Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has admonished members of the New Patriotic Party to avoid criticizing the party in public.
He said such development have the tendency of “destabilizing” the party.
Speaking at the party’s 25th Annual Delegates’ Conference in Cape Coast, Kufuor said persons who feel aggrieved or have problems with developments within the party should use the existing internal party structured to air them.
“I want to entreat each and every one of us not to, and let me repeat, not to say or do anything or conduct ourselves in any way that will destabilize the party…If you have any criticisms, please render the criticism indoors. You don’t wash dirty linen in public,” he said.
The NPP in 2015 suffered serious internal wrangling that saw some of its top officers going public with challenges of the party.
The development resulted in two of the party’s executives, Kwabena Agyapong who was the General Secretary and Paul Afoko, Chairman, being indefinitely suspended.
It resulted in a division in the party but their quick regrouping months ahead of the 2016 polls saw them claim victory ahead of a seemingly more united National Democratic Congress.
Meanwhile, former President Kufuor has also called on the party leaders to hire strategists and thinkers who will serve as backroom staff to enable the party remains in power for more years.
He said the strategists must be adequately remunerated to develop a comprehensive roadmap for the party to determine its short, medium and long term strategies for the sustenance of its future.
“It has taken quite a long time for us to come into government. And now that we have it and there is so much to do, unfortunately, the term of office is so short, we must keep on winning perhaps three, four, five times, before the roots will go deep and we become the party of the nation,” he said.
For this to be possible, Kufuor said “we must have full-time back room very professional thinkers and workers,” he added.
“The back room people don’t tend to be too good on platforms, that’s the profession of politicians like us but invariably behind us, we’ve got the backroom people working for us. It’s the same in government. So the party headquarters must be equipped with such full timers. They must be paid well and their role is just to sit and think and strategize for us. They will be strengthening the party’s future. We talk about sustainability these days and I think the way to get to it is to get so professional in the back room,” he stressed.
–
By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana