Ministers Boycott NDC Meetings

Source: The Chronicle  -  It appears the confusion between the Western Regional executives of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has gone beyond reconciliation, as the protagonists continue to throw mud at each other, a few months after the so-called successful regional congress.

As if this is not enough, some of the ministers of state have also started boycotting meetings organized by the party. Available information shows that the front of the regional executives of the party has been divided along two camps, headed by Nana Kojo Toku (the immediate past chairman) and his successor Michael Aidoo, also known as Big Aidoo.

The Chronicle gathered that the Nana Kojo Toku faction is determined to cripple activities of the incumbent chairman and are using their numerical strength to intimidate Chairman Aidoo and his team. Each of the factions went into the congress that brought Big Aidoo into office with their own slates for the various regional positions, but at the end of the elections, the Nana Kojo Toku’s faction won the majority of the positions.

Though the factions pledged to work in unity after the election, indications on the ground point to the fact that all is not well with the executive front of the NDC in the region. Information available to this paper indicates that members of the two factions almost engaged one another in fisticuffs, at the last regional executives’ meeting of the party.

Big Aidoo directed the Secretary of the party, Joseph Nelson, to write letters to invite Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), Members of Parliament (MPs) and constituency executives to a general meeting at Wassa Akropong, in line with the party’s constitution.

But the Secretary of the party reportedly told the Chairman in the face that he was not going to write the letters. The information continued that, the Chairman, who took offence to the conduct of his Secretary, then went ahead to circulate text messages inviting the aforementioned personalities to the proposed meeting.

Interestingly, the party secretary turned round to circulate counter text messages intended to stop the meeting. Even though the Wassa Akropong meeting was held as scheduled, those in the camp of Nana allegedly boycotted the meeting. The regional Minister and his deputy, according to party insiders, did not attend the meeting without any tangible reasons.

However, party insiders fear that, the absence of the Regional Minister and his deputy mean the two felt threatened by the administration of Big Aidoo, as chairman of the party. It would be recalled that the Regional Minister and his deputy, prior to the election of the regional executives, openly campaigned for the Nana Toku camp, instead of staying neutral.

Their conduct, according to party insiders, infuriated Big Aidoo who told the deputy Minister in the face that: “I will win the chairmanship race and you will come to me for help”. A member of the regional executives, believed to be in the Nana Toku camp has, however, attempted to justify the reason why the Secretary of the party, Joseph Nelson, declined to obey the directive of the party chairman to write letters to invite the people for the meeting.

In an exclusive interview with The Chronicle, he said at the time that the party chairman issued the directive, the party was contemplating co-opting party members to serve at the various positions, in line with the party’s constitution as executive members. But the chairman arrogated unto himself the power to appoint his favorites to be co-opted as executive members.

This, according to him, irked the other faction from Nana Toku’s camp to protest over the chairman’s conduct and to further send out counter text messages to get the rest of the people to boycott the meeting. He observed that, the attitude of Big Aidoo to always attempt to push through every decision he takes unilaterally, without subjecting it to voting, is alien to the party’s constitution.

Though Joseph Nelson confirmed in a telephone interview with the paper that he declined to carry out the directive of the Chairman, he denied sending out counter messages as is being alleged. He explained that he suspects someone might have sent out the counter-text messages to stop the meeting.

However, speaking in a telephone interview with this reporter, Big Aidoo, who would not want to comment directly on the issue, said “every decision I have taken in the party is legal’. Reacting to the story, Phamous Tumi-Acquah, the Western Regional Communication Director of the party admitted that: “we have our own small misunderstandings, but we won’t say there is no unity”.

Mr. Tumi-Acquah would not also assign any reason as to why the Nana Toku camp boycotted the Wassa Akropong meeting. According to him, he was not obliged to give details of what transpires in their meetings to this reporter. For now, since the numbers in the Nana Toku camp outnumber that of Big Aidoo, the latter fears tabling any decision for voting may go against him, hence his decision to ram through his agenda at general meetings.