Paul Afoko Vows to Fight NPP ‘Intolerant
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n South Africa: Zuma survives n West Africa: Fear in the air The Pan-African Magazine Of Choice AfricawatGMSc publicationh l April 2016 A 44-PAGE SPECIAL REPORT GHANA The NPP crisis SPR 10 $4.00 BATTLECDN $3.00 US READY 04 Paul Afoko vows to fight NPP ‘intolerant 0456698 93707 militant wing’ till his last drop of blood US: $5.00 l Canada: C$4.00 l UK: £3.00 l South Africa: R24.95 l Nigeria: N400 l Liberia: US$4.00 l Sierra Leone: LE9,000 l Gambia: D80.00 l Kenya KShs300 l Ghana: GH¢10.00 Ghana New Patriotic Party BATTLE READY Paul Afoko vows to fight NPP ‘intolerant militant wing’ till his last drop of blood Africawatch Special Report April 2016 PAUL AFOKO National Chairman New Patriotic Party Paul Afoko Standing tall in the NPP storm Written by Baffour Ankomah and Steve Mallory his in-depth report covers the ongoing dramatic events around Paul Afoko, as he takes on what he calls an “intolerant militant wing” within Ghana’s opposition TNew Patriotic Party (NPP) that is trying to push him out of the national chairmanship position. Afoko is pushing back hard and has dragged the party into court. Standing up for what is right requires tremendous courage, but Afoko is determined to fight to the end against what he thinks has gone terribly wrong inside the party, which involves gross violations of the NPP’s constitution. The struggle in the NPP is getting very intense and has serious implications that could affect the soul of the party. Afoko believes this is all worth the risk to get the party to honor its own constitutional principles, as they were written. These are very rough times for the NPP. s 4 Afoko: How Akufo-Addo 22 A tale of serious financial t turned against me mismanagement n The life and mes of Paul Afoko Afoko on the future of the NPP: e 10 26 t ‘We will survive this crisis’ n 14 Afoko’s court bale 28 Afoko: ‘A few people cannot o 20 Shocking revelaons be allowed to hijack the NPP’ C Afoko: How Akufo-Addo turned against me The NPP presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo (left), originally promised not to stand in the way of Paul Afoko becoming the national chairman of the party, but then turned against him when push turned into shove. Akufo-Addo once told him, “if the party decides to look to the north for a chairman, you will find that I will not be your enemy.” Yet the presidential candidate still betrayed the national chairman. But Afoko has refused to back down, and standing on the letter of the law as written in the NPP constitution, he has risen to confront the faction in the NPP that sought to remove him by any means necessary. The ensuing and very public battle of right over might has implications that go far beyond what may seem an internal party struggle – there are some very powerful questions at play here, over power and leadership, and ultimately protecting true accountability in the democratic process. aul Afoko did not come to the in his office in the Accra suburb of Labone, New Patriotic Party (NPP) with a group of six NPP friends who were chairmanship lightly. A lot of concerned that their party had been wrongly thinking went into it. For labeled as an Akan party, a perception that starters, he did not want to be had gained currency among Ghanaian chairman in the first place. He voters, thus losing the party crucial votes Pbecame chairman only by default, he tells that could win it power again. The more the Africawatch, because the people that he and perception was repeated, the more it was a group of NPP friends had targeted for the taken to be the truth by non-NPP supporters position all turned it down. whose votes the party needed to help it One day in June, 2013, Afoko was sitting cross the constitutionally required 50% 4 Paul Afoko tells how he was betrayed by the NPP presidential candidate, Nana Akufo Addo, after promising not to stand in his way to the national chairmanship. 