NPP Chairman "Sensitises" NPP UK And Ireland Branch

The National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Peter Mac Manu has met the first NPP overseas branch, the UK & Ireland branch, at a Special General Meeting held in his honour on Sunday 9th April 2006 in London.

Mr. Mac Manu who was in the United Kingdom at the invitation of the Conservative Party which held its Spring Conference in Manchester met with the executives of the branch before meeting the general body.

The NPP Chairman briefed the UK branch about the activities that he and his executives have embarked on especially in rebuilding the Party at the grassroots level. He urged the overseas branches to work hard and pool resources together to support the mother party in Ghana. He said with the passage of ROPAA it behoves on the Diasporan groups to work even harder to educate Ghanaians abroad on the good work of the government.

He assured all Ghanaians abroad to patronise the National Identification exercise which would begin soon. He said as soon as the National Identification Act receives Presidential Assent it would pave the way for a legally constituted body to start touring the world to identify Ghanaians and take of biometric details before registering them for any elections/referenda in Ghana.

On the Tamale Central by-election, the Chairman informed members that the National Party took a decision not to contest the by-elections after assessing the security situation in the constituency and also to foster unity and peace towards the late Ya-Naa's funeral. He gave the historical background of the constituency and reminded members that the NPP held it twice in 1996 and 2000 under Hon Mustapha Idris.

He said under his new administration, general party organisation has been intensified on all fronts and his newly elected National Executive Officers have already met the Parliamentary party and the Regional officers at the National Executive meeting amongst others to help look at various ways of building and financing the party at the regional level.

He has tasked regional officers and to take full ownership of party organisation and funding the party at regional levels. These meetings, he said would be a regular feature on his new team's calendar to ensure that there is co-ordination and cohesion between all levels of the party under his administration.

Mac Manu informed the UK branch that he has also advised Members of Parliament, District Chief Executives and Polling Station Chairmen to meet at least once a quarter as stipulated in the party's constitution to discuss problems affecting their respective local parties and find ways of strengthening Constituency Executive Committee meetings.

The UK and Ireland branch made a firm request to the National Chairman to reactivate the Party's International Desk at the national headquarters which the branch would help set up.

The Chairman thanked the UK group for that request and assured them that there was a general consensus among his newly elected team of the urgent need to get the Desk running. He said that the Chicago and Botswana branches have already made representations to his executives about the Desk and that there was the need for the Diasporan Party to work together to support the running of the Desk.

Mr Atta-Krufi, the UK and Ireland Chairman also informed the National Chairman that the UK & Ireland branch intends to host the first International Conference in London on 4th November 2006 and extended a formal invitation to the National Chairman to attend as one of the main speakers. The Chairman informed members that it is a welcome idea and suggested the need to sensitise the other overseas branches about the idea.

The Chairman was joined at the meeting by Mr. Kobina Tahir Hammond, MP for Adansi Asokwa and Deputy Minister of Energy as well as Mr Kwabena Agyepong, the Presidential Spokesperson who also answered questions put to them by the members.