FLASHBACK: The Gonja Chief in handsake with Nana Addo
The Paramount Chief of the Kpembe Traditional Area, Kpembe Wura Babanye Ndefosu II, who predicted that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will not secure less than 53 percent of the total valid votes cast, has been vindicated.
The Kpembe Wura made this known on Thursday, September 1, 2016 when Nana Akufo-Addo, together with national and regional party stalwarts, paid a courtesy call on him at his palace at Kpembe in the Salaga South Constituency of the Northern Region.
The chief urged the people of Kpembe and the Ghanaian electorate to turn out in their numbers on election day and vote massively, stressing that “I predict nothing less than 53% victory for you.”
The chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) Charlotte Osei, on Friday, declared the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, the winner of the 2016 elections, securing 53.85 percent to beat President John Mahama.
President Mahama, who contested the elections on the ticket of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), secured 44.40 of valid votes cast.
During the visit, the Gonja Chief, who was enskinned in August, this year, said “when I look into the crystal ball, I can see victory for the NPP. I want to assure you that I am still a friend, and you can always depend on me. As I said, if God wants to do something, He begins from one. He has done it for me and He will do it for you.”
Kpembe Wura Babanye Ndefosu advised Nana Akufo-Addo not to depart from his issues-based campaign and urged him to continue to “tell the people of Ghana what you will do for them.
“The people of Ghana are ready to hear from you, and I hope the next time we meet like this, you will be His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.”
Kpembe Wura Babanye Ndefosu said that “the Lord, God is listening to what we are telling Him today. There isn’t so much talk. God has done it. I have seen it (an NPP victory) in my dreams. Shaking hands with you this evening, I have seen something you haven’t seen.”
The Kpembe Wura asked Nana Akufo-Addo to examine the possibility of carving out another region from the Northern Region to “enable the equitable distribution of the natural resources of the region, as well as the rapid improvement in the livelihoods of the citizenry.”
Nana Akufo-Addo, on his part, thanked Kpembe Wura Babanye Ndefosu for the warm reception accorded him, as well as the prediction that he would emerge victorious in this year’s election.
“I am so happy to be here, and to be able to congratulate you personally on your ascension to this famous skin of your ancestors, since I was unable to be present at the ceremony of enskinment. I know from our long years of personal friendship what you have been through in order to get here. I pray for wisdom and God’s guidance for you, and I am sure that by God’s grace, your reign will bring prosperity and progress to the people of Kpembe,” he said.
Nana Akufo-Addo assured the Kpembe Wura that “even though I am not a blood brother of the Gonja people, I know I am coming to do a lot of good for the Gonja people. We are doing exactly what you have advised us to do. We are telling the people of Ghana the things we will do if, by the grace of God, they give us the opportunity.”
He continued, “I have been telling the people of Ghana that I will never get up and make a promise I know I cannot fulfill. I have too much respect and love for the Ghanaian people to lie to them. That is the message we have been taking around.”
During the visit, Nana Addo promised to deliver on his promises and stay in constant touch with traditional rulers who are custodians of the land, to give him direction.
By Daniel Bampoe