Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and Alan Kwadwo Kyeremateng
The search for the NPP Flagbearer for 2024 General Elections started in earnest on 26th May with the opening, picking, filing and closing of nomination forms on 24th June, 2023 by interested candidates.
Vetting that followed cleared all those who filed as eligible to contest, however, a special delegates’ congress awaits them to reduce the numbers to five in line with the Party’s Constitution.
The National Council of the Party has decided to hold the Special Delegates conference at each Regional Capital on 26th August, 2023.
The total number of delegates is about 961 and from my research, only three Candidates, namely, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Mr. Alan Kwadwo Kyeremateng and Mr. Kennedy Agyapong, may find it worthwhile to continue the battle to the national delegates’ conference to be held on 4th November, 2023 depending upon the percentage of votes each obtains but the choice is Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
The number of contestants is intriguing because some observers wonder their motives for picking the forms in the first place. Opinions vary but some claim they were urged on by some supporters, others to participate for the sake of writing their names in the history books of NPP and improve their political CVs.
The rest are testing their popularity as prominent members of the party for future political appointments or recognition and the remainder are contesting to satisfy their “whims and caprices”.
I wish them all well and remind them to note that the people they are interacting with on their way to the top, will be the same people they will meet on their way down.
They should therefore conduct their campaigns and exercise decorum and dignity in the use of language so that when they are unsuccessful in their search for the ‘golden fleece’, it will not be too difficult for them to join those of us on the ground floor.
The unity of the Party they seek to lead is more important than their personal egos and ambitions. For individuals to believe they can destroy the party is a big joke. No contestant is bigger and stronger than the ‘Elephant’. Yes, individuals can boast of being rich but it is the ‘Elephant’ that has made them richer than what they were.
Those who are condemning the government in order to deliver their messages are shooting themselves in the foot because it’s like “cutting your nose to spite your face”. If any Presidential aspirant does not understand the economic implications of four years of “dumsor”, nine months of Covid 19, Russia and Ukraine war and its effect on fuel, grains and four years of free SHS, that aspirant is not fit to run the race for NPP leadership.
In the face of the current world economic order and the progress that has been achieved by the government under these circumstances, they deserve some commendation by people who want to lead the party and not condemnation.
The failure of some aspirants to acknowledge the predicament of the Party in managing the economy is a betrayal of trust and Party delegates must punish them. As individuals, they have nothing to stand on and if they doubt it let them stand as independent candidates and see what will become of them. Without the Elephant they cannot achieve their objectives and therefore in seeking to lead that Elephant, it is disingenuous to discredit the Elephant because whatever the NPP has achieved is what they have to campaign on, and that is loyalty.
Yes, the government might have made some errors in governance, but who doesn’t, NPP or NDC in the face of these challenges? The NDC is making the most noise today because it is not in power and hopes to be in power soon but the fact remains that NDC cannot change the economic fortunes of the country in the next four years of ‘anticipated’ Mahama rule.
As regards Covid-19, fuel and grains, many countries including the developed ones are still struggling to manage its effect and to blame the government is only cheap and sound minds will not buy the ugly arguments. On the campaign trail, the fact that no aspirant has made corruption, the number one evil in our society, a top priority in campaign messages, suggests that the old order may prevail.
If corruption is not minimized, all promises to better the lives of Ghanaians will be a hoax. In conclusion, messages are not in short supply for some contestants to take the government to the cleaners to sell their messages.
There are some Ghanaians who have criticized the Government’s handling of the free SHS program but for me no matter how badly the scheme was initiated, free SHS has come to stay and is better than no education at all.
Besides, nothing prevents the introduction of amendments to make the scheme more effective. My beef is that if the money is not used to educate our younger generation, it would be looted and shared by the same desperate politicians who are throwing all the dirt on the programme.
Historically, some past NPP Presidential primaries have badly dented the unity of the party during election periods and had given our opponents ammunition to fire the NPP but the Party has remained strong and we hope current utterances will not make any difference.
With the determination to undo others, some unpleasant comments have come from some of the contenders and followers but I believe regrettably today they wished they had not spewed those words.
The contests that badly affected the Party’s unity were the contests’ between Professor Adu Boahen and President Kufuor, Nana Akufo-Addo and Mr. Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen but the party survived. The latter led to the resignation of Alan from the Party which he later rescinded but the damage had been done and the consequences are still following his attempt to lead the party.
The tribal remarks by some followers as a result of the participation of the Vice President, will ultimately dig the graves of their candidates because NPP delegates are very discerning.
The issue of “di wo lane mu” or “edru me so” was made irrelevant when President Kufuor defeated Professor AduBoahenin 1996 primaries because at the time many felt Prof had done enough to deserve the leadership automatically and had also won the first NPP primaries in 1992 but it didn’t happen.
After that the only candidate who deserves the accolade, I think is Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku because he has contested many Presidential primaries more than any other Candidate. For the future, I think the Party needs to review its selection process because it is the individual’s right to seek the Party’s nomination but it is the right of the Party to choose who should represent it.
For the delegates, the main objective is to choose a candidate who has the capacity to ditch President Mahama. From what has transpired, no other Candidate has demonstrated the capacity to handle President Mahama more than the Vice President Dr. Bawumia.
The delegates should therefore select him to rubbish Mahama’s newly acquired strategy to poultry and livestock farming which he promised wouldbe free to all who will participate in the programme.
The objective of NPP breaking the ‘8’ is doable and the party must remain focused, united and acknowledge that in this particular election, it is Mahama who needs to be beaten and not NDC.
Message remains an important factor in every election in order to convince electorates to vote for a particular party. The individuals seeking the party’s nomination, however, may have their own agenda that may conflict with the interest of the Party.
It is therefore essential that in future, the Party’s objectives for general elections are clearly spelt out. Candidates who cannot champion the Party’s message must give way because it doesn’t make sense to sponsor a candidate who does not believe in what the Party’s stands for and the issue of, “NPP has no message” wouldn’t arise.
This is a major observation that has been over looked in the past but must now be instituted as a precondition to choose as a flagbearer of the Party.This should be an important aspect of the Vetting Committee to assess whether the Candidate can implement the Party’s objectives.This will ensure that individuals’ ambitions are inseparable from that of the party.
Presidential primaries is an internal party activity that needs not disturb the smooth administration of the Party when there is unity and commitment. Unfortunately, there are bad losers who cannot wait for their defeat to be announced and they tend to create unstable grounds to justify their demise.
The need for the various party structures to maintain party unity and commitment are essential forthe survival of the Party. I believe that peace will be maintained and at the end, the Party will be united and strong to break the 8!
By Brig-Gen J. Odei