Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin is the Minority Leader in Parliament
The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, has underscored the importance of loyalty and sacrifice in political service, drawing from personal experiences during the launch of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Patriotic Institute.
Speaking at the launch of the Patriotic Institute on Wednesday, June 25, at the party headquarters in Accra, he recounted how members of his own family suffered professional and personal setbacks due to their unwavering allegiance to the NPP tradition.
He said his mother, a dedicated pupil teacher, lost her livelihood for refusing to join the 31st December Women’s Movement; a decision which led to her redeployment.
According to him, his mum stood firm because her husband was part of the party’s tradition and she chose conviction over convenience.
“My mother, a dedicated pupil teacher, she lost her livelihood because she refused to bend the knee to the 31st December Women’s Movement and as a result she was redeployed. That was a weapon that they used but she stood firm because her husband was part of this great tradition,” he said.
Afenyo-Markin also recalled how his stepfather, a foreman at Pomadzi Pottery Enterprise in Winneba, was demoted and transferred to Ankaful Warehouse after the 1996 elections.
In his estimation, his father was punished not for incompetence, but for publicly identifying with the NPP.
His biological father, then a civil servant at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Mechanisation Division, was forced into exile in Côte d’Ivoire and he was denied clearance to serve at the UN in Geneva.
“These were not abstract sacrifices. They were the daily realities of loyal Ghanaians who chose principles over political convenience,” he noted.
He disclosed that the economic hardships that followed nearly derailed his own education.
He explained that with both parents out of work and his father exiled, he struggled to pay school fees. But for an opportunity salvaged through a bursary through the intervention of Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, it would have been difficult to settle his fees.
Afenyo-Markin used the occasion to remind members of the party of the true cost of loyalty and the need to uphold the party’s values.
He emphasised that the newly launched institute should serve as a training ground to equip members with the knowledge and tools to defend and promote the NPP’s ideals with confidence.
The Patriotic Institute, according to party leadership, is a think tank and capacity-building centre designed to nurture the intellectual and ideological foundation of the NPP.
AS/VPO
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