Flashback: NPP will never make Bawumia flagbearer - Mahama

A political prediction former President John Dramani Mahama made a few years back is about to stand a massive test, as underground jostling within the New Patriotic Party has begun for the race to replace President Akufo-Addo both as the NPP's flagbearer and the country’s President.

Mahama, prior to the 2016 elections, made an emphatic prediction that the NPP, being an anti northern party, always takes northerners for granted and will never allow Dr Bawumia to be its flagbearer.

“Sometimes I feel sad when I see some of our northern brothers running and also doing this. They will use you and dump you.”

“Let anything happen today and let our brother Bawumia say he is standing for president in NPP. They will never give it to him I can assure you," former President Mahama predicted.

Mahama also likened Bawumia’s situation to his own situation when former President Mills died and the NDC gave him the flagbearership race without a contest, saying the NPP would never have done that for Bawumia as a northerner.

“If it was another party, they would have insisted there should be a congress and in that congress, I would have been contested and they would have given the leadership to somebody else," Mahama said.

“I am proud to be a member of the NDC because I know it is a party that opens opportunities for all people of Ghana irrespective of your ethnic affiliation or your religious affiliation.”

Vice President Bawumia is seen as a leading contender and the favourite to replace President Akufo-Addo as the party's flagbearer for 2025.

Trade Minister Alan Kyeremanteng and Agric Minister Dr Afriyie Akoto are also interested, and with underground works underway, and the race heating up, it remains to be seen whether former President Mahama will be vindicated for his emphatic prediction, or the NPP will let the former President's words come back to haunt him.

Only time will tell.