New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary aspirant for Nandom, Hon. Alois K.K. Mohl, has blamed the party’s loss of the Nandom parliamentary seat in the 2024 elections on internal divisions which, he alleged, had been allowed to fester for years.
Mr. Mohl, who formally declared his intention to contest the NPP parliamentary primary in Nandom on Thursday, said the party’s immediate priority should be to heal its internal wounds and restore unity if it wants to recapture the seat in 2028.
He said cracks in the party became evident after the 2012 elections but were not addressed, eventually resulting in what he described as an “inferno” that engulfed the party by 2024.
“Today, we are all paying the price for this failure to resolve disagreements, when they showed up,” he said.
Mr. Mohl argued that leadership was at the heart of the party’s fortunes, insisting that changing the leadership approach was necessary to reverse the NPP’s fortunes in the constituency.
“Leadership is cause; all other is effect,” he said.
Reconciliation team
As part of his proposed solution, Mr. Mohl said he would establish a Rapid Response Team for Reconciliation and Retracing to identify and address disagreements within the party before they escalate.
He said the team would visit polling stations, identify internal disputes and work towards reconciling affected members.
It would also work with polling station executives to identify old party members who had been forgotten or sidelined and organise annual forums to recognise their contributions to the party.
Mr. Mohl said such an approach was necessary because the NPP could not win back the parliamentary seat if sections of its own membership remained alienated.
He presented himself as someone with a record of forgiving political opponents and reaching out to people who, according to him, had previously lied against him, breached his trust or worked against him.
“There are a number of people in this hall who either lied against me, or wrote total falsehood against me, or breached my trust in them, but for party, I forgave them and reached out to them,” he said.
He said he had deliberately avoided responding aggressively to what he described as falsehoods against him because he believed personal conflicts could damage the party.
Recalls earlier reconciliation
Mr. Mohl also pointed to his alleged role in resolving a chieftaincy-related disagreement in Nandom as evidence of his capacity to facilitate reconciliation.
He recalled that in 2006, he was asked to mediate tensions among factions at the paramountcy level and said he eventually secured their support for reconciliation.
According to him, the 2006 Kakube Festival subsequently brought all the factions together for the first time since the institution of the festival in 1986.
“That was leadership I displayed,” he said.
He further cited his political mobilisation work in the early 2000s, claiming that he entered homes, workplaces, chop bars, farms and communities in his efforts to expand the NPP’s grassroots support.
He said his efforts helped convert a number of NDC supporters to the NPP and contributed to the party’s eventual victory in the Nandom parliamentary contest in 2008.
‘I Suffered humiliation’
Mr. Mohl said his own political journey within the NPP had also tested his commitment to the party.
He alleged that shortly before the 2008 elections, he was isolated and ridiculed by people who had previously praised his political mobilisation skills.
He said he subsequently withdrew from the political spotlight but continued working for the party in other areas.
He further alleged that accusations that he was campaigning against the NPP’s parliamentary candidate were repeatedly levelled against him in 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024.
According to him, none of those accusations resulted in disciplinary proceedings against him as required by the party’s constitution.
He also linked those accusations to the termination of his appointment as Deputy CEO of the Social Investment Fund.
Mr. Mohl said his experience of what he described as humiliation and false accusations had strengthened his conviction that party members must learn to forgive one another and rebuild trust.
Experience in social development
Mr. Mohl is a social development practitioner with more than three decades of public-service experience. His profile says he served in several senior positions, including National Coordinator of Ghana’s Care Reforms Initiative, Head of International Social Services and Head of the Not-for-Profit Organisations Desk.
He also holds qualifications in human resource management, defence and international politics, law, political science and sociology, and social work.
Mr. Mohl said his professional background in social development and his political experience had equipped him with the skills required to rebuild relationships within the NPP.
He said the party must put aside personal interests and focus on the collective objective of winning back Nandom.
“With Hon. Alois Mohl, everybody will be brought on board,” he said.
He maintained that the NPP could recover from its current difficulties and reclaim the constituency in 2028, but only if it first dealt decisively with its internal divisions.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
