News:
February 24, 2011
The Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akomea, MP, has called on President Mills to pick up the challenge of the NPP flagbearer and engage him on critical matters of national concern.
Speaking on the day after former President Kufuor honoured an invitation to the Castle to dialogue with the President on several issues, the NPP Communications Director said, President Mills, should do more to show that he is sincere about fostering unity and addressing the concerns of the NPP.
“We welcome the cordial and frank discussions the President had with the former President. But, really, Nana Akufo-Addo is the current leader of the biggest opposition party in Ghana. He has repeatedly raised concerns about the victimizations of his party people and his fears about the 2012 elections.”
Nana Akomea said the President has a responsibility to call the NPP flagbearer to “have a frank and cordial discussion with him about how to address these critical issues. We are urging the President to make that call.”
He said, “Already, with his Monday speech, Nana Addo has sent a very clear message to the President and the entire nation that the NPP remains utterly committed to defending and enhancing Ghana’s democracy. We are committed to ensuring a peaceful contest in 2012. We want the President to be active in joining to send a clear message to the country that we all want peace, fairness and justice.”
Such an invitation will render unnecessary the decision to put the security forces on ‘red alert’, Nana Akomea argued.
Nana Akomea quotes from his boss, “Nana says our supporters know that we are not calling on them to initiate violence. It is a defensive exhortation. Our members and supporters are responsible citizens and we are very proud of them. Nana took the Monday opportunity to urge our supporters to continue to be law-abiding citizens and play by the rules of the game. He also urged the President to send a similar message to his supporters.”
Nana Akomea said the commitment from the NDC must be genuine. “We are ready to get the two men to work together and lead the importance task of ensuring a clean and peaceful elections, alongside the EC and other major stakeholders.”
He said further, “We insist that there is a greater responsibility on the party in power to set the stage and take active steps in this direction. We want the President to give a clear, unequivocal commitment to ensuring a peaceful atmosphere, devoid of violence, for the 2012 elections.”
“As our flagbearer said, “By his deeds the President can make redundant the slogan, ‘All Die be Die’. Nana Addo has also assured of the NPP’s commitment to ensuring that the next general elections are held under an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. He also called on the leader of the NDC and the President of the Republic to join us on this crucial enterprise to protect and strengthen our democracy.”
In Nana Akufo-Addo’s speech at Ho last Monday, addressed to the President, he stated, “Over the last two years, we have detailed a catalogue of savage attacks against our party activists, which have gone unpunished. We have protested the apparently selective manner in which the law is being applied by the state against those perceived to be political opponents of the current government. With the able support of the media, we have tried to bring the President’s attention to the impunity with which so-called footsoldiers of the ruling party have spent the last 25 months attacking people and property.”
The President can meet his counterpart in the NPP and begin dialoguing on these issues, Nana Akomea said.
Nana Addo had said, “We have repeatedly called on the President to take decisive action to protect Ghanaians, including our party members who have suffered such barbarity, like the victims of Agbobloshie. We have expressed our extreme worry about violence as an electoral strategy, as was evident in all three parliamentary contests held under his (President Mills) watch, namely, the completion of the Akwatia election, and the Chereponi and Atiwa by-elections. The deplorable incidents in these elections were unknown in the Kufuor era, which saw the conduct of at least ten by-elections.”
Nana Addo stressed his party’s commitment, “For us in the NPP, democratic governance and the peaceful transfer of power, after elections, are not negotiable. We urge all political parties and Ghanaians committed to promoting peace and deepening our democracy to work with us in securing these ends.”
Nana Akomea, stated, “There can be no greater message of his commitment than what Nana Addo gave Monday when he said ‘In the 2008 elections I said repeatedly that I would not want a single drop of Ghanaian blood to be spilled for me to become President. I am still committed to that.’
“It does not mean he would shirk his duty as a political leader not to speak out to the followers of his party to stand up and defend those shared beliefs. I think that is something that Opposition Leader Mills could empathise with. Now let us chart a way forward in finding solutions with candour.”
Source: NPP Communications Directorate