Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
Credible intelligence about a malicious plot by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) working with compromised collaborators within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to tarnish the image of Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has been exposed.
The project is intended to drag the image of the Vice President in the mud between now and the next general elections in 2024.
As far as the opposition NDC is concerned, the widely held views by political analysts that there is only one potential presidential candidate from the ruling NPP, Dr. Bawumia, who can prevent them and their presidential hopeful, former President John Mahama, from winning the 2024 presidential election, should not be taken lightly, and all efforts must, therefore, be in place to destroy the Vice President, per the intelligence.
The NDC’s sinister agenda, planned by some key figures of the party, was informed by Dr. Bawumia’s own political torture of the NDC since his emergence on the political scene, as well as a recent sponsored research by the NDC group, which confirmed the widely-held belief that the current Vice President was the biggest threat to their political revival as strategies begin towards the next election in 2024.
Thorn In Flesh
Dr. Bawumia, the distinguished academic, economist and banker, who entered politics in 2008, had subsequently demonstrated that his brilliance was not only limited to the world of economics, much to the chagrin of the NDC.
After an impressive debut on the political stage in 2008, Dr. Bawumia emerged as the star witness in the 2013 NPP election petition, held the nation in rapt attention for eight months, and his performance in the witness box was dazzling to many and very much annoying to the NDC.
That appeared to have marked the beginning of the cat and mouse relationship between Dr. Bawumia and the NDC, and they have since waged a relentless campaign to destroy him.
According to source, Dr. Bawumia’s famous lectures on the economy and the campaign he waged in 2016, which proved to be key to the NPP winning the 2016 election, has ruffled the feathers of the NDC and they had not forgiven him for that as well.
As Vice President since 2017, Dr. Bawumia has continued to “torment” the NDC with his performance in office, which is widely acknowledged to be outstanding.
With the NDC so bent on seeing a ruined image of Dr. Bawumia, they were even more angered by his increasing credentials, especially his description by many as “best Vice President in Ghana’s history,” as well as the endearing personality he had built through his humility, honesty and hard work, the source said.
The NDC’s biggest headache, which their “hatchet group’s” sponsored research confirmed, was Dr. Bawumia’s political prowess, the source added, saying, “His impact on the 2016 and 2020 elections, especially in the Northern regions in ensuring victory for the NPP, continued to resonate in political circles.”
“The NDC, moving forward to 2024, has made Dr. Bawumia a target for character assassination, by collaborating with some elements within the NPP to attack the person they consider to be the heir apparent after the President serves his constitutionally mandated two terms.”
The source said the NDC had concluded that the main stumbling block between them and a dream return to power in 2024 was Vice President Dr. Bawumia, whom they concede privately, would most likely be the NPP’s flag bearer.
“From the report of their sponsored research findings, which confirmed the popularity of Dr. Bawumia across the nation, the concensus by the opposition elements was that, henceforth, all must come out with guns blazing in a relentless onslaught to make him unpopular,” adding “at a meeting held late last year, the NDC decided to lay out an elaborate plan to neutralise Dr. Bawumia’s soaring popularity by resorting to sustained attacks, half truths and a series of concocted stories to ruin his image.”
The Ramatu Agenda
The infamous “Ramatu” Bawumia gaffe by Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin who had introduced the Second Lady Samira as ‘Ramatu’ on January 7, during the swearing in of the President and Vice President, was immediately pounced on by the NDC and its supporters.
The source said “they immediately published the picture of an unknown woman and claimed that she was the said ‘Ramatu’ claiming she was a first wife of Dr. Bawumia.
“The next episode of the well-scripted ‘Ramatu’ series was the demonstration of it by the NDC Minority MPs in Parliament, who threw caution to the wind and openly chanted the name of Ramatu in the presence of the Vice President and his wife during the presentation of the State of the Nation address by the President.”
The source said that since a press statement by the Office of the Vice President last week debunked this concocted story, the NDC had started revising their notes.
More Attacks
Multiple sources have revealed that the mudslinging against Dr. Bawumia will intensify in the coming months and accordingly, dedicated teams of social media activists, party communicators and opposition media allies have been charged to focus on the Vice President with relentless attacks on his person and spread more lies about him.
“They have been told to go all out and destroy his image because he is a big threat to our party and John Mahama in 2024,” the source said, adding, and in this endeavor, the NDC will also have help from internal competitors of Dr. Bawumia within the NPP.
“They are even going to try to turn the Christian community against him. They are going to make him look like he is over ambitious by saturating every constituency with his posters and other paraphenalia. They are going to spread stories that if Dr. Bawumia wins the so called Akyem Mafia will control him. They will fabricate stories to tarnish his reputation.”
By A.R. Gomda