5 plus-one mark to recapture national power. Although the next general elections were fully three years away, in November 2016, Afoko and his NPP friends felt it was time the party did something to correct that misconception. The earlier, they thought, the better. As they brainstormed, one thought crystalized into a firm idea. The party must pick a northerner as national chairman. Having reached a consensus on the idea, Afoko and his friends drew a list of possible candidates for the position, and approached them one by one. Unfortunately, all of them turned it down. At the home of one of the targeted candi- dates, the last one in fact, the man refused the offer pointblank but did something more. He turned to Afoko and asked him why he, a northerner himself, would not run for the chairmanship as he was equally qualified for the position Afoko shook his head furiously. “I am a businessman,” he protested to the man. “I am ready to support you financially through a campaign. I will back you.” The man was not impressed. “No, no, don’t come talking to me,” he shot back at Afoko. “Do it yourself.” Afoko was stunned by the man’s reaction. ‘I do, I do’ When Afoko and his friends returned to his Labone office, one of them asked him, “Seriously, why don’t you want to do it your- self?” Afoko shook his head again, frantically this time, saying no to them. But after some time, when they could not find any north- erner willing to become NPP chairman, Paul Afoko (at head of table) and Nana Akufo-Addo (third from left) in Afoko volunteered to do it. an NPP caucus meeting. Those good old days of unity are over, due to the This is how Afoko became national chair- lack of respect for the viewpoints of others in the party. man in 2014. Before then, he started a round of consultations – from his father, then to former President John Kufuor, Kwadwo Mpiani, Nana Akufo-Addo, and other key cocaine into the UK. And the NPP Vetting thing where you will never know who that people in the NPP – to inform them of his Committee referred the matter to Interpol. person is because it wasn’t a true name. And intentions, before starting his campaign. It took Interpol six weeks to investigate the there was no address. Nothing! Laughable! He tells an interesting story about when allegation and clear him. Interpol wrote back And this was done by the great NPP he went to see Akufo-Addo in his home to to the Vetting Committee, saying: “The National Vetting Committee led by Rt. Rev. tell him his reasons for running for the chair- subject you referred to us, Paul Afoko, is not Dr. Asante Antwi, a former president of the manship. After explaining to Akufo-Addo known to any police force.” Afoko says “that Methodist Church of Ghana. But I just took why he and his friends had decided on a was simple and straightforward, meaning I it in my stride and went off campaigning for northern chairman for the party, Afoko says have no criminal record. I had never been the chairmanship.” Akufo-Addo sat back for a while and said to arrested!” him: “If the party decides to look to the north Yet the Vetting Committee would not Beginning of troubles for a chairman, you will find that I will not clear him, only doing so grudgingly at last. be your enemy.” Afoko says he then asked for the name of his In the end, against the wishes of Akufo- Thus, Afoko left Akufo-Addo’s house safe accuser. Earlier, the Vetting Committee had Addo and his faction, Afoko was elected in the knowledge that Akufo-Addo would not refused to disclose the name to Afoko, saying national chairman at the NPP congress held stand in his way to the chairmanship. But the onus was on him to prove his innocence in Tamale in April 2014. And then his that was not to be. rather than to know whom his accuser was. troubles began. When push came to shove, as Afoko’s Now that Interpol had cleared him, the First, the state in which he found the NPP campaign was in full flight, he started Committee was more forthcoming to disclose was really shocking. The party was in deep getting reports that Akufo-Addo did not the name to him. trouble financially. After all the millions and want him to be chairman. But Afoko says: “They gave me a single millions of Ghana cedis the party had raised Someone from the NPP communications sheet of paper, a mockery actually, because two years previously, prior to and during the department even put out a lie about him it was a plain paper with two paragraphs on 2012 election campaign, Afoko could not having gone to jail for seven years in the UK it purported to be the petition they received, believe his eyes that the great NPP, the for importing commercial quantities of and a name at the bottom. It was the kind of party that had ruled Ghana for 8 years 6 (NEC) has disclosed that Akufo-Addo was Akufo-Addo. Afoko remembers that during present at the meeting that took “the illegal the course of his campaign for the national and criminal decision” to reactivate the chairmanship, word reached him that Akufo- party’s controversial dormant account at the Addo and his men were nervous about him.