A Political Scientist with the University of Professional Studies – Accra (UPSA), Nii Amartei Amartey, has urged smaller political parties to drop their selfish interest and merge to form a formidable force against the dominance of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the country’s political history.
His comment comes on the back of the chairman of the Progressive People’s Party, Nana Ofori Owusu, hinting at a merger with PNC and CPP ahead of the 2024 general elections.
Speaking to Citi News, Nii Amartei Amartey rallied Nkrumahist parties to come together in unity while extending its arms to other smaller parties for a merger.
He also urged the parties to demonstrate seriousness in their quest to merge ahead of the 2024 general elections.
“People know that once there is a merger, I will not be chairman of the merged parties. People know that they will lose their positions and so people are thinking about their self-interest rather than looking at the bigger picture as we say in Ghana.”
“There has to be something that will drive people together in order to form a united party. Until such a thing is done, until such a thing comes about, until people realize that my personal interest is supposed to be overridden by the national goal or by the united goal, they will continue to do what they are doing.”
“I am saying that each of them should be able to cede their self-interest in others for them to have a united force. Again, it is not supposed to be just the Nkrumahist. They are supposed to work together with other smaller groups,” Nii Amartei Amartey said.
On whether or not the merger between the smaller parties will end the duopoly between NPP and NDC, the governance expert said it helps in making progress against it.
He lamented that NPP and NDC have both behaved in the same way in the management of the economy due to the fact that political power keeps alternating between them.
“These two parties have dominated affairs, and they know that if it is not me, then it is you. We are saying that these smaller parties should come together. Indeed, when you look at the percentages they garner as against the percentages of NPP and NDC, they are nowhere near any goal. But once we see them coming together as a united force, some of us who are Nkrumahist will join forces with them. Aren’t we tired of these two parties? And so it is the possibility of coming together as one force that will call the other Nkrumahist to show that these people are serious and therefore let us join them. Once that unity is extended to the other smaller parties who are not of any Nkrumahist ideology, we will have a bigger group coming together. If for nothing at all, we will see some progress,” he added.
