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Opinions of Monday, 30 August 2021

Columnist: Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie

Bawumia must condemn intra-party violence

Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia

The governing New Patriotic Party(NPP) is obviously poised to “break the 8” by continuing to govern beyond 2024. But the party cannot achieve this feat which will be the first in the Fourth Republic if we go into the next election with a divided party.

This is the reason why the party should guard against all forms of internal machinations that will militate against the needed cohesion to ensure victory in the 2024 general election.

The recent attempt by some Northern Regional Party executives to foist Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on the party as the next Flagbearer and get him endorsed by delegates in the upcoming presidential primaries must be roundly condemned as it affronts the party’s Presidential Primaries’ Code of Conduct.

The NPP was built on the foundation of Democracy, and our Party Constitution is an embodiment of such, therefore, the actions by the Executives should be investigated, and officers of the Party that have been identified to be championing the imposition agenda should be sanctioned severely.

The recent Suhum violence among party members who are said to belong to the Alan and Bawumia factions must be roundly condemned.

Also as a committed member of the party, I’m urging Dr. Bawumia to come out and condemn the actions of his surrogates which is against the party’s code of conduct. A level playing field must be given to all aspirants.

We are not in to fight, this is a race and a contest of ideas. Whoever wins, wins. The Bawumia camp knows it has already lost the battle and hence trying to employ all sorts of dirty moves to win the flagbearer slot. But this will not auger well for the party.

We don’t need to fight ourselves, what is obvious is that we cannot all support one candidate. That is just not possible, everybody has reasons why he or she likes and will vote for a particular candidate and that must be respected.

It is important that we immediately nib such moves to impose a particular candidate on delegates or we’ll live to regret such actions in the very near future.