After losing out on the constituency, regional and national executive positions of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) , the presidency has found a backdoor strategy to hijack the party by flooding the national executives with its people from the Danquah Institute (DI).
It appears, the new national executives led by the Chairman Stephen Ntim and General Secretary, Justine Koduah Frimpong, have not appreciated the extent of despondency against President Nana Akufo-Addo and his men, which got their candidates; Stephen Asamoah Boateng and John Boadu, who contested for the National Chairmanship and the General Secretary, respectively, to lose.
So far, Richard Ahiagbah, a former Executive Director of the Danquah Institute (DI) and the current Executive Director of the same Institute, Dr Antoinette Tsibu-Darko, have been appointed as the Director of Communications and Deputy General Secretary of the NPP, respectively.
DI is bankrolled by the powerful cousin of President Akufo-Addo, Gabby Otchere-Darko. Another former Executive Director, Edward Asomani, is currently the National Security Coordinator.
Richard Ahiagbah and Dr Antoinette Tsibu-Darko’s appointments were contained in a press statement released under the signature of the General Secretary of the party, Justin Kodua Frimpong, last Friday, August 26, 2022.
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“Pursuant to Articles 10 and 15 of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) constitution, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party, at its meeting held on Friday, August 26, 2022, appointed the following persons to serve as Deputy National Executives of the party,” the statement read in part.
Richard Ahiagbah and Dr Antoinette Tsibu-Darko’s appointments were among a total of 28 others made for the various deputy executive and directorship roles of the party.
The Herald’s information was that Richard Ahiagbah, who replaces the former NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Adenta Constituency, Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, had wanted to contest the party’s General Secretary position, but was bluntly told in the face to “clear off” by President Akufo-Addo, when he had met with him to seek his blessing.
This appointment as the spokesman for the party, is therefore seen as a compensation package for him and could now quieten him, having gone lamenting at some places about his unpleasant encounter with the President.
Some of the other notable names in the new appointments are; Evans Nimako as Director of Research and Elections, and Dan Botwe, as the Director of Campaign Strategy.
“The party takes this opportunity to congratulate all the appointees and implores them to effectively discharge their mandates as the party seeks to win the 2024 general elections,” the statement concluded with.
Richard Ahiagbah, comes from Aflao, in the Volta Region of Ghana.
Richard Ahiagbah, is described as an astute communications professional, strategist and business leader with vast experience covering Corporate and Brand Communications, Public Policy, Internal Communications and Employee Engagement, Corporate Social Responsibility and executive image management.
He is said to have a reputation for leading teams to deliver exceptional communication programmes that drive business performance. He is adept at positioning brands, businesses and personalities to deliver sustainable and measurable outcomes.
He was the CountryLead, Communications at the Mastercard Foundation Ghana hub. Prior to that he was Group Head of Corporate Affairs at Guaranty Trust Bank (Ghana) Ltd where he led the execution of a bold Marketing and Corporate Affairs strategy to position GTBank as one of the leading retail banks in Ghana.
Prior to joining GTBank, he was the Group Head of Corporate Affairs for Media General – operators of TV3, 3FM, Onua FM, Connect FM and Akoma FM.
He was previously the Head of Corporate Communications at Airtel Ghana. During his two-year tenure, he expertly transformed the reputation of the company through flawlessly delivered programs – winning 25 local and international awards for the company.
His vast experience has seen him work in multinational companies including Diageo – both in Ghana and the UK – co-driving strategy and Communications for Diageo’s CSR programmes across 14 African countries.
Richard is an accredited Public Relations Practitioner with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR, UK).
He holds an Executive MBA from the University of Ghana Business School, a diploma (post graduate) in Public Relations from the CIPR and a 1st Class degree in Psychology from the University of Ghana, Legon.
