The collapse of the political party formed by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to contest elections in the 70s should not be the end of the Union’s dream to take up political power in the country, private legal practitioner, Martin Luther Kpebu, has advised.
He says the TUC should team up with the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the religious bodies to present a presidential candidate, the only move he is willing to support in the next elections.
According to him, the duopoly of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) should be broken by a synergy of the aforementioned entities to oust the two political parties from power.
His comment stems from the resignation of Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen from the NPP to contest as an independent candidate in the 2024 presidential election, which he says wouldn’t produce any different result other than the status quo.
Mr. Kyerematen resigned from the NPP on August 25 after hinting he was going to be telling Ghanaians the role he will be playing in Ghana’s political space, when he pulled out from the November 4 contest of the party’s presidential primary.
He said he wasn’t treated fairly, his agents were not acted toward well in the special delegates’ conference and the actors were not punished by the party, which to him, is in direct contravention with the tenets of the NPP he helped founded, aside from the fact that a few people have hijacked the party and been running it in their own interest.
Explaining his reason on the KeyPoints on TV3 Saturday, September 30, 2023, Mr. Kpebu noted Alan Kyerematen is too NPP to earn his support, and he is waiting on the TUC and the others to present a candidate to contest the presidency in the 2024 polls.
“I don’t support Alan. There is no way I can give Alan my vote because he is deeply rooted in NPP,” he said.
“I’m waiting for the churches, CSOs and TUC to come up with a candidate because we are looking for anything other NPP-NDC will do. There is no way I’ll vote for anybody deeply embedded in NPP or NDC. TUC has to rise up. In the 70s they formed a party and it collapsed. It doesn’t mean they can’t rise up again,” he advised.
The seasoned lawyer cited the Labour Party in the United Kingdom which started in similar faction like that of the TUC party which collapsed in the 70s.
“In the UK –the Labour Party, it was the labour who formed the basis. If TUC tried in the 70s and it didn’t work, does that mean they should forever stop? They should try again. In life if you fall don’t you get up?
“The TUC have to go back into their books, see how the failure happened in the 70s, join forces with the churches and the CSOs and let’s get our own candidate to rival John Mahama and Bawumia because we’ve seen how these two have dealt with us in the past and the current economic situation.
“So, TUC, churches, Duncan Williams, Catholic Bishops Conference, Matthew Gyamfi, Palmer-Buckle all those people they should come together, Chief Imam, Sheik Nuhu Sharubutu they should come together, we can get a candidate. In Benin an independent candidate won.
“If you read US and Britain history, it happened. These Republicans and the Democrats you see today, at independence they weren’t the people in charge,” he charged.
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