You should resign – Stephen Ntim told

Former Deputy General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Obiri Boahen, has criticised the decision by the family of NPP National Chairman Stephen Ntim to request a temporary leave of absence for him due to health concerns.

In an interview with GhanaWeb on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, Obiri Boahen stated that Ntim should have personally resigned if he is unwell, rather than opting for a temporary break. He argued that this would be the most principled and respectable decision to make.

“Any principled politician like myself, Obiri Boahen, if I’m not well, I would have put in my resignation letter. If he’s not well and he thinks that it will affect his activities, even if I’m the president, I will resign,” he said. “So, if you’re a national chairman of the party and you are not well, why do you call for a temporary break?”

He described the idea of a temporary break as “absurd” and said it opens the party up to “public ridicule and contempt.”

Obiri Boahen, who is also a lawyer, questioned why it was the Ntim family and not the chairman himself who wrote to the party. He described the move as abnormal and unthinkable.

“How can a family write a letter for a mature adult? Somebody wants to be relevant,” he said. “The man is not suffering from insanity. If the man is not suffering from insanity, he can pick up a pen and paper and write something down. So, what is all this fuss about?”

He went further to describe the family’s involvement as “misbehaviour,” arguing that the party elected Ntim, not his family, and that only the wife or children could appropriately step in under such circumstances.

“People should stop misbehaving. I call it misbehaving. He himself should write the letter. Did the party vote for the family? No,” he added. “In recent times, if you look at the laws of this country, it is the children and the wife system, not the brother or sister. That is unwarranted.”

Stephen Ntim’s family had earlier appealed to the NPP for him to step aside temporarily to focus on his health and receive medical care. However, the party is yet to issue an official response to the request.