The Middle East branch is the 54th external branch of the party, a statement issued by the NPP in Accra last Friday said.

The statement said the branch was inaugurated by officials led by the NPP External Affairs Director, Mr Emmanuel Attafuah-Danso, and Ghana’s Ambassador to Kuwait.

Working together

According to the statement, Mr Attafuah-Danso explained that the NPP administration was deeply committed to working closely with its external branches to drive development policies and help transform the country.

“The NPP government is keen to engage Ghanaians abroad in decision making through the diaspora branches.

“The party undertook a prior assessment of the branch to ascertain its qualification and concluded that it has met all the criteria to become an external branch, hence its inauguration as a branch,” the statement said.

New frontiers

The statement said the Chairman of the Middle East branch, Mr Isaac Osea, stated that the NPP had broken new frontiers to have a fully organised and functional branch in the Middle East.

That feat, he said, did not come on a silver platter but through determination, dedication and passion exhibited by members.

“This branch started as a group of Ghanaian migrants in the gulf with the aim of helping to alleviate the problems other migrants were encountering in the Gulf States.

This we did perfectly well so in no time, our fame had spread throughout the Ghanaian community in the gulf,” the statement said.

It said the group supported the NPP in a number of ways such as mobilising funds to sponsor some NPP parliamentary candidates in the Northern Region during the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections and donating to the national headquarters to support its activities.

“We have been able to mobilise over 2000 active party members in the Gulf States — the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait, with the other Middle East countries in line. As things stand now, Israel is now set to be part of the big family,” the statement stated.

“We strongly believe that Election 2020 is going to be a litmus test for government’s flagship programmes and we will not be spectators but patriots who are willing to go the extra mile to see victory 2020 become a reality,” it added.