Open letter to Asiedu Nketiah

Dear Asiedu Nketiah,

I heard you on radio announcing your desire to seek reelection as NDC general secretary. I was not shocked but i was surprised.

If I say I was surprised, it is because I thought you were different. And i nearly believed that you’re one of those who’s sense of timing is great. I was wrong.

As Member of Parliament for Wenchi West constituency for 12 years, from 1992 to 2000, you bowed out when the applause was loud. You knew it when the people of your constituency were fed-up and wanted change. You didn’t wait to be removed with ignominy. Instead, you bowed out when the applause was loudest. You did what was honorable.

And so, I thought that after 13 – yrs in the most active service as general secretary of the NDC, nobody needed to tell you that your time was up. After 8 yrs in opposition, you contributed massively in bringing back the NDC to power in 2008 and 2012. You deserve high commendation for that. And I doff my hat to you.

However, as we all know, by 2016, the dynamics of our politics had dramatically changed. The methods and tactics also changed. The old tactics for winning elections have now been totally and utterly discredited.

No Wonder your skills and many of your colleague NEC members became redundant during and after the 2016 elections. It will seem to many of us that the dynamics of biometrics completely eluded and over powered your capabilities. (the NDC still cannot boast of its own collated results for the 2016 Presidential elections).

It is in this regard that some of us thought that we wouldn’t have to retire you compulsorily. As a wise man, we expected you to bow out with dignity and pass the baton to one of the many young party activists that you have trained over the years – unless you want to say that nobody is capable of learning under you to do the work of general secretary apart from your good self.

I want to believe that someone like Koku Anyidoho who worked as deputy general secretary under your tutelage is over qualified and capable in terms of the new skills set required to handle the dynamics of the biometrics in the next general elections.

Besides, Mr. Nketiah, a mark of a good leader is to be able to train and groom future leaders. Thirteen years is far more than any democratically elected President can ever get to lead.

You have won some political battles and you have lost some too. There is nothing else there for you to do at 61 years old. You will serve the NDC better as a member of the council of elders where your wisdom can be applied for the greater good.

I heard you say that if you failed in 2016, your deputies equally failed and therefore not qualified to replace you. I beg to differ and to put it to you that you have have been GS for 13 years. And you delegate responsibilities to your deputies. You must take ultimate responsibility and recognise your inadequacies in a highly technologically changing environment.

To insists on running for general secretary now is to tell us that you have failed to groom leaders after more than a decade for the NDC. It could also mean that you don’t have anything to do with your life after leaving office so you are therefore reluctant to retire honorably.

Well, with all due respect to you sir, that seat of general secretary is not your bonafide property. It is a vacancy that was created for you thirteen years ago, and it is a vacancy that you must leave now for others – voluntarily or compulsorily but definitely democratically.

Since you seem to have chosen the position of general secretary as your retirement post, some of us have been left with no choice but to join the movement of young democratic forces in an effort to compulsorily retire you and make way for a new blood with new ideas.

It is a new dawn. Please sir, wake up and smell the coffee.

Amenga-Etego ”Rebel” SaCut

(NDC activist and political journalist)