When Fathers Watch Their Sons Fight…

THE PUBLISHER picked reports just when about going to bed last night that Kwabena Agyapong, General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has sued the party’s Ashanti Regional Chairman, Wontumi.

The development, an unfortunate and avoidable one, makes one wonder whether ‘there are no elders at home’ and how come the party has watched on until this stage of an unnecessary and avoidable brawl.

Indeed, Wontumi has been rather bold and consistent in his new-found hobby of going on radio to treat Mr. Agyapong with scorn and disdain, public ridicule and insults.

Meanwhile, the throwing of dirt on the person of Kwabena Agyapong, affects the NPP as a family and not just Mr. Agyapong. It serves as political currency to the party’s rivals and diverts attention from the achievements of the party in government.

We agree that the NPP is made up of human beings and therefore it certainly would have persons who would disagree over an issue or two at a point. But it was for this reason that the framers of the party’s constitution thought it wise to pen down channels of addressing grievances.

Indeed, the agreed upon and accepted channels of addressing grievances in the NPP does not include hopping from one media house to the other in both the Ashanti and Greater Accra regions, spewing all manner of offensive invectives against a senior party executive on suspension (we even hear he has completed the period of suspension).

For the records, Mr. Agyapong was not sacked from the party. He was suspended temporarily and he is expected to return to the party he has served for decades in both opposition and in government.

His period of suspension does not take away his rights as a human being and his dignity for that matter.

THE PUBLISHER would not hesitate to state in black and white that Chairman Wontumi’s attacks on the person of Mr. Agyapong is not an attitude that should be encouraged in the NPP or among any other group of persons for that matter.

Watching this offensive attitude continue with an unconcerned posture  may benefit some few individuals today. But truth is the NPP, by its silence, is encouraging and building a monstrous attitude that would be adopted by other party members and sooner than later, may become the order of the day.

All Mr. Agyapong had asked for was a simple retraction and an apology. This was denied him. Yet his accuser would not make available his evidence and bases for the character assassination of someone who served as Presidential Press Secretary, and also as General Secretary in the very party Wontumi belongs.

Though the suit has been filed by Mr. Agyapong, THE PUBLISHER is of an opinion, all is not lost and there can be a way out for negotiations rather than litigation if the party is really interested in burying the hatchet between the two.

Where are the peace-preaching and unity-talking fathers in the party? We urge them to walk the talk in the interest of party unity and cohesion.

Source: thePublisher