*By Ade Sawyerr. London*
As an ardent supporter of the Convention Peoples Party, events over the
past few months have almost thrown me into a state of despair. But as a
firm believer in God, I am confident that these rows are not a foretaste of
worse things to come, but rather a test of how strong and resilient the
party is even when there is a slugfest in the public arena.
Mine is not to apportion blame as to who started what, or who will win this
fight about process in the party, but as a senior comrade of the party, I
think I will be failing in my duty, to the party that I so cherish, if I do
not pass public comment on the sorry mess that we find ourselves in.
We need to be honest about our fortunes before we can do anything positive
that would lead us out of the morass. Over the past few weeks, I have been
avoiding answering my telephone; I have been dodging the incessant
questions from well wishers and sympathisers, some of who I have convinced
to join the party, who are worried about what is happening and who want to
know why we cannot bottle our energies towards the growth and development
of the party.
Of course, there are several people, mainly in other parties, who because
of the recent state of affairs, are beginning to write us off, but we need
to find answers to their claim that we are not serious. Some of these
commentators do not understand why we must squander the goodwill we have
generated over the past four years with a spat that has no reason or rhyme.
Four years ago, there was a bright spark in the party as Ladi Nylander
emerged as chairman of the party. He had replaced Dr. Delle, a seasoned
politician who had tried so hard to unite the party in the midst of
discord. Dr. Delle was so much aware of why our votes had collapsed in
2004; he had commissioned research that would identify how to allocate
resources so that we would attain a respectable showing in the
parliamentary and presidential polls in 2004. He desperately wanted to
revive the fortunes of the party but had been held hostage by different
factions, the Patriots and the Movement who were fighting for control of
the party. He had to deftly negotiate between these two groups and others
who were pulling the party in different directions.
Chairman Ladi Nylander did his best under fire, from a faction of the
party, to hold the centre together when rogue elders in the party were
‘cutting their noses to spite their faces’ so to speak, because their
favoured candidates had lost the flag bearership at congress. But try as he
did, chairman Ladi Nylander failed to unite the factions in the party. Our
poor showing in the 2008 was a reflection of a party that forgot that it
was in a contest against other parties and spent most of the time and
effort in doing damage to the fortunes of our flagbearer who had won
election at congress. The internal battles were about who was more
ideologically sound and who understood Nkrumaism better. We lost and we
did so badly. We were fighting enemies within the party rather than
training what little firepower we had on our opponents; the other political
parties in Ghana.
We should have learnt the lessons of that loss and worked harder at
building the party soon after the 2008 elections, but we did not; we
launched into another fight as to why we got only 1.34% of the votes and
instead of blaming the party as a whole, some - vociferous faction -
decided that it was the fault of the flagbearer.
Though Chairman Ladi did not unite the party, he made the party more
respectable; he sustained it for four good years and soldiered on to a
successful congress. Chairman Ladi Nylander needs to be applauded for the
sterling work he did in the reconstruction of the party.
Our new Chairman and Leader, Samia Nkrumah has inherited a party that has a
history of indiscipline especially from those who do not accept election
results. Those are the people she should be railing against. Those who do
not understand that losing an election can be done gracefully; those who do
not understand that you can return stronger if you learn the lessons of
your loss; those who refuse to recognise that elections within parties are
good things and getting people to step aside in the interest of the party
are only denying the competition that creates a buzz in the party and
energises the rank and file.
The CPP is riddled with factions and Chairman Leader Samia has to deal with
these factions. The task is more difficult because these factions are
spurious and based on neither philosophy nor principles. The factions are
not even based on policies and approaches, but rather on follies of
personalities. In the CPP, anyone who has a different view of how we get
ourselves out of the parlous state of the party is accused as a mole,
high-jacker, spy, CIA agent, collaborator, traitor, ‘bought’ or whatever
unpleasant word that can be used to describe a dissenter. But the
solutions to CPP problems will not come from only one section of the party
even if they are in the majority; as a party that prides itself on being a
broad church, we should all be working together and tap into the diverse
opinions and approaches, and indeed into personalities and different
backgrounds for the social, economic and political upliftment of the people
of Ghana and Africa.
