“The general secretary position is not the same as propaganda secretary” says John Boadu

Former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) John Boadu, has stated that the position of general secretary of a political party is not the same as that of the propaganda secretary role.

John Boadu in an interview on Joy News and in an answer to a question asking him to compare the general secretary of the NPP, Justin Kodua Frimpong, to his newly elected counterpart for National Democratic Congress (NDC) Fiifi Kwetey, said Mr Kwetey, who previously held the position of propaganda secretary of the NDC, is no match for NPP’s general secretary.

He suggested that a general secretary of any political party “is not the director of communication”, nor is he “the propaganda secretary of the party”. The general secretary role, he said requires specific qualities and he thinks the NPP general secretary has those qualities compared to the NDC chief scribe.

“There are a lot of things that goes into being a general secretary and the operational work aspect of a general secretary, I doubt whether he (Fiifi Kwetey) is capable and has that ability.

“He may have that passion, which I give to him, he may be very eloquent, which I give it to him, but after talking, how do you connect with Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo” John Boadu said.

“How do you know the history of what goes into the election of a parliamentary candidate of X constituency, that is the difference.

“For some of you who are doing this comparison [Justin Kodua Frimpong against Fiifi Kwetey], maybe, I can forgive you because you don’t know what goes into it. If it is about noise, we can all hear, we can all listen, we can all understand” [but there is more that goes into the position of general secretary]” Mr Boadu added.

NDC new executives

Answering a question whether or not the recently elected leadership of the NDC pose any threat to the NPP, John Boadu said “for us (NPP), because we have worked with them, we have worked with them behind the scenes in opposition to beat them in one of the most humiliating defeats ever witnessed by a government in power”, [they do not bring anything new nor are they any serious risk to the NPP campaign to “break the 8” in election 2024].

The NDC at its nation annual congress held at the Accra Sport Stadium Chairman on 17 December 2022, elected Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, as party chairman after he served in the role of general secretary for 17 years.

The party delegates also elected Awudu Sofo Azorka, Dr Sherry Ayittey and Abanga Yakubu Alhassan as vice-chairpersons. Fifi Kwetey, picked up the general secretary role and Barbara Serwaa Asamoa and Foyo Mustapha Gbande were elected as his two deputy general secretaries

Joseph Yammin got elected as the national organizer and his two deputy national organisers who got the nod from delegates were Elikem Kotoko and Kobby Barlon.

Asiedu Nketiah’s victory

Commenting on whether or not the election of Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, came to him as a surprise, John Boadu noted that he was the least surprised considering the kind of campaign Mr Asiedu Nketiah, waged without any forceful response from the incumbent chairman, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, who was seeking re-election for a second term in office.

“The kind of campaign that he [Asiedu Nketiah] prosecuted created an impression that the then national chairman (Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo) was malleable, can be bought by the other side or has been bought by the other side, he is not a strong leader, he can’t stand by his decisions, among others” John Boadu said

“Ofosu Ampofo was not responding to these claims by Asiedu Nketiah, so you can see that that filtered into the kind of leadership that they had… that let us get people who are no nonsense people, who can tell it as it is and all that…that is fine and I am not even surprised because the character of the NDC is like that.

“For them National Democratic Congress, the leaders that they have elected suits them. You can’t have such leaders in the New Patriotic Party (NPP), no” the former general secretary of the NPP added.

JB re-election bid

John Boadu who was elected national organizer of the NPP in 2014, become the acting General Secretary of the NPP in 2015 following the suspension of Kwabena Agyei Agyapong as general secretary.

In 2018, he was elected as the substantive general secretary but failed in his re-election bid for a second 4-year term during the NPP’s 2022 national annual delegates conference held on Saturday, 16 July 2022 at the Accra sports stadium under the theme; “Working Together, Holding Together”.

Justin Frimpong Kodua, then chief executive officer of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), polled 2,837 votes, while the incumbent general secretary of the New Patriotic Party, John Boadu, polled 2,524 votes. In essence, Mr Kodua, beat Mr Boadu, with 313 votes to be elected as general secretary of the NPP for the period 2022 to 2026.

Click on the link below to listen to the interview with John Boadu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_GvsGvfSpk

Wilberforce Asare

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