In the long story of the New Patriotic Party, the grassroots have always been its spine, bending, sweating, sacrificing, and holding up the weight of power. Kennedy Agyapong and Irene Naa Torshie Addo occupied some of the most strategic positions in the party’s ecosystem, points where resources were meant to trickle down to the ordinary party worker. But what was designed as a channel of support to uplift its grassroots began to feel like a commercial highway paved for the benefit of a select few. Even in the years leading to the collapse and humiliating defeat in the elections 2024, many party faithful whisper a bitter truth: those meant to protect them instead prospered above them.
Today, in a twist soaked in irony, the same two apostles of the grassroots: Naa Torshie and Kennedy who are accused by the grassroots for abandoning them, are touring the country pointing fingers at everyone else for the party’s downturn, when the loudest accusations from within the corridors of the party are directed straight at them.
Kennedy Agyapong perfected the art of political hyperphagia, a giant appetite for power and influence, while branding himself as “the voice of the grassroots.” As a de-facto Minister for Grassroots Affairs, he wielded deep influence over appointments and placements. Through this he positioned loyalists who, in turn, created pipelines of government contracts that conveniently aligned with his numerous business interests. Yet, after all the noise about caring for the grassroots, even his loudest supporters struggle to point to any structured, meaningful support he delivered to them.
The man has proudly distributed his wealth among his 22 children, 12 baby mothers, including his 5 wives, and inner circle, but somehow the ordinary party foot soldier: polling station executive, the branch organiser, the tireless coordinator sweating in sun, and rain, who walked miles in dust to defend the party, and still see no evidence of the care he promised him, was left out of the inheritance plan.
His political deputy, Irene Naa Torshie Addo, also a political polyphagia was regarded by many party members as the chief custodian of the District Assemblies Common Fund. Instead of the Fund acting like a vessel of relief, murmurs across the party suggest she treated it more like a personal dynasty. From selecting projects to approving contractors and even supplying materials, everything allegedly passed through the grips of her selfish fingers. And too often, the complaints from the grassroots were that the items and projects were nothing close to the standards communities deserved.
If truth were a human being, it would have slapped both Kennedy and Naa Torshie twice, once for using the suffering of the grassroots as political capital, and again for turning around to blame everyone else for the consequences.
While foot soldiers chased votes in remote corners, defended the party in markets, hostile villages and risked reputation in difficult regions, Kennedy Agyapong and Irene Naa Torshie Addo were growing fat on government contracts, kickbacks, friends of benifit and on the fruits of the same party’s Labour, feeding as though the public purse were their family pension.
H. E. Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s proposal for decentralised appointments and transparent digital remittances offers a different path: where no single individual becomes the gatekeeper of survival of thousands of workers. The proposed reforms for 10 appointments per constituency, digital data for every delegate, and transparent remittance structures, may finally cure the chronic problem of concentrating financial control in the hands of a few political “big stomachs.” When wealth is spread across many loyal workers, the party becomes stronger, healthier, and more accountable. When it is trapped among a few, greed, entitlement, and political gluttony become unavoidable.
Message to the Grassroots
When Kennedy Agyapong or Naa Torshie Addo show up offering money, take it. It’s your sweat, your time, and your sacrifice that produced it. But when it is time to vote, choose leaders who remember you not only during elections but throughout governance.
Osɔfo Nii Naate Atswele Agbo Nartey
