FULL SPEECH: Concerned Youth Of NPP Replies Prof. George Gyan Baffour
15TH JANUARY, 2018
Concerned Youth Of NPP Replies Prof. George Gyan Baffour On 2020 Parliamentary Primaries At Wenchi
Good morning ladies and gentlemen, the media fraternity and supporters and sympathizers of NPP herein gathered. Thanks so much for making this all important press conference despite your busy schedules.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press we have called you here today with the view of setting the records straight in response to some preemptive statements that were made by our sitting member of parliament, Honourable Professor George Gyan Baffour when he granted some interviews to Royals Fm in Wenchi as well as Peace Fm in Accra about a week ago.
First of all it is imperative to note that it is not for nothing the New Patriotic Party is offten referred to as bastion of democracy in Ghana. We believe in free and democratic society where the voices and the wills of the people are the measuring rods for policy and decision making. These are some of democratic credentials the late Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia,a proud son of Wenchi and his compatriots,J.B Danquah and S. D Dombo handed down to us.
The New Patriotic Party and for that matter Ghanaians, have no intention whatsoever to abandon these tenets, because time has proven these visionaries right. One does not need PhD in political science to understand that, the political convictions that were espoused by these men of vision some years ago are the principal strings holding the fabric of Ghana's democracy today.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press now to the main issues. In the interview he granted specifically to Royals Fm our Honourable Member of Parliament and Ghana's Minister for Planning, asserted the following:
1. That he will contest the seat again in the upcoming Npp's 2020 parliamentary primises and he intends to hold on to power till probably 2024 of which he might have gotten tired by that time and may want to hang his parliamentary gloves. And evening when that time comes, he will personally select a suitable candidate to succeed him.
2. That the parliamentary seat is not dynastic in nature or a stool to be inherited, for somebody to lay claim to it on the basis of his or her family background. A statement, we strongly believe is directed at the Busias,a family that is held in high esteem for having done and continue to do so much for the good people of Wenchi and Ghana in general.
3. That, the parliamentary seat is not for someone who has gone on retirement and wants the seat as a retirement package.
4. That, the seat is not for someone who did not put his shoulders to the wheel during the formative stages of the party in the constituency but wants to come and take an advantage of the people, now the political boat appears to be sailing smoothly.
Responses and corrections -----------------------------------
To begin with,as far as we know, per the Constitution of Ghana and that of NPP,it is within his right to seek re-election as many times as he wishes. But he has absolutely no right to hand- pick a parliamentary candidate for Wenchi. The responsibility of getting Npp's parliamentary candidate lies within the purview of the respected delegates of the party and to a greater extent, the good people of Wenchi . This responsibility is not at the beck and call of a sitting member of parliament, one way or the other demeans the constituency and portrays us as a group of people who do not know our left from right. We are therefore calling on our honourable member of parliament to completely retract the said statement as well as render an unqualified apology to the people of Wenchi.
Secondly, Wenchiman needs no reminder to the effect that parliamentary seats are not for dynasts. Because, even though the late Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia is a forebearer of NPP,none of his descendants has ever held any political position in the constituency ever since this fourth republican democracy came into being. We therefore find this undeserved innuendos and insinuations to be a stab in the back of the family that gave birth to one of the greatest politicians Ghana has ever produced. It is through his political exploits that catapulted Wenchi becoming a cynosure of all eyes in Ghana and beyond. If today the utterances of our Honourable MP seem to downplay the achievements of this noble family, we the good people of Wenchi will forever be grateful to God and the family for lifting the image of our constituency through them. Despite our MP's almost 16 years in power nobody, in Wenchi has ever raised the issue of dynasty against him, even though his biological sister was a Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Wenchi in the era of NDC.
Moreover, we the youth in the constituency see his assertion that the seat is not for people who are on retirement as not appropriate and only goes to fuel the NDC's propaganda card of old-age against our current president, His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo, which eventually led to their worst defeat in the history Ghana during the 2016 elections. We believe that capability of a leader is to be in a vanguard of development irrespective of his or her age. In any case,if we are to make age as an issue as our MP wants us to believe,then we can say without any shred of equivocation that, he is also supposed to be on retirement by now since he has by passed the compulsory age of sixty by seven more years.
Also, our MP creates the impression that he is one of the people who held the party together in its nascent stages in the constituency. To lay the facts bare, by the time our current MP came back from USA to be Npp's parliamentary candidate in 2004 , the likes of Alhaji Moctar Bamba ( former MP, Wenchi), Chairman Kwaku Gyan, Chairman Kwame Aidoo, Mr Paul Kwame Baffoe (Pakaba), late Gyan Guagua and other notable NPP die-hards had already done enough to snatch the parliamentary seat from the NDC. So if we are to consider people who sweat, tears and blood brought this party up from its formative years, with all due respect, our honourable MP may not also pass the acid test he is prescribing today.
Finally, ladies and gentlemen the question most the constituents are asking is,if our honourable minister and MP truly believes he has done so much and for that matter, his almost 16 years in power have benefited the ordinary people in the constituency rather than his family and friends,why he haste in announcing his re-election bid and putting roadblocks in the way of the people who may decide to contest him? If after 16 years in power, he has not been able to churn out his developmentat initiatives for the constituency, we wonder the kind of difference an additional 4 years can make. He should not forget that "If a tree refuses to dance on its own,it is forced to do so by a strong wind"
Thank you all for your audience. May the good Lord bless NPP and the good people Wenchi.
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