“A man who finds fault in every man is faulty”.
As an old loyal patriot of NDC in Binduri who has been observing what is happening in the NDC fraternity in our constituency, my attention has caught a publication by one Abugri Godfred Atibilla, with a heading: Understanding the power play and emergence of camps in Binduri NDC.
Fast forward, I want to make it known that such a person has not gathered any reliable information regarding the emergence of camps and suspension of party members in the Constituency.
In short, his publication is baseless and full of personal interest.
I have been an NDC patriot since 1992 and still being a loyal member.
The emergence of camps
To make a long narrative short, this issue of camps came as a result of the selfishness of some old party faithful who have the feeling that the constituency is in their hands and that they have the sole power to choose who to be a parliamentary candidate or not.
This sole power made them sell the seat out to the NPP candidate in 2008 for money and promises that were never met after the elections.
After the NPP candidate failed to offer them the said promises, they decided to take it back to their people, NDC in 2012.
Fortunately and unfortunately, the NDC Parliamentary candidate won the general election but could not adhere to their directives. As usual, they expected a payback but he could not do that so he was kicked out for a different person to be the NDC candidate.
In 2016, primaries were organized and
Dr Robert Kuganab Lem emerged as a winner to represent the party as our Parliamentary candidate.
It is a fact that in the 2016 general election, the NDC Parliamentary candidate won massively with the help of the constituency Chairman, Hon. Simon Aruk Azimbe and his entire executives.
As usual, the sole power owners were waiting for the Member of Parliament, Hon. Dr Robert Kuganab Lem to pay back for the opportunity given to him but this time around in a huge way.
The Member of Parliament realising that giving them that honour will go a long way to deprive the ordinary constituents decided not to pay back as was expected.
Here comes the inception of the camps.
Now, those who decide who to lead the party have realized the capabilities and competence of Hon. Dr Robert Kuganab Lem had no option to pull him down for refusing to honour them than to set those who supported him in the 2016 election to fight against him.
By so doing, they made the then Constituency Chairman, Hon. Simon Aruk Azimbe to step down from the Chairman position to contest with Hon. Dr Robert Kuganab Lem was in the 2019 primaries and unfortunately lost it.
Politics remain politics and not religion. After the defeat of Hon. Simon Aruk Azimbe, those who pushed him to the primaries now realized the capabilities and competence of Hon. Dr Robert Kuganab Lem quickly started to tag him with names and all sorts of political gymnastics. They did all they could to soil his political credentials and popularity.
To make matters worse, they proceeded to form a camp for Hon. Simon Aruk Azimbe even though the contest was among four candidates and not only between Hon. Dr Robert Kuganab Lem and Hon. Simon Aruk Azimbe.
This camp was intended to create division in the party to make room for them to sell the seat out to the NPP candidate as was done in 2008.
The question that remained unanswered is that, why Hon. Simon Aruk Azimbe got offended for losing the primaries and demanded honour from Hon. Dr Robert Kuganab Lem when the contest was not between the two of them?
It must be noted that the former Member of Parliament, Hon. Azure Ben Noah (2012 – 2016) was part of the contest and equally lost but never sought that honour from Hon. Dr Robert Kuganab Lem.
Hon. Azure Ben Noah even after he lost the primaries still campaigned seriously for the incumbent Member of Parliament who won the primaries.
Hon. Azure Ben Noah came out and took part in all the campaign activities in the 2020 election and that showed patriotism and a spirit of unity.
The question is, why Hon. Simon Aruk Azimbe?
Was there any agenda for his contest apart from his loyalty to serve the party? This question remains unanswered to many of the constituents.
Nobody should put blames innocent party faithful by tagging them with baseless accusations. These camp issues came as a result of internal selfish and parochial interests and nothing else.
Disregard any attempt by anyone who seeks to accuse any external person or persons in the formation of these camps.
It is internal.
Unfortunately, innocent youth who are party faithful and are ready to work for the party are being accused of forming alliances with Hon. Dr Robert Kuganab Lem and by so doing, calling them “Dr Camp “.
In the actual sense, they formed a camp and went ahead to form a camp for Hon. Dr Robert Kuganab Lem. Is this not funny?
Suspension of party members and matters arising
During the 2020 election following the formation of Hon. Simon Aruk Azimbe camp, there was disunity in the party such that even party executives who happened to be part of the said camp decided to withdraw from campaigns and their related activities. Infact, their sole purpose was to pursue ‘skirt and blouse ‘ skirmishes which they indeed achieved. Sadly is the fact that some sitting constituency executives took part in this evil acts of impunity.
This deliberate withdrawal from responsibilities hurt the results of the 2020 general elections.
The youth who happened not to be part of the camp or had no knowledge about the said camp took it upon themselves to work for the party but unfortunately could not retain the incumbent MP and lost the seat to the NPP candidate.
This brought joy to Hon. Simon Aruk Azimbe’s camp since that was their preliminary intention for forming the camp.
Having observed the withdrawal from responsibilities of some party executives and the evidence gathered on the actions and inactions of Hon. Simon Aruk Azimbe, the Parliamentary candidate decided to report the issue to the national for redress.
It must be noted that he took that step to sanitize the system for the future of the party. Today its Dr. Robert, it could be anyone tomorrow.
He never took part in the committees set to investigate the issue nor was he the one who set up the committees. The committee was competently constituted and due process of duly followed. The accused were all given a fair hearing to defend themselves, some appeared before the committee whilst those who saw themselves untouchables refused. The conclusions of the committee findings based on evidence provided to them and responses received from the accused found some of them guilty of participating in anti party agenda and recommended punitive actions to deter future occurrences. Some were however, left off the hook due to insufficient evidence.
Unfortunately, as he was seeking to ensure that unity and sanity are returned to the constituency by waiting to hear the outcome of the work of the committees, the outcome called for the suspension of some party members of which Hon. Simon Aruk Azimbe was affected.
This is where Hon.Dr. Robert Kuganab Lem has been accused as the one who initiated the suspension of the said party members which is untrue and should be disregarded.
Hon. Dr Robert Kuganab Lem though is not an angel, he is blameless about the disunity in the party. Take a random sample of ten (10) old loyal party faithful like myself who know the history and literature of the NDC party in our constituency and you will realize that Hon. Dr Robert Kuganab Lem is blameless in the whole brouhaha.
He was seeking unity and sanity in the party and was tagged differently by people who have parochial interests in the party.
Awinbugri Ateawini Musah
Concerned and loyal NDC patriot sice 1992.
