Former Deputy Director of Communication for the New Patriotic Party in the Upper East Region Andrew Atariwine says he intends to contest for the Regional Secretary of the party.
“When that time comes, I will certainly be sticking out my neck to subject myself to the scrutiny of the distinguished delegates of our party to serve them in that capacity as the regional secretary,” he stated.
Atariwine resigned from the Deputy Regional Director of Communication position in January after the party’s humiliating defeat in the December 7 elections.
Although he did not give reasons for his resignation, many believed he was not pleased with the party leadership’s handling of the Bawku Conflict and the ban placed on it by the Bawku Naba.
Before he was appointed to that position, he had contested for the Deputy Regional Secretary of the party in 2022 but lost.
However, barely three months after stepping down, Atariwine is now eyeing the substantive Regional Secretary position.
Speaking in an interview on Breakfast News on Dreamz FM, Atariwine said he has a superior vision that will transform the party and make it attractive in the region.
“I believe that given the opportunity, my ideas, my thoughts, my disposition presents a certain vision that certainly would be so salivating that delegates and even those who would be vetting me would not want to lose.”
The party, he asserted, has side-lined its grassroots in the scheme of affairs, a misstep that has weakened and demoralized its support base particularly in the region.
He believes making the grassroots part and parcel of the management of the party’s affairs will reenergize them to work towards victory.
“This party needs, is currently, is positioned in a manner that needs to go back to factory resetting, and that is giving the party back to the grassroots. That is the only way and that is the only place we can derive the true strength of the party and we can get the party bear the necessary fruits that we want.”
This and many other proposals for the reorganization of the party in the region, he said, will convince party folks to elect him for the position when he puts himself forward for the contest.
Asked whether his resignation from his post will not impede his chances in the race, he argued that he had served well as Deputy Director of Communication and did not do anything injurious to the party or breach any rule with his decision to step aside.
He also dismissed assertion that publicly declaring his support for Kennedy Agyapong’s bid for the party’s flagbearership will jeopardize his fortunes.
Defending his public support for Kennedy Agyapong, he stated that it is the right decision he made and that most party folks share this view.
Atariwine contended that although the former flagbearer Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia won in the region in the last internal presidential candidacy contest, the region delegates’ voting pattern will not be the same this around as he said the NPP is “self-correcting”.
