Kwaku Baako wants President Akufo-Addo to crackdown on campaigning NPP flagbearer hopefuls
Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper, Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako has slammed flagbearer hopefuls of the New Patriotic Party for engaging in what he says is premature campaigning.
The NPP’s National Executive Committee (NEC) has had cause to issue a notice asking all flagbearer hopefuls of the party to desist from campaigning until the party officially permits such.
Some critics say the early campaign by the flagbearer hopefuls some three years ahead of the end of President Akufo-Addo’s second term, threatens the stability and cohesion of the NPP.
Sharing in such sentiments, Kwaku Baako speaking on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo urged the president to, as part of his measures to manage the situation, consider relieving the flagbearer hopefuls of their positions in his government.
"No matter how big you are, if in the first year, you can't hold onto your Presidential ambitions in check, then you must as well just not be in the system . . . if they will prematurely ejaculate before even the third year, if I were the President, I would adopt this method . . . if you won't reshuffle them, get them to resign," he stated.
According to Kwaku Baako the current situation in the NPP relates to a similar one seen during the second term of President Kufour between 2004 and 2008.
He notes that unlike the current situation, the squabble to become the party’s flagbearer only began somewhere in the last year of President Kufour’s second term.
Kwaku Baako, making his submission on the morning show contended that the situation may lead to a stall in government business.
"It was in 2007 that this thing started, meaning the third year in the second term. This is the first year in the second term. It doesn't make sense. I believe the President should begin to use reshuffle as part of his bargaining chip . . . He should start using it; crack the whip indirectly there and then,” he said.
Ahead of its National Delegates Conference scheduled to be held in Kumasi this weekend, the NPP NEC in a release said, “Prior to and during the conference from December 18 to 20, 2021, no billboards and or signboards, banners or any kind of outdoor signage with the images and or names of individual members, with or without the consent of the individual, shall be acceptable. This applies to the area within the Greater Kumasi Metropolis. All such displays, if put up already, should be removed”.
The NEC further warned that, “Any person, with or without his or her consent, whose image is flaunted on any advocacy material and who does not take active steps to desist from any public display of aspiration for a position within the precincts of Greater Kumasi runs a higher risk of disqualification in the event nominations are declared open”.
Ahead of the event however, there have been reports of various billboards and posters of persons eyeing the party’s flagbearership and other executive positions already flying across the Ashanti Regional capital.
