Executives of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Northern Region have expressed excitement over the naming of District Chief Executives by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
It is recalled that soon after the announcement of the list on Wednesday April 26, a handful of aggrieved supporters of the New Patriotic Party went on rampage because their preferred candidates were not chosen by the president’s committee headed by Mr Peter Mc Manu.
For instance, the Women’s Organiser of the party in Savelugu Constituency, Hajia Kande has threatened to resign if the DCE nominee for the Savelugu district, Hajia Ayishetu Seidu, is maintained.
He told Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on Thursday April 27: “We don’t know her in the district. She doesn’t even vote in this constituency and so we don’t want her.
“She never showed her face during the campaign and so we don’t know where she is coming from. We don’t want her. She could be a member of the NPP in another area but we want people from our constituency who really toiled for the party to come back to power.”
“We are appealing to the president to change the nominee. She doesn’t know the district, she is not known, and so if she becomes the DCE it will anger the grassroots of the party in the district and the constituency. I will resign as the constituency Women’s Organiser for Savelugu if the President maintains her as DCE because the executives of the party can’t work with her, she is not known.”
But also speaking in an interview on the same programme, Mr Salifu said: “The list that the president has brought to be considered [came] from the constituency. We asked the constituency executives to shortlist a number of people to the regions, then the region would also submit same or some names from the list that was brought to us from the constituency to the vetting committee chaired by Peter Mac Manu.
“It is not true that the president has appointed people that the constituents don’t know, because they generated those names.
“Most of the names that have been chosen were parliamentary candidates for the NPP in the just-ended parliamentary elections. But we all know after election primaries one or two people will have their personal issues to settle and I believe that that is what has been transferred into this exercise. But as the regional secretary of the NPP, I know all those that the president has appointed. They have been with us in the field, they have contributed financially…to the NPP and they are members of the NPP, so we are most grateful to the president for giving us a solid team that we can work with in the Northern Region to prosecute his agenda for change.”
He added: “Several people were vying to be elected as DCEs and you know during the lobbying…people have issues with each other and that is why they are working against each other. But let me say majority of the constituents in these areas we are talking about are really happy about the president’s nominations because they know the support and the contributions of these individuals towards the victory of the NPP in the Northern Region.
“Some people think that when you mount political platforms, that is the only way you can be recognised as a true party person or when the president comes and you are available that is when you are seen as a party person. But as regional secretary, I have come to realise that those who even contribute financially towards the party’s activities are much more important because if people don’t contribute resources to us, how do you move to the 31 constituencies in the North to organise and prosecute the party’s campaign? So I am saying on authority that the president has nominated the right people for the region and everybody must accept them. We should support them to go through the confirmation process so that they kick-start the agenda for change in our region.”
He further called the bluff of the women organiser who has threatened to resign following the announcement.
He said: “She should resign! This is a woman whose husband was a contestant for the position of DCE in the Savelugu district and so why wouldn’t she be peeved? Her husband was one of the applicants to become DCEs in Savelugu, and so why wouldn’t she be angry? The last person who should make such threatening and useless comments should be coming from a party executive and I am highly disappointed that a Women’s Organiser of a constituency or a district will be sending such bad signal.
“We are party officers, we voted Nana Addo to become the flag bearer of the NPP, we campaigned alongside with him to be elected as president of Ghana and so we should be the last people to engineer any process against the voice and authority of the president and I am saying the Women’s Organiser for Savelugu, her husband, also contested to be elected as DCE. So, if your husband was elected and people were protesting would you be happy?”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
