“Dogbese Lisa has treated me thus. It has led me among the sharps of the forest. Returning is not possible and going forward is a great difficulty. The affairs of this world is like the chameleon feces, into which I have stepped. When I clean, it cannot go” – Songs of Sorrow by Professor Kofi Awoonor
Readers of this column will observe that I have soft heart for the people of the Volta Region. I love the people there for a reason. I have three children. One of them, the eldest is a lady from Ketu in the Volta Region. The lady is also married to a banker who is a Northerner and they have three daughters. No wonder the sages say a crab does not beget a bird.
Flt Lt. J.J. Rawlings ruled the country for 11 years as an autocratic leader and eight years as an elected leader under a democratic dispensation. At the end of his term of office as an elected Head of State, he honestly apologised to the people of the Volta Region for disappointing them as far as the development of the area is concerned.
I moved in sympathy with him because great leaders like Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah did the same to his people of Nkroful, where he was born, bred and educated. When Dr. Nkrumah died and the body was flown from Guinea, the late General Acheampong had to keep the body in the morgue while the feeder road from Takoradi to Nkroful had to be graveled in order for dignitaries to be able to travel to the town to pay their last respect. In those days, the road was simply horrible and Nkroful had nothing good to write home about.
In the run-up to the 1992 General Election, candidate Rawlings chose Mr. Ekow Nkensen Arkaah from the Central Region as his running mate. Rawlings went on to win the presidential election, thereby, making Mr. Arkaah the Vice President of Ghana. As they trudged on, Arkaah accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of being corrupt and kept on lambasting the party on daily basis.
Rawlings became very peeved and so at a Cabinet meeting where Rawlings failed to attend for reasons best known to him, Mr. Arkaah went to chair the meeting as the Constitution demanded. When Rawlings heard that, Mr. Arkaah was chairing the meeting he furiously stormed the place and subjected Arkaah to severe beating. Arkaah reported the case to the Nima Police Station, but the police refused to take action. After all, who born dog to dare arrest Rawlings?
Mr. Arkaah later became a running mate to candidate Kufuor in the run-up to the 1996 General Election when the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) formed the Great Alliance and Kufuor lost to Rawlings. When Arkaah left the NDC, Rawlings again chose Professor Fiifi Atta Mills from the Central Region as his Vice President till his term ended. Mills became the flagbearer of the party when Rawlings made the controversial Swedru Declaration. Instead of choosing somebody from the Volta Region as his running mate, Mills went in for Mr. John Mahama. He lost the election after two attempts. All along, the people of the Volta Region remained committed to the NDC and supporters referred to the region as their political World Bank. Much as candidate Kufuor tried, he could only manage to win one parliamentary seat in the Volta Region. Looking visibly annoyed, Rawlings pitched his camp at the Volta Region during the next election to make sure that seat was won back by the NDC.
When Mills died mysteriously at the Castle, Mr. Mahama who replaced him chose Mr. Paa Kwasi Amissah-Arthur, another Fante from the Central Region as his running mate. Coincidentally Amissah-Arthur, Arkaah and Mills, all died mysteriously. When Mr. Mahama was elected as the flagbearer of the NDC, everybody expected him to choose a Voltarian as his running mate but again the Voltarians were ditched in the gutter. After all, their kinsman, Mr. Rawlings who founded the NDC had died, leaving them as orphans.
Mr. Mahama rather chose his running mate again from the Central Region in the person of Professor Naana Opoku Agyemang who had partnered him four years ago. If you were a Voltarian, how will you react? The World Bank is gradually turning to a Rural Bank with the NPP led by Nana Akufo-Addo winning one parliamentary seat twice.
Mr. Amewu is still riding high. Just look at how the Voltarians received Dr. Bawumia and compare it to previous NPP presidential candidates and you will realise that times are fast changing. Voltarians have seen unprecedented development projects since Kufuor and Nana Addo held the reins of power. The Akans say if a man wises up, the game ends. During electioneering campaign, the NDC uses the Voltarians like the way the farmer uses a hoe during rainy season to make mounds. After the rains, the farmer will hung the hoe on a tree and go for it in another rainy day. They did same to the people of the Northern and Upper regions. It was when Alhaji Aliu Mahama became the Vice President that the people up there realised that after all, the lies peddled by the NDC that the NPP was an Akan party was nothing but a hoax.
Dr. Bawumia has come to put more sugar in the porridge, making it sweeter. I can’t wait to see a northerner and a Muslim for that matter becoming the President of Ghana. Dr. Bawumia has opened the eyes of Christians in particular to see that the three Abrahamic faiths being Judaism, Christianity and Islam are one. That is why he never hesitates to visit churches anytime he was invited.
The Huge Debt Northerners Owe The Akans
In 1992 candidate Prof. Adu Boahen of the NPP chose Alhaji Rowland Issifu Alhassan, a Dagbon royal from Kumbungu in the Northern Region as his running mate. In 1998 and 2000, Mr. Agyekum Kufuor chose Alhaji Aliu Mahama, another Dagbon royal from Yendi in the Northern Region as his running mate. In 2012 and 2016, Candidate Nana Akufo Addo chose Dr. Bawumia from Mamprusi in the same Northern Region as his Running Mate. Both Kufuor and Akufo-Addo went on to win the presidency, thereby making their running mates Vice Presidents of Ghana. Coincidentally, both running mates were Muslims. Where then lies the truth that the NPP hates northerners?
During the recent presidential primaries of the NPP, even though all the candidates were Akans except Dr. Bawumia, the Akan regions voted massively for Dr. Bawumia, sending a signal to Ghanaians that the Akans do not discriminate against northerners as their political enemies made the people to understand. Today, A northerner and a Muslim is the flagbearer of the NPP for the 2024 Presidential Election.
If you are a Northerner or live in the zongos, this is payback time. You must prove to the Akans that you are not ungrateful by voting massively for Dr. Bawumia because as the sages say, one good turn deserves another. The ink in my fountain pen has dried up. Full stop.
Eric Bawah