The Director of Legal Affairs for the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Godwin Edudzi Tameklo, has urged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to resolve its internal issues to become a formidable opposition to the government.
He indicates that the NPP’s current top-bottom approach to electing leadership for the party could lead to its collapse, which would not augur well for Ghana’s democracy.
Tameklo has criticised the party’s reversal approach, which is contrary to the conventional bottom-up approach that helps political parties with grassroots-based leadership to hold their base.
His comments come on the back of the NPP’s decision to elect its flag bearer before regional, constituency and branch executives, as part of the amendments stemming from its electoral loss probe.
The party has also issued a statement urging all suspended persons and former members who have left to rejoin, but on the condition that they cannot contest any internal position until after two years.
This, according to Mr. Tameklo, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), might collapse the NPP, which would adversely impact Ghana’s democracy.
Speaking about developments in the NPP on TV3’s BigIssue segment of the NewDay morning show on Monday, August 18, 2025, he noted that: “The building blocks of all our political parties are the branch executives, then the constituency executives, then the regional executives, and national executives.”
“Now, you have a situation where you’ve gotten the head and you’re now going to look for the work men. How is this backed by social science? How is this backed by social engineering? We must agree, I’m interested in having a formidable political party. A political party that will put the NDC on its toes. Because we need that for the sake of Ghana,” he remarked.
He added that it would have been in his interest for the NPP to collapse, but that, he added, would not serve the interest of Ghana’s democracy, since a strong opposition is needed to keep the government on its toes.
“I’ll be happy if the NPP collapses. But is that the best for Ghana? Certainly not. Look at the kind of opposition we gave the NPP from 2017 to 2024. Solid! I see that kind of opposition from 1996, the J.H. Mensah led opposition. Formidable! Many of the things that they did provided the foundation for building this beautiful country,” he stated.
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