There should be ideologues as well as non-ideologues; there should be those
who support the party for a rational reason as well as those who have an
emotional attachment for the party; some born into the party, others
recently joined because they believe in the common cause of the party; or,
are impressed with one or the other personality in the party.
The CPP will not be revived by chasing enemies inside the party; the
internal disagreements will continue but we should ensure that those
disagreements lead to convergence of energies and resources to take on the
other parties and defeat them at the elections. All have a role to play in
the party and the internal disagreements should not be allowed to
overshadow our hunger to restore faith in the eyes of our sympathisers and
our well wishers who intend to join us for the battle for the soul of the
Ghanaian and African.
This is the time to be passionate ‘fishers of men and women’ for the party.
However, we can only become fishers of men, if we widen and broaden the
base of the party. A party that advocates for the mass of the poor in
Ghana cannot afford to be narrow; it must include all of the people; it
must inspire them in such a way that all will be welcome.
These internal squabbles that find themselves out in the open detract from
the powerful message that the CPP should be out there actively propagating
to encourage more persons to join and vote for us. An end to the very
public quarrels will help us focus on spreading our message of hope for
those who are fed up with the uninspiring politics of the NDC and the NPP -
two parties who are seen as the two sides of the same coin.
We should ask them to come and join our party and vote for as in both the
presidential and the parliamentary elections come next year because it is
only the CPP that is bold enough to reject the orthodoxy of the
multilateral and bilateral institutions that prevent us from development.
We should renew our efforts to let more and more people know that it is
only the CPP who will do something about the misery and poverty that the
large mass of our people live under and that will actively use the power of
the state backed by science and technology to industrialise the country and
provide, better education and skills for the mass of the people so that
they will increase the productive capacity of the country through the jobs
that will be created as a result of our industrial policies.
We must tell the people that through our process of principled approach to
community engagement and involvement, we will fashion policies that speak
to the people of Ghana and Africa about their health, their education,
their jobs, the safety and their environment. We should be energised to
take this message to all the people, to the schools and colleges, to the
markets, to the workers and farmers and fisherfolk, to all the vocational
workers and artisans, to the common man as well as the professionals. We
the members of the party should be using all the media available to us, by
word of mouth, through our benevolent and self help organisations, our
churches and mosques, on radio and in print, on television as well as on
the internet and on our mobile phones that the Great Red Cockerel is
sounding an urgent call to them at the dawn of this century that our task
of rebuilding our Ghana and Africa is as urgent now as it was at the time
of independence.
It is early days yet for our new leader however we trust that these
internal problems will be sorted out and we work on the very basis on which
we must fight the next election. We must be energised by the fact of new
leadership that will work towards the reconciliation, reconstruction and
revival of the party.
We are confident that our Chairman will lead us in this task of taking the
message to the people of Ghana and that she will be accompanied by our
parliamentary candidates and our flagbearer all singing from the same hymn
sheet as we empower the people of Ghana to vote for the only party that
will transform our society, our economy and our polities and restore the
pride of the Ghanaian and African and prove to the whole world that the
black man is capable of running their own affairs.
Our enemy is not within our party; our enemy constitutes the other parties!
We need to unite the party and that is the challenge for the leadership!
As we return to normality after this initial rush on the airwaves and the
print media, we must be reminded that for any successful endeavour we need
the efforts of all as captured in this interpretation of Sun Tzu by Tu Mu
“The skilful employer will employ the wise, the brave, the covetous and the
stupid. For the wise man delights in establishing his merit, the brave
like to show their courage in action, the covetous is quick at seizing
advantages and the stupid have no fear of death”
Forward ever
Ade Sawyerr London
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Best Regards
Ade
http://adesawyerr.wordpress.com
http://twitter.com/adesawyerr