That the President of the Republic supports the candidature of his Vice, Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia for the presidential nomination of the New Patriotic Party is no more news worthy. In fact, it’s factual as the none shift in the direction of day and night. After all, the President gave the strongest possible hint of his backing for the Vice President at the latter’s hometown—Walewale, when the former declared: “He is the best assistant, we’ve had in the 4th Republic.”
Although the President was short of disclosing that he supports his Vice President’ presidential bid, any analytical observer of the country’s political terrain would know the intentions of the President in that disclosure. It came against the background that Dr. Bawumia’s closest challenger, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen had been Nana’s number one nemesis in all of the internal presidential contests of the President; and that surely is an indication why the President would definitely, go for someone other than his closest rival in the previous presidential nominations of the NPP.
Then the dichotomy of the division within the NPP. The NPP is mainly run on the Victor Owusu, Busia, J.A. Kufuor axis as against that of the J.B. Danquah, William Ofori Atta and the Akufo Addo’s revolver. Perhaps, the only group within the UP/NPP tradition that is yet to taste power from the tradition is the S.D. Dombo, Abayefa Karbo and the Northern People’s Party (NPP 1) faction. And that is the group that many in the NPP are struggling to pitch for Dr. Bawumia to lay claim to.
That has however, backfired massively. This is because a group in the NPP has reminded Dr. Bawumia and all those advocating for him to lay claim to the S.D. Dombo-Abayefa Karbo faction that Dr. Bawumia’s father, Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia betrayed the UP/NPP tradition by switching from the Northern People’s Party (NPP1) to join Nkrumah’s CPP at a time that the NPP 1, had merged with five other political parties to form the United Party (UP).
With the historical relevance failing Dr. Bawumia, the establishment has adopted other means of shoring up the image of the Vice President in the limelight before the NPP presidential primary slated for possibly, late this year. The first of the Bawumia agenda was when the President asked the Vice President to represent him (the President) at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this January.
Unfortunately for Dr. Bawumia, the subtle campaign agenda did not fly much because of the harsh economic issues back home. Nonetheless, it shows how desperate the establishment has become in projecting Dr. Bawumia within the public space and that invariably has the potential of leaving indelible mark in the minds of NPP’s delegates who will vote in the party’s presidential election.
From the UN General Assembly, Dr. Bawumia made an official visit to some top personalities in the Biden administration, and even took pictures with the two US Under Secretaries of State. But the reality is that how many Ghanaians took notice of the Bawumia meetings with the two American officials? All that Ghanaians want from Dr. Bawumia, is for him to help fix the deteriorating Ghanaian economy, which in the run-up to the 2016 elections made it seemed he was the person with the financial wizardry to save the dwindling Ghanaian economy.
The “Push Bawumia” agenda continued during the Apiatse disaster where the farming community was virtually grazed down by mineral explosions from a traveling truck. The Vice President was the first to visit the town and its victims where he promised to build the community with all the might and efforts of his administration. This happened at the time the President was in the country and could only manage a message of condolence while his Vice enjoyed the spotlight.
Despite all the machinations, one thing stands out that there is a well of difference between internal party primaries and the national elections. Primaries, especially in the NPP is largely driven by sets of ideals and beliefs which priority is hinges on one's association to the UP/NPP tradition than showmanship.
Content created and supplied by: RKeelson (via Opera News )
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