<<Print>>

Lack of commitment has been overshadowed by increasing factionalism within the rank and file of the governing New Patriotic Party, NPP, former President John Agyekum Kufuor has bemoaned.

According to him, this situation is gradually dividing the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition as compared to what pertained in the past.

“Some of us feel that practice-wise perhaps the commitment to the liberal democratic principles might not be as pure and the same as it used to be even around 1992,” former President Kufuor told Accra-based TV3 in an interview Thursday, July 14.

He added, “Now, I don’t think that commitment is the same.”

The NPP needs to select someone to succeed President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and to lead the party into the 2024 general elections.

Already, major internal elections within the party have been held around some aspirants, notably Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Trade and Industry Minister Alan Kyerematen.

But the former President has observed that anytime the party goes through a process of selection, there is always a rift in the aftermath which does not augur well for its fortunes.

“The way I feel it, I don’t sense the same strong commitment in earlier times, almost like a religion, now.

“I sense there is too much talk about factionalism. If you’re talking about proper democracy, and an inclusive one, you wouldn’t emphasise factions. Once the practice of say selecting polling station, organisational committee or constituency or national, it wouldn’t be so divisive and emphasising factions," he explained.

Former President Kufuor added, “these days, I get the feeling after we’ve gone through the process of selections, there seems to be a rift that seems to be deepening which shouldn’t be the case.”