By: Fred Yaw Sarpong
& Emelia Esumanba
The
General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Johnson Asiedu
Nketia, as popularly known as General Mosquito has called for calm in the New
Patriotic Party (NPP).
Mr.
Nketia said Ghana is acclaim as an icon of multi party democracy on the African
continent and because of that anything that negatively impact on that image
must be a source of concern for everybody, whether you are that particular or
not.
He
thinks that what happens at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) headquarters was not
a good commentary on Ghana’s democracy at all.
General
Mosquito was commenting on the recent clashes that took place at the biggest
opposition party, NPP National Head Office.
“Our
democracy has come of age, and issue of internal wrangling in a major political
party in the country affects Ghana’s democracy,” he added.
The
NDC General Secretary said as a Chairman of the Political Parties General
Secretary caucus in Ghana, he owes it a duty to shares his experience to his
fellow General Secretaries on how parties can be run and run well.
Mr.
Nketia said the issue that led to the clashes was uncalled for and need to be
condemned. “My information gathered indicate that, some the new executives of
NPP want to do house cleaning exercise and that involves the sacking of some
workers at the head office,” he stated.
“Whatever
the reasons, I want to believe that the approach was not the best. They may be
several reasons why you may change the people you are working with, but a
political party is not like any ordinary organization,’ said Mr. Nketia.
He
stated that there are people who are committed to political party and in that
sense they are volunteer, before you consider them as workers. And that is how
come in very difficulty hard times, where the party is not able to even
remunerate these workers sufficient, they are prepare to continue serving the
party in their various capacities.
“So
when it come to taken a decision to dismiss any or all of them, I think it must
be handle with absolutory caution,’ he emphasized.
He
said the commentary that came from the NPP head office, “if indeed it is true
that the workers did not have any notice about the decision to remove them, and
that they just got up and only to be told that their replacement have come so
they should leave, if that is the case then it is very wrong.”
“We
want to condemn it because as social democrat, we are always on the side of the
ordinary workers of this country.”
He
noted that, even if the workers at the NPP head office were not operating in a
political party office, and they were workers in any other organization, I
believe that their interest will be protected by their various collective
bargaining agreements. And under any collective bargaining agreement, there is
clause that demand notice before any decision to terminate it is arrived at.
“In
the cause of the notice there must be payment. So if it is true as we hear that
these people were just attempt was made to dismiss them without notice, without
any payment in lure of notice, then we must condemn it as it is,” Said Mr.
Nketia.
Mr.
Nketia said the party has turned on
itself because it has no opposition to battle.
“When
you practice against your opponents for a very long time, those things become
your habit and when you don’t have opponents to practice, you practice it
against your own people,” Mr. Nketia added.
Mr.
Nketia recalled that similar things happened when a coup d’ etat was sponsored by the forefathers of
the NPP led to the Convention People’s Party (CPP) being chased out of the
system and banned from elections.
He
advised the party to take actions that conform to the norms and labour rules of Ghana.“ If NPP want to
sack any worker in Ghana it must be according to the norms and labour rules of Ghana.
While
advising the party’s executives to restore order in their party, Mr. Nketia also charged the incoming
secretaries and party chairmen “not to allow others to fall in the trap that
they have fallen into or managed to dodge.”
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