NPP’s founding principles eroded – Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe on recent developments in the party

A founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, has expressed worry about the abandonment of the party’s founding development-oriented principles.

According to  Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe, all the patriotic principles and persons of honour of the NPP have given way to a bunch of greedy people who are only fixated on amassing wealth and properties for themselves instead of collectively working to develop the country.

“When the party was founded, the leaders of the party were giants and when you saw them, you respected them. Even the youth organiser of the party was a gentleman, a lawyer, and even though he was a bit older than the youth, they did not talk roughly, and they were not greedy people looking for properties and whatnot, and we don’t have those people in the party again.”

He expressed dissatisfaction with the current decision-making process of the party, which he said has been hijacked by the President.

“I know the party very well and anything that will be said today is under the form of [President] Akufo-Addo. This party was formed with the motto Development in Freedom, but it appears we have lost both yet these are the things when I talk about, they say I am NDC. Let us be sincere with ourselves, there is no single development that this government has executed. Development is totally absent in the party now.”

On September 25, Alan Kyerematen announced his departure from the New Patriotic Party barely a month after withdrawing from the party’s flagbearer race.

He has subsequently announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election as an independent candidate.

Mr. Kyerematen explained that his decision aims to offer the NPP an opportunity to participate in a government of national unity while reassuring the party’s members of his continued commitment to the party’s founding principles.

But in a rebuttal, the NPP refuted claims that the party has been hijacked by a selected group of elders and government appointees.

In a press conference on September 26, the General Secretary of the party, Justin Frimpong Kodua said such claims are unfounded.

“The leadership of the party equally disagrees with assertions made by Mr Kyerematen on page eight of his resignation address that the party has been hijacked by a selected group of party leaders and elders, and government appointees behind the curtain power brokers’’.

“Guided by facts and data, the leadership of the party disagrees entirely with this assertion,” he said.