's Auditorium on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014, Mr. Ebenezer Sekyi-Hughes admonished losing candidates to firmly line up behind the winners and staunchly fight to unseat the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) come Election 2016 (See "Don't Leave the NPP If You Lose - Sekyi-Hughes" Vibeghana.com 1/25/14).

The former Speaker of Ghana's Parliament used the teachable example of his own life and career to admonish the losing candidates against the inviting temptation of breaking ranks in the event of electoral outcomes not going their way. According to a Ghana News Agency (GNA) report, Speaker Sekyi-Hughes recalled the grim fact of him losing the contest for First National Vice-Chairman of the NPP during the late 1990s, but how his steadfastness and loyalty to the tenets, principles and ideals of the party eventually assured him of the Speaker's job, which he performed with great tact and finesse.

The GNA did not report what follows, but the cautionary note from Mr. Sekyi-Hughes would have been even more poignant and far-reaching, if the widely respected and astute legal mind had also admonished the winners to graciously cultivate a spirit of humility and geneality towards their losing opponents. For the latter has for quite sometime now become the sticking point, or Achilles heel, militating against the cohesion of rank-and-file membership of the party.

Nonetheless, it was Nana Owusu-Ankomah, the exiting Western Regional Chairman of the NPP who hit the homerun, in American baseball parlance, when he entreated the delegates to vote for "committed candidates." It may not come off as publicly pleasant, but the greatest impediment in the way of an NPP electoral victory has been observed, time and again, to inhere in a relative lack of commitment in the face of the heavy-lifting that is required in order to clinch a victory. The NPP leadership also has to do a heck of a yeomanly job to quell the wide public perception that it is far less committed to the fortunes of its footsoldiers, and would rather selfishly pocket funds earmarked for the promotion of party principles, ideals and agenda than ensure that such funds were wholly devoted to the purposes for which they were voted.

Another perennial foible for party leadership to keep tabs on is the unsavory tendency towards complacency, one that is naively predicated on the illusion, or myth, that somehow the general perception of acute economic hardship is uniformly perceived as such throughout the country. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The party leadership also needs to bear in mind that the decision of who clinches victory at the polls in electioneering campaign culture is one that is determined from month to month, week to week, and even day to day. Sad to say, but this is where the laptop bribery caper comes in. Make no mistake about this, electoral victory is heavily dependent on who is willing to invest the highest at all strategic levels.

What the leadership of the opposition parties need to do in order to have a fighting chance at the polls, is to studiously follow the proverbial paper trail by ensuring that every pesewa or cedi filtering into each and every party is strictly and systematically accounted for, and positioned at the center of public discourse, vis-a-vis responsible leadership and the epic battle against corruption.

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
Jan. 25, 2014
E-mail: [email protected]
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