Kwame Pianim
A leading member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Pianim, has directed a string of criticisms at the party for challenging the December 7, 2012 presidential elections in the Supreme Court.
He is also unhappy the party has decided to boycott all activities relating to the president, such as ministerial vetting and State-of-the-Nation address.
In an interview in the latest edition of the pan-African magazine,Africawatch, Mr. Pianim, a businessman and an economist, described his party as ‘confused’, adding that its actions amount to ‘intellectual and mental laziness’.
Kwame Pianim’s statement sent the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) into a flurry of excitement, as some party functionaries sing his praises.
However, the NPP is on edge, with some observers opining that Mr. Pianim’s statement in the magazine is aimed at scuttling the goodwill the party is enjoying from its supporters, as it pursues its election challenge at the Supreme Court.
The General Secretary of the party, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie aka Sir John, rebutted Mr. Pianim’s criticism, saying he resigned from the NPP several years ago and has not shown any commitment to the party since then, hence his criticism are not justified.
The statement of the controversial politician is coming at a time the ruling party is trying desperately to get all sorts of voices on its side as it battles the NPP in the Supreme Court from overturning its presidential mandate.
Mr. Pianim told the magazine that he would prefer it if NPP accepts the results of the elections and “move on”.
“When the results of an election are announced, we should be ready to accept the results no matter how bitter,” he told the magazine.
The views of Kwame Pianim, who has remained relatively quiet politically for a while now, is similar to that which was expressed by another NPP top gun, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, a few weeks ago.
Their radical views appear to contravene all the solidarity that the NPP is enjoying among its members, as the party’s flagbearer Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo, his running-mate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and party Chairman Jake Obetsebi Lamptey battle the NDC and the Electoral Commission in the Supreme Court over what they believe are ‘massive’ electoral fraud during the December polls.
The NPP has tabled evidence from more than 11,000 polling stations out of 26,000 polling stations, in the Supreme Court, to prove that the elections were fraught with over one million questionable votes.
Pianim’s Beef
Even though the NPP believes it was not actually defeated in the December polls, Mr. Pianim said a number of issues might have led to the defeat of the NPP.
According to him, the branding of the NPP as belonging to the ‘Danquah-Busia tradition’ has made the party ethnically lopsided.
“We should probably stop branding the party as a Danquah-Busia tradition. Why should we continue to call ourselves the Danquah-Busia tradition? We seem to have forgotten other stalwarts behind the building of the United Party or UP tradition,” he said.
“We have forgotten some of those from the Volta and Northern regions who sacrificed so much for the party. By calling the party Danquah-Busia tradition, it gives some people in the party the false impression that they have a family stool in the party that they are entitled to inherit,” the businessman cum politician charged.
He also descended on some spokespersons in the party, particularly Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a cousin to Nana Akuffo Addo and Executive Secretary of pro-NPP research group, the Danquah Institute (DI).
He described Mr. Otchere-Darko and some other ‘self appointed spokespersons’ of the NPP as ‘arrogant’ and ‘talking anyhow’.
“Some of these self appointed spokespersons of the NPP seem to talk anyhow. Their demeanor and arrogant utterances tend to turn off people from the NPP. They are part of our problem and did not help us in the elections”.
The Solution?
Mr. Pianim said the current crop of NPP leadership has outlived its relevance and thus the need to overhaul the leadership for younger and more vibrant crop of politicians.
“We need a new generation of young, ICT-savvy and business-minded people to take the NPP to the next level…I think people of my age should just stay behind, more often quietly, and offer advice to the younger ones to lead,” he suggested.
“The fact is that the majority of our population is below 40 years old, and why would an old man like me want to govern people whose aspirations he doesn’t even understand?”
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