The last thing any political Party desirous of coming back to power in 2024 will do is to make avoidable mistakes that will erode it’s gains in the Greater Accra Region. As the most populous electoral region after the 2020 voter registration exercise, the NDC managed not only to win majority votes but also won 20 out of the 34 Parliamentary seats. This achievement did not come by default. It took the hard work, guidance, loyalty, commitment and dedication of Executives.
It is for this reason that delegates of the Party must not fall for just any aspirant desperately jostling for position. Anything close to that will lead to the biggest mistake ever that the Party will live to regret it in 2024. Usual of impending elections, aspirants nursing ambition to topple incumbents have started churning out half truths, and in some instances, blatant and patent lies to deceive delegates into electing them ahead of others. Some of these aspirants have so far deliberately projected themselves to the delegates as persons they are really not.
Anybody seeking to lead a Party like NDC at any level must first be honest, loyal and trustworthy. For some time now, Micheal Tetteh Kwetey, rumored to be interested in contesting regional Chairman, has been prancing the Greater Accra Region churning out lies about himself. The lies about what he has done for the NDC are so numerous that the late Rawlings would be wondering in his grave whether Mike Kwetey really did all the things he claims he did for the Party.
Members of the NDC need to know who Mike Kwetey is so far as the NDC is concerned. This was a young man in the NDC that ET Mensah, then MP for Ningo Prampram, handpicked and established him to venture into the oil and gas business. He became Constituency Secretary for Ningo Prampram somewhere in 2010 election. Two years after his election as Secretary, he resigned his position to challenge ET Mensah in the Parliamentary primaries. Unfortunately for him, he lost to ET Mensah. Maybe God punished him for his ungratefulness and disloyalty.
Immediately after losing, he resigned from the Party out of anger and joined Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings’ NDP and stood on its ticket as Parliamentary candidate in the same Constituency in 2012. He knew it was impossible for him to win as MP on the ticket of NDP but Mike’s intention of contesting in that election was not to win. The main idea which he hatched with the NPP was for him to split NDC votes for ET Mensah to lose to the NPP candidate. This did not happen after the 2012 election as ET won convincingly. Mike had egg on his face as his plan of teaming up with the NPP for NDC to lose the Ningo Prampram seat in 2012 did not materialized.
He apologized profusely for his disloyalty and disservice to the NDC and pleaded to be accepted as member, which the Party did. He triggered his Parliamentary ambition again in 2015 in the Ningo Prampram primaries but was disqualified because he did not meet the 4 years requirement after rejoining the Party in somewhere 2013. Sam George won the primaries against veteran ET Mensah in 2015. It was all over the place that Mike was again working against Sam George to lose the seat so he would have opportunity in the next primaries. Against all odds, Sam George won the seat in his first attempt in 2016.
Then in 2018, Mike stepped into the fray to contest as Constituency Chairman. This time round, he teamed up with ET Mensah against Sam George. He won against Sam George’s choice of Chairman. He created a parallel structure in the Constituency to fight Sam George. He vowed not to give Sam George breathing space to do his Parliamentary work.
Mike turn repeated what he did in 2012. Two years after becoming Chairman, he resigned to challenge Sam George in the primaries. Unfortunately for him again, he lost. With his dalliance with ET Mensah, he decided to spark fire in Ningo Prampram for Sam George to lose the seat. His supporters in the Constituency were up in arms against Sam George. Mike pretended not to see what was happening as it was exactly how he wanted it. At a point, the Constituency Secretary, who is a marks man of Mike, was suspended by the Regional office for his alleged role in working against Sam George.
To their surprise, Sam George won with one of the biggest margins in the history of Ningo Prampram. Mike Kwetey was left disappointed. In order to find space in NDC to be relevant, he is jostling to be elected as Regional Chairman. This is a character who has a notorious record of not serving his full term when elected into office seeking to become Chairman of the most populous electoral region. His interest has always been himself and not the Party. He has this inordinate and selfish desire of fulfilling his dreams even if the NDC must collapse or make way for him to do that.
One of the lies he is peddling is that he contested and won Parliamentary primaries in Ningo Prampram. What he has failed to say was which year he contested and won his fantasy primaries? If it was about his candidature of NDP that he is touting as he contested primaries and won, then he must come clear as there is no record of him contesting and winning any primaries in NDC. If indeed he won any NDC primaries in Ningo Prampram, how come he did not become MP? Since 1996, all MPs that represented Ningo Prampram have done so on the ticket of NDC. There is no record of Mike winning any NDC primaries let alone becoming MP. The closest he has come was he twice failed disloyal attempt at the primaries.
Another lie, which has almost become his campaign message, is that he adopted 20 Constituencies in the 2020 elections. When pushed to prove this, Mike would mention about 5 Constituencies outside Greater Accra and change the discussion. In the 2020 election, the Party introduced an adoption policy to raise resources for Constituencies. Madam Anita Desoso and others were in charge. Forms for adoption was sent to Constituencies and regions for those interested in adopting branches or Constituencies to fill. The Party has record of all those who adopted either branches or Constituencies and how much they contributed.
When Mike started his cocktail of lies about adopting 20 Constituencies, some descerning ones pushed him to show proof of the adoptions and how much he contributed to each Constituency. The only proof this young man needed was the adoption form Madam Anita Desoso’s group gave to those who did the adoption. Till date, canny Mike Kwetey has not been able to produce a single form which shows he adopted a Constituency or branch. To runaway from this evidence based challenge, he has changed the narrative from adopting 20 Constituenciess to he supported 20 Constituencies.
To say he supported 20 Constituencies instead of his initial lie of adopting 20 Constituencies would mean that if he is able to show a picture of him giving a pack of sachet water to a Constituency, that would suffice as support to that Constituency. This is the man wanting to lead a region that made enormous strides in the last election. Those who want to lead must not make lies their trade mark. Gone were the days when aspirants relied on lies to win election. In this modern times, anybody who tries it will be badly exposed.
Worse of all the lies and dishonest behavior of Mike is a questionnaire being circulated to test his chances. On that questionnaire, which was sanctioned by Mike, he was described as someone who contested and won Parliamentary primaries in Ningo Prampram, adopted 20 Constituencies, amongst other lies. The questionnaire itself makes false claims about him so the outcome of that research will result in false conclusions.
By
David Korley Martey
Old Ningo