The former New Juaben South Constituency Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party, NPP, Michael Oteng Adu, has rescinded his decision to contest the Eastern Regional first Vice Chairmanship Position of the party, instead, will contest the Second Vice Chairmanship position.
Oteng Adu was tipped to win the Regional first Vice Chairmanship this time around after polling a surprising performance against then-incumbent Alhaji Umar Bodinga who is currently Municipal Chief Executive for Abuakwa North.
However, in the wisdom of the party, Oteng Adu has been talked to contest the second Vice Chairmanship position for Twum Barima who is currently occupying the position move to the first Vice-chairman position.
Oteng Adu is currently the New Juaben South Municipal Manager of the National Health Insurance Authority.
In a previous interview, Michael Oteng Adu urged delegates of the party to elect executives based on their competence and not a faction they associate themselves with.
He cautioned that electing executives from the polling station, to the constituency to national levels based on faction could be detrimental to the party’s quest to win the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary election.
He said breaking the eight (8) requires that competent leaders are elected to unify the party and work harder with workable strategies.
According to Oteng Adu, delegates of the party should avoid voting according to factions as some individuals lacking political leadership skills want to hide behind factions to occupy key positions in the party.
“It comes from the recognition that it is an internal contest, once it an internal contest and the rules are set, then everybody who believes in the NPP and its ideals because we know that as a democratic party we always go to an election. People should not be tagged you belong to faction “A or B”. That’s what breaks the back of people that he is not being assessed based on competence or otherwise but he is being assessed based on his association with “A or faction B”.
He stressed, members of the party must recognize that “we belong to one party and that unity and friendship must remain even after we finish selecting our executives and it is key”.
Mr. Oteng Adu believes going forward, one critical thing the party should fixate its attention to is how people are disqualified from contests. This phenomenon, according to him creates cracks and rancor in the party.
“I believe that if our constitution is made to work and works well, then at the end of the day no one has a course to worry, there have been few instances where people are not too happy in a contest for flimsy excuses, people are disqualified, I think it is the decision of the delegates, sometimes once the person satisfies the basic requirement you are expected that you go to the delegates and make your case and at the end of the day the delegates will select the best person to run”
Oteng Adu explained to Journalists that, he has declared his intention to contest the Second Vice Chairmanship position because 2024 is a very crucial election in which the party needs bold and competent leaders to win.
“Four years ago I contested as the vice chairman for the party. I am confident that I will be successful, I believe that the core mandates of the regional executives and the national executives are to supervise activities at the constituency level and for that supervision and coordination you need bold people, innovative people. if there are challenges in constituencies how do you handle it because that’s where the boxes”
He concluded “others have had the opportunity to serve as regional executives, and as national executives. so I am urging the delegates to assess how they performed so far as supervision and coordination are concerned. It is the key to our moving forward. So for me, I am here and that surely, when nominations are opened, I will contest”
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Obed Ansah
