The vice president, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has reduced his campaign for the flagbearership of the New Patriotic Party, NPP, to insinuations, innuendos, religious and tribal bigotry since he commenced engagement with delegates.
In a meeting with delegates from his home region a day after his contentious campaign launch at the headquarters of the party in Accra, Dr Bawumia was alleged to have intimated in his local dialect, confirming the position of the National Democratic Congress, NDC, that the NPP distates Northerners, and only employ them to accomplish “dirty and miniature” jobs that inure to the benefits of other tribes, especially the Akans. He was forthright about the 2012 election petition, during which time, according to his own admission, having led a team to thoroughly analyse the electoral pink sheets, being the primary source of evidence, was tasked to represent the party in the witness box. The vice president flatly described this as a humbling task he was out of any options to undertake as a running mate. Such an unfortunate assertion would only be expected from a typical NDC propagandist.
Dr Bawumia’s comment undercuts the contributions and role of Northerners to the success of the NPP, and their interrelatedness with other tribes, which has been safeguarded since 1992.
Amongst other distinguished members of the NPP who trace their origins to the northern part of Ghana, the following have had an association with the Akufo-Addo-led NPP government as Ministers, Deputy Ministers, and Ambassadors:
Mavis Hawa Koomson
Dominic Aduna Bingab Nitiwul
Sagre Bambangi
Ambrose Derry
Joseph Dindiok Kpemka
Mohammed Habbib Tijani
Mustapha Abdul-Hamid
Anthony Abayifaa Karbo
Otiko Afisa Djaba
Abu-Bakar Siddique Boniface
Ibrahim Mohammed Awal
Rashid Bawa
Naa Bolinaa Saaka
Sheikh T.B Damba
Salma Frances Mancell-Egala
Napoleon Abdulai
Rasheed Seidu Inusa
Allowe Leo Kabah, etc.
Will these genuine Patriots stand with the vice president respective to his incendiary statement? Indeed, it is derisive and insulting. If there was any event in the party’s history that projected Dr Bawumia and gave him a wide exposure, it was the said elections petition. Only an ingrate would look down on such a privilege.
The vice president’s strategy of campaigning along religious affiliation, although it is an inherent feature of democracy, is completely abhorrent. Statements from him that court the Ghanaian Muslim Community on the grounds of his affiliation with them only exposes his devicive inclination which can shred the fibres of bond the NPP has wrought over the years. Why does he want to nurture discord in the party for vested interest?
Dr Bawumia, as an individual was brought into our party and supported maximumly to enable him turn the Ghanaian economy around as never before. His nomination was not conclusively premised on religion or tribe, but his pedigree as an economist. Achieving a robust economy for Ghanaians would be his trump card. Is the current economic situation in Ghana what Bawumia pledged the NPP and Ghanaians? If Mahama and his National Democratic Congress cohorts were so tagged by Dr Bawumia as “incompetent” for achieving a similar economic dysfunction, how would he describe his own ineptitude?
In his engagements with delegates, I challenge Dr Bawumia to catalogue how extraordinary the economic advancements of the country have been under his management.
Retaining political power for a consecutive third term for the first time under the 4th Republic can not be feasible with messages of confectionery contents that the sound and informed Ghanaian considers honeyed today, but acrid days after.
He has also made the indefensible assertion of his membership with the New Patriotic Party before the year 2008. It is public knowledge that a membership card of the NPP was issued to Dr Bawumia in 2008 for the first time. Hoodwinking people into accepting that he was or became a member of the party in the year 2000 because he led a team of technocrats at the Bank of Ghana for negotiations for debt cancellation under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) programme during the maiden term of President John Agyekum Kuffuor spawns credibility and reliability crisis for him. According to his own theory and school of thought, “the new Bawumialogy,” all technical experts who work in public institutions can at any time claim to be members of the ruling party of the day and demand their share of the reservations for baptismal members of the party. It would come with no astonishment that he soon identifies with the founders of our political tradition. This attempt by him to redocument the history of the party will not go without opposition.
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has enjoyed enough as a vice president, and we will not watch him disintegrate our party as he exits the office and position he chanced on.
Source : Kojo Abanga
The voice from the North
Walewale
