The Regional NPP Elections are set to be held and everyone has their preferred candidate.

SB KANGBEREE, THE ULTIMATE CHOICE IN THE NPP CHAIRMANSHIP RACE.

Wuollah-Dire

It is normal that in a competition opponents will throw mud at you. But my dear delegates, venture not to defend what your judgment doubts of. The opponent at hand I doubt you can trust. The person at the centre of this discussion is a servant leader, the heavyweight Chairman SB Kangberee. He believes in delegation and empowerment of his subordinates hence those who think leadership is all about doing it yourself are questioning why they do not see you at every program. They however forget that only God is present at every place. Even in that, God delegates Prophets, and Angels in the fulfilment of His mission on earth.

*Election 2020; results delivered or failure recorded?*

The main objective of every political party is to win power and the NPP exists for same reason. All other reasons are secondary.
In keeping with this reason, the NPP after losing power in 2008 and 2012 came back stronger in 2016. In that election, its main opponents were defeated conveniently in both the presidential and parliamentary elections as the NPP gained 5,755,758 popular votes of the presidential votes representing 53.72% and 61.5% of the parliamentary seats representing 169 MPs in the seventh parliament out of 275 MPs.
Fast forward the NPP went into another election in 2020 with many issues on its neck. Just like every party in government, there were advantages and disadvantages. Covid-19 fall outs and the gallamsey fights were the major challenges if you ask me. Many people especially the youth in the mining areas were disappointed that a party they supported to come to power was taking away their jobs (illegal mining). In anger, they voted against the party in a very dramatic manner causing the NPP to reduce from 53.72% in 2016 to 51.30% in 2020 in the presidential elections and 49.8% (137 MPs) in 2020 from 61% (169 Mps) in 2016.

*Did SB Kangberee fail in the Upper West region on election 2020?*

A careful examination of the election 2020 data shows that SB Kangberee and his team should be celebrated and promoted in the current circumstances and I will demonstrate this very presently.
On the presidential election bit, the NPP nationally had a target and this was informed by proper research in all the 16 regions. Beyond the National targets were the regional targets. And for the sake of this discussion lets deal with only that of the upper west region. The task for SB Kangberee and his team in the region was to give the NPP presidential candidate One hundred and thirty thousand votes (130, 000) to enable the NPP maintain power. But at the close of polls, the SB Kangberee led team delivered One hundred and five thousand, nine hundred and forty-seven (105, 947) votes. This represents 81.5% of the target. Is it not amazing that those accusing him of failing have not averted their minds to this? Or do you say that 81.5% in an examination is a failure? This performance is an improvement in absolute terms from 102,843 in 2016. If every region had delivered same percentage of the targets set in Ghana, the NPP certainly would have embarrassed the NDC. In the face of this, do you still doubt why he must be maintained? If you do, there are two reasons. Hatred or your interest!
On the parliamentary election in the region, the NPP missed the target just as all other regions missed. From 5 seats in 2016, the NPP currently has 3 seats in parliament. The party lost 3 of the previous seats and gained one new seat thus Lambusie to add to Sissa East and Nandom.
This happenstance is the measurement of failure of SB Kangberee’s antagonists. What they have however failed to do is to contextualize the outcome of the parliamentary election in the Upper West Region into the National picture. For instance, seats like Wenchi which is the Hometown of one of the party pillars (Dr. K.A Busia) held by the party since 2004 was lost to the NDC. Also, Krowor and Prestea Huni Valley amongst others are seats the NPP held on for some time (since 2008) but all were lost in 2020. Is it not trite that the decline in the parliamentary seats was national and not an issue of Upper West? Upper East region had 3 seats in 2016 but the party lost all in 2020. What will they also say? Until 2020, the NPP has not gained a seat in then Volta region. And the NPP currently has no seat in parliament from the Oti region. What do they also say? Well, am sure the critics reading are imaging why am giving examples from those areas. But wait a minute, do you know that the NPP lost two seats in the Ashanti region in election 2020? Yes, two seats were lost in the Ashanti region. That should tell you the magnitude of the win that the party was moving against.
The NPP lost the Fomena seat to an independent candidate whose benevolence saved the party from being minority in the august house and the New Edubease seat in the Ashanti region was also lost. So, if we are losing two seats in Ashanti region what is strange about losing 3 seats in the Upper west region?
Take the Central region in addition, in 2016 the NPP had 19 seats leaving only 4 for the NDC. In 2020, the NPP lost 9 seats to the NDC and now has 10 seats while the NDC moved from 4 to 13 seats. In all these, who performed better? SB Kangberee or the Central Regional chairman?
Politically, nothing new has happened for anyone to be calling for the head of SB Kangberee. The NDC in its Political World Bank; the Volta region suffered a similar thing in 2016. In election 2012, the NDC had 91.4% (538,986 votes) but in election 2020 when the vote population the volta region had increased from the 2012 figure, the NDC managed 87.7% (493,141 votes) which is a decline from the 2012 results. They could not maintain the old voters let alone add new votes. So, what is so peculiar about the issues of election 2020 in the Upper West Region?

Let’s return to the Upper West region before I conclude. A seat like Lawra was won in 2016 because of the division in the NDC. For those who have forgotten, Bede Anwataazumo Ziedeng who was the NDC candidate contested against Abu Samsom the NDC incumbent MP who went independent. Obviously the NDC was divided while the NPP in Lawra was united. Bede Anwataazumo Ziedeng obtained 7,476 votes and Abu Samsom had 5,551. If they were together the NDC would have had 12, 927 votes in 2016. But Hon. Karbo won win 8,704 votes in same election. Unfortunately, the NDC was united in Lawra in 2020 while NPP were fighting themselves hence the NPP had 11, 156 votes though an improvement it was not enough to win while the NDC had 14, 126 votes. Please note that 28 sitting MPs from the NPP lost their seats and not all come from the Upper West Region.
In any case, the antagonists say SB Kangberee did not play any role in the victory of Nandom, Sissala East and Lambusie yet he is responsible for the losses in the other constituencies. If this is not witchcraft, what else can it be? Hatred or narcissistic people?
In the words of Dr. Isaac Owusu Mensah, Director of Research at the Office of the Presidency “Some of the Members of Parliament in the last government became too big, not approachable. All the factors that propelled them to win the 2016 elections, all too soon they had forgotten about them.” He added that “We told them in 2019 that they are going to lose this number of seats. Let me be honest to say that if it had not been Abu Jinapor, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Honourable Amewu, Hassan Tampuli and MP for Karaga, Amin Anta Adam these gentlemen did whatever they could in order for them to win their seats if they had not done that NPP would have been in Minority…” (ttps://www.myjoyonline.com/some-mps-lost-seats-in-2020-elections-because-they-became-too-big-dr-owusu-mensah/)
That is the verdict, simple and straight forward. SB Kangberee has his weaknesses. In fact, even the president who controls all resources in Ghana including you and I has his challenges and but for that nobody will be complaining of roads, water, energy etc.
In all humility, SB Kangberee what was possible in the circumstances and will do better if given a second chance. Because of his resourcefulness a lot party problems were are normally resolved by him without recourse to the party. We need this man now than ever! He will deliver 90% election 2024 of the targets. SB Kanbgeree is the ultimate and we pray for victory ahead. Serve on SB Kanbgeree!!

Source: Upperwestmedia.net