Pick the leader first, let him choose his team – Kofi Bentil to NPP

Lawyer and Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has advised the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to consider letting its presidential candidate select his team, rather than electing party executives before choosing a flagbearer.

He thus backs proposed amendments to the national constitution of the New Patriotic Party to elect flagbearer ahead of national executive elections.

Speaking on JoyNews‘ Newsfile on Saturday, July 19, during discussions on the NPP’s National Delegates Conference, he used an evolutionary analogy to explain why a strategic change in approach would benefit the party.

“We always say that Charles Darwin said survival of the fittest,” he stated. “What he actually said is not that. What he said is that the species that survives is the one that adapts best to its environment. And all through creation, you will see that the species that survives is not the strongest, it is not the smartest, it is the one that adapts best to its environment.”

Mr Bentil explained that the NPP, like any evolving institution, must assess its environment and adapt its internal structure accordingly. Reflecting on the party’s development since the 1992 constitution, he said: “If you take, for instance, the NPP race, they didn’t have factions. It was Adu Boahene who said it was necessary at the time, given the environment, that you build the base and raise from the base the leader.”

He pointed out that over the past 30 years, internal factions in the NPP have become deeply rooted. “There are people who are still Kufuor loyalists in the NPP,” he noted.

Mr Bentil then questioned the logic of electing grassroots party leaders before the presidential candidate. “The people will pick their leaders and pick the flagbearer. But if you are a smart organism and you want to adapt, would you want the people to pick the leaders at the base, and then later they pick the flagbearer who should now deal with the people at the base who may or may not align with him?”

“Or you will pick the leader at the top and let the leader at the top pick his team to prosecute the agenda that will give you the ultimate. I think the latter is smarter,” he added.

For Kofi Bentil, the practical choice is clear: “I think given the circumstance now, you are better off picking the leader at the top and let him influence the picking of the team. How is that controversial?”

He added that selecting party executives first can create friction and inefficiency. “I don’t see why you will pick people at the base and then later pick the man at the top who may not be able to work with the people down.”

He cited the case of former NPP National Chairman Paul Afoko as a warning. “We saw what happened in Afoko’s time. The party became moribund. They became immobilised for more than a year because the top was not working with the base. And who says that is a sensible thing to repeat?”

Mr Bentil made it clear that while the final decision belongs to the party, from an analytical standpoint, the strategy is obvious.

“So in short, let’s leave it to them, it is their business. But in analysis, it makes every sense to me that you pick the man at the top and you let him influence the team he is going to work with to prosecute the agenda, rather than impose something on him, then he has to create a parallel system to work with.”

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