– Party Kingpin Roars After Election Debacle
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is on a perilous path, teetering on the brink of self-destruction. This stark warning comes from none other than Issahaku K. Kotomah, a long-standing “firebrand” within the party, who alleges that a cabal of top executives has “hijacked” the NPP.
Their goal? To consolidate power, despite leading the party to a humiliating defeat in the 2024 elections.
Kotomah, a staunch NPP member for decades, expressed his profound disgust at the transformation of what was once a vibrant, grassroots movement into a “dictatorial machine.”
According to him, this machinery now serves only a select few who have demonstrably failed the party, orchestrating its worst political drubbing in the Fourth Republic.
“The creeping normalisation of a top-bottom approach to party governance, where a few elites at the apex dictate the direction of the party, is threatening to turn a once vibrant political party into a hollow machine of patronage and authoritarian control,” Kotomah declared in a fiery interview with the media.
He didn’t mince words, calling for urgent resistance against this “anti-democratic trajectory.” He further asserted that the recent “self-serving constitutional amendments” being pushed within the party are not about reform or renewal.
“It is about consolidating power in the hands of a select few; those who have presided over years of disappointing leadership outcomes and now seek to entrench their influence beyond their expiration date. Let us call it what it is: a hostile takeover of the party from the grassroots upward,” he thundered.
Kotomah posited that the NPP’s constitutional review processes have become “instruments of manipulation,” cunningly “hidden under the cloak of reform.” He contends these amendments are being used to rewrite party rules to “favour certain factions, personalities, or interest groups.”
He pointed to “proposals to centralise candidate selection, limit the autonomy of polling station executives, or extend the powers of the National Council” as clear evidence.
“These are not about efficiency; they are about control,” he stressed.
Such amendments, he argued, “dis-empower the very base that built the party, turning loyal stakeholders at the very base into mere spectators.”
He evoked the words of former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who famously urged Ghanaians in his 2017 inaugural address to “be citizens: citizens, not spectators; citizens, not subjects; responsible citizens building your communities and our nation. Let us work until the work is done.”
Echoing this sentiment, Kotomah passionately urged NPP grassroots members to “not be spectators but citizens; active, bold, and responsible participants in the life of our great party.”
He lamented that when decisions are made in Accra and imposed on constituencies without consultation, “the party ceases to be a mass movement and becomes a top-heavy bureaucracy, more concerned with the whims of powerful men than the will of the people.”
The NPP firebrand didn’t hold back, questioning the audacity of a centralized party leadership that has “failed on its promises to the rank and file.”
“Under the current NPP leadership, we have witnessed a disturbing failure within the party itself; neglected grassroots structures, sidelined loyal members, broken internal trust, and a growing sense of frustration among the very people who toiled to bring the party to power,” he charged.
He added that the leadership has “failed to inspire confidence or unity by failing to acknowledge its abysmal performance.”
“And yet,” he continued, “the same architects of this national malaise now want to tighten their grip on the party machinery? It is an affront to the rank and file of the party who toiled to bring the NPP to power, only to be sidelined, betrayed, and insulted.”
Kotomah was unequivocal: “A leadership that has failed so profoundly has no moral right to demand further loyalty from the grassroots. What is needed is introspection, humility, and accountability; not autocratic restructuring.”
Kotomah warned that this “top-bottom approach” is not merely about organizational change, but also about “ideology and suppression.” Its aim, he said, is to “mute internal debate, delegitimise critics, and create a climate of fear within the party.”
He highlighted “growing concerns that alternative voices and reform-minded patriots are being blacklisted, starved of support, and intimidated for daring to question the status quo.”
“This is not the party Danquah, Busia, and Dombo envisioned. It is a distortion; a perversion; of our founding values and tradition,” he asserted.
He cautioned that if left unchecked, this style of leadership “will destroy the spirit of competition, dialogue, and democratic renewal that has long set the NPP apart from its rivals.”
In a powerful rallying cry, Kotomah urged party faithful to “rescue the NPP.” “This is not a time for silence. This is not a time for passive observation. Every polling station executive, electoral area coordinator, every TESCON member, every constituency executive must stand up and say NO to top-down authoritarianism within the NPP” he exhorted.
He proposed an immediate halt to any constitutional amendment that centralises power, a full accountability report from the party’s current leadership, and a re-commitment to grassroots decision-making and democratic practices.
“The future of the NPP; and indeed Ghana’s democratic stability; depends on rebuilding the party from the bottom up, not further disfiguring it with elitist engineering,” he concluded.
“Let the voices of ordinary patriots ring louder than the whispers of powerful men in closed rooms. If the soul of the NPP is to be saved, it must be saved from the bottom; where it all began.”