Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
If Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has become so priceless to the NPP and the Presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, it is, aside from his competence as a technocrat, also due to the significant impact he has made in the north for the NPP since his emergence.
Selected as a rookie politician in 2008 to partner Nana Akufo-Addo, the young economist was expected to deliver the northern and Zongo votes to compliment Nana Akufo-Addo’s strong popularity in the south. In his first attempt, he did his best under the circumstance, and the NPP narrowly lost the elections in the runoff after leading the first round.
From a political novice without any experience in political campaigning, Dr. Bawumia has, since his emergence, meticulously weaved his way through the northern political conundrum for the NPP.
In a region noted for its unalloyed loyalty to the NDC in the Fourth Republic, largely due to the Rawlings factor, it was always going to require something special to tilt the heavily balanced scale in favour of the NPP.
That special thing, without a doubt, has been Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
From a commendable beginning in 2008 to a considerable improvement in 2012, Bawumia has now become the rock and the decisive factor in northern politics.
After John Mahama unsurprisingly benefitted from significant northern loyalty after his fortuitous nomination as the NDC candidate in 2012 due to the death of John Evans Atta Mills, 2016 was a real showdown between then President Mahama and running mate Bawumia.
The 2016 Elections
Prior to the 2016 elections, former President Mahama’s popularity in the north had waned and it was largely due to how Bawumia was said to have established and maintained a very good relationship with northern elders and the people, and how he vigorously campaigned throughout the northern regions to, not only expose the hardships and lack of development initiatives in the north under the presidency of Mahama but also to interact with them, understand their needs and offer them hope.
The 2016 elections saw a significant turning point in northern politics in favour of the NPP, and the biggest contributing factor was the hardworking Bawumia, who led the NPP’s northern campaign by adopting an energy-sapping and close-contact campaign and succeeded in hurting the then ruling NDC and Mahama badly.
In fact, government sources have attributed the One Village One Dam policy to Dr. Bawumia, who proposed the policy after seeing at first hand, during his close-contact tours, how farmers in the north struggled during the dry season.
It was, therefore, not a surprise that Bawumia led the NPP to remarkably sweep through the north in 2016. Statistics in all the three northern regions were indeed commensurate with the efforts the NPP running mate put in.
In the 2016 presidential election of the then Northern Region, the NPP got 41.5%, an improvement from the 39.11% the party got in 2012.
There were similar significant improvements in numbers in the Upper East and West regions respectively in 2016.
The statistics were even more impressive in the 2016 parliamentary elections. In the Northern Region, the NPP won 13 seats – an improvement of four seats, while the NDC lost grounds by losing two of the 20 seats they won in 2012.
In the Upper East, the NPP won three seats in 2016 – an improvement of one more seat from 2012. The NPP stunned the NDC in the Upper West Region in 2016 by moving from 0 seat in 2012 to five seats.
The 2016 results changed the narrative of northern politics and signalled an emerging NPP strength with Bawumia spearheading.
Elections 2020 In The North
As the nation prepared for the 2020 polls, the big question which lingered on many minds was whether Vice-President Bawumia could, once again make a strong impact and deliver the north for the NPP in 2020.
With the 2020 elections being Nana Akufo-Addo’s last on the ballot if he won, many also saw the performance of the NPP in the north as a referendum on Dr. Bawumia’s strength up north and his might to potentially succeed his boss as the NPP’s Presidential Candidate in 2024 and possibly President of the country.
Indeed, the Vice-President worked so hard, crisscrossing the entire country in addition to the northern parts of the country.
On the evidence of Dr. Bawumia’s campaign strategy, which saw him devote so much time and attention to the north since campaign intensified in September, it was quite clear delivering the north again for the NPP was his main target in the just ended 2020 elections.
I closely monitored the Vice-President’s campaign tour and I was amazed at how he extensively toured the five regions in the north to spread the government’s message and achievements.
Despite limitations brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Bawumia was able to device strategies to still get in touch with chiefs, opinion leaders and members of northern communities in the regions through his innovative durbars.
I noticed his durbars were so effective that at a point, his main political rival, the NDC candidate, John Mahama, had to adopt it.
One remarkable feature of Dr. Bawumia’s 2020 campaign was that despite being the Vice-President and having the luxury of using a chopper to fly to difficult places in the north, as former President Mahama did when he was in office, Dr. Bawumia preferred to drive long hours through the desert and bumpy roads to meet his people.
While on a research duty in the north, I met Dr. Bawumia’s campaign team three times so late in the night at places I did not expect to see him. That showed the man’s commitment to what he was doing.
As a member of his team said, “that is how he also feels the pains the people go through and that is how he can appreciate their needs better.”
And I have been privy to lots of appreciative comments from northern village folks who commended Dr. Bawumia for visiting the most deprived parts of the north to interact with the people and listen to their concerns.
From various news reports and publications I have studied on Dr. Bawumia’s 2016 and 2020 campaign tours, one revelation is that many of the places he visited in 2020 as Vice-President to commission or inspect projects, were places he did not just go because of votes. They were places he visited previously as a running mate to listen to their concerns, and they have trusted him as a man of honour who delivers what he promises.
For example, the Chief of Gbakoni, a village in the Bunkpurgu Constituency commended Dr. Bawumia for being a trustworthy politician because he visited the village in 2016 as running mate and they complained about their water and roads, which the Vice-President has fulfilled. The chief, therefore, saw his 2020 visit to campaign as genuine by an honest man.
Again, the Chief of Binduri publicly commended the Vice- President for his regular visits and maintaining a very good relationship with the community.
These were the characteristic of the Bawumia campaign in all the northern regions. The chiefs, the Imams, the pastors, opinion leaders and the people have trust in him because he has maintained a very great relationship with them from his time as a running mate and throughout the last four years as Vice-President.
By Dr. Ekow Acquah