There Is No Discipline In The NPP – Dr Afriyie Akoto

A flagbearer aspirant of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has decried the lack of discipline in the party over the past years.

According to him, everyone is seen doing whatever pleases them.

He said the indiscipline is heightened by party officials’ endorsement of some aspirants ahead of their primaries.

The former Agric Minister said although the NPP won the 2020 election, the level of indiscipline in the party cost it many seats and votes, as well as its preferred Speaker of Parliament.

“There’s no discipline in the party. What is going on is a classic example, where high party officials are campaigning for one candidate against the instructions and regulations of the party, and they know that nobody will say anything to them. Any institution cannot live without discipline,” he said.

Dr Akoto added that the party would have convincingly been the majority in Parliament if not for the level of indiscipline which informed one person’s decision to go independent.

The situation persists because party officials have refused to crack the whip, he said.

Furthermore, the former Minister said his meetings with the grassroots of the party within the various regions have revealed that the morale of the party is down.

According to him, the people complained about not benefiting from the government they voted for.

“I had an even closer view of the party situation in 2020 when for the ten months that the president was campaigning I was wig him all the time. That gave me an even closer view of what is happening at the party. What I saw did not impress me.

“You could see that our soldiers, that is the pollen station executives, their supervisors and constituency executives, everywhere you went, they were complaining; ‘we haven’t gotten anything, we are hungry,” he said.

Although there have been similar complaints in different governments, the politician said the intensity this time was significant.

He also highlighted that some internal conflicts have been left unresolved.

This, he said is causing division and could cost the party much if party heads do not provide solutions ahead of the general election.

Dr Afriyie Akoto is the former Minister of Food and Agric under the Akufo-Addo-led NPP government.

He resigned last year to pursue his presidential ambitions.

Having made it through vetting, the politician will be hoping to be given the nod in the party’s upcoming supra delegates election.