Abossey Okai Spare Parts Assoc is independent – Takyi Addo

The Head of Communications for the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association, the umbrella body of car spare parts dealers in the Greater Accra Region, has acknowledged the association’s failure to grow like other associations due to excessive politicking among its members.
He attributed this challenge to the perception that the association is closely aligned with a particular political party, which leads to people reading political motives into its activities.

According to him, members tend to react politically to the government’s policies which they believe are not in the industry’s interest.

He criticised past leaders for engaging in unwarranted politics, at the expense of the welfare of members.

For instance, he mentioned that previous leaders instructed members not to close their shops in protest against the Ghana Revenue Authority’s implementation of the Electronic Value Added Tax compliance exercise.

He said, these former executives, who are now seen as meddling in the association’s affairs, played a role in promoting such behaviour, the association had directed members to do so.

The Head of Communications highlighted the difficulty that the current leadership faces due to this political mindset.

Mr Takyi Addo made this remark on the Ghana Yensom morning show hsoted Odyeeba Kofi Essuman on Accra 100.5 FM on Thursday Novermber 2, a day after the association suspended its planned sit-down strike against GRA over the E-VAT compliance.

He called on association members to be more measured in their accusations against leadership regarding issues of national interest and to refrain from petty politicking.

He stressed the importance of allowing the leadership to work for the members’ best interests and suggested that it is this kind of petty politicking that contributed to the decline of Kumasi Magazine, another hub for car spare parts dealership in the Ashanti Region.