I’m not leaving NPP — Prof. Frimpong-Boateng

A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has stated that he has no intention of leaving the party.

He said it was the current crop of leaders who needed to be shown the exit from their roles.

Speaking in an interview, the former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation said he would not be intimidated into leaving the party he helped build.

He said he was waiting for an official correspondence from the party and he would respond in equal measure.

Context

The renowned heart surgeon was responding to a press release issued by the party indicating that it had invoked the requisite provisions in the party’s constitution to expel him.

The General Secretary, Justin Kodua Frimpong, was on radio claiming that “I had been influenced by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to make pronouncements to divert attention from the government’s failures and I had to respond to that.”

“I am preparing a document to make my point of view clearer,” he stressed.

Train wreck

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, in an interview with Channel One TV last Monday, described the re-election of certain leaders as a train wreck and characterised the party’s direction as fundamentally destroyed.

When asked if he would resign to avoid the humiliation of expulsion, he stated: “No! I’m not leaving the party; they should leave the party [because] they are the fake ones.”

“They should go away and the true party will stand,” he stressed.

Distraction

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng dismissed the National Executive Committee’s (NEC) disciplinary measures as a distraction.

He said he had no intention of appearing before any committee to defend his remarks.

“I will not honour any invitation from the NEC to waste my time,” he said.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng noted that the party had moved away, far from its founding principles of liberal conservatism and institutional integrity.

He said the NPP was currently in a state of terminal decline, which could only be reversed by a complete purge of the “fake” elements at the top.

“We must accept that the NPP is destroyed; this was not how the party was in years past,” he lamented.

“They should exit so that the young men and women with love for the party will rebuild.”

During his interview on Channel One TV’s The Point of View last Monday, Prof Frimpong-Boateng said, “The present NPP is not NPP. It is fake. From what I see now, this is not the NPP I used to know.”

When asked whether he still considers himself a member of the NPP, the former minister said he does not associate himself with what he described as the current version of the party.

“Not the fake one. The real one is there. It is a virtual thing. The members are in the background,” he said.

“We lost the elections badly and we do not deal with the issues that led to the losses and we still want to go in there and I think it will be a trainwreck if they elect the old flagbearer,” he said.

“Look at how they elected their last flagbearer, twist people’s arms, bribing delegates and intimidating others to get a flagbearer.

This is a beginning of corruption. This should not be allowed in any serious institution or any serious party,” he stated.

He linked those internal challenges to the party’s poor performance in the last general elections, noting that the NPP had failed to properly address the issues that led to its defeat.