Eii Ewiase Paa Nie! NPP Is Penniless

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), the party of self-made men, rich people and the elite, is broke and things are very rough financially for the party. The party that in 2007 could lavish money during the race to get a Presidential candidates is today penniless. The party that can boast of Ghana�s self-acclaimed richest man, Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, and other heavy financiers, is in dire need of cash to organize its National Executives election on March 1, this year. The precarious financial situation is having far-reaching ramifications on how the much awaited National Executives election would be held. The NPP is not sure as to whether it should have centralized or a decentralized National Conference to elect its national officials. Cost of having a successful centralized conference has been pegged at GH1.2million, while a decentralized conference will cost a little over GH150,000. For now, there is total confusion over which format to use in organizing the March 1, 2014 much-needed event. There are reports that based on the poverty level of the party, the National Executive Council has agreed that the conference should be held in the ten regions in the country. However, NPP top brass, including well-respected Mr. Dan Kwaku Botwe, Member of Parliament for Okere in the Eastern Region, who is also a former general secretary of the party, has been reported as having rejected the decentralization of the conference because of a lack of funds. Mr. Botwe is reported to have suggested that the party should mobilize funds through fundraising activities to undertake such a capital intensive project. According to him, if lack of funds was the reason for the decentralization of the conference, then it should be postpone for a month to enable the party to raise adequate funds. Political observers are questioning the sources of huge sums of monies the 17 candidates, described as thieves by NDC gurus Asiedu Nketia, displayed at Legon in Accra in 2007 during the party's search for the Presidential candidate for the 2008 elections. Again the political observers are questioning the sources of funding for the 2010 centralized conference in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. Some NPP persons are also scoring political marks for their candidates with the weak financial positions of the party. That group is questioning the moral right of the current executives, who are seeking re-election, because of their failure to raise funds for the centralized conference. Other insiders are challenging the likes of Mr. Ohene Agyapong to come forward if they have money to throw about to scatter the ambition of some candidates or form new party.