In the matter of Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia

He has kept his cool and defied the odds. He has deftly manoeuvered the otherwise turbulent internal dynamics of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). He has managed to avoid the tag of “government’s candidate” by sheer dint of staying focused and thereby attracting both the sitting President’s most loyal supporters as well as the fence-sitters within the NPP.

Even the supporters of his rivals admire him secretly and in more recent times, overtly, for there is something unusually attractive and politically untouchable about him. It appears he has come to stay inside the Ghanaian political class for a very long time.

The above is an observation made by this writer on the accidental or calculated continuing rise of Dr. Bawumia into the topmost spot within the NPP. You simply need to have a chat with the elected delegates in the ongoing NPP internal elections to conclude that Dr. Bawumia may easily outdo Nana Akufo-Addo in his 2007 attempt to lead the party as flag bearer for the 2008 elections.

Polling Station, Constituency and Regional Elections

It appears Dr. Bawumia has garnered the most support within the rank and file of the party as gleaned from the outcome of the just ended polling station, electoral area, constituency, and regional executive elections. By and large, many of the elected representatives of the party at the polling station level were returned to the office by popular acclamation.

The retention of almost 87.68% of these executives is indicative of at least one thing: the Akufo-Addo hold on the NPP that was introduced at its congress in 2005 is as intact as it was in its year of introduction. It stands to logical reason, that if indeed Dr. Bawumia is running a campaign of “working with everybody”, he is already in the lead, for he has partnered with Nana Akufo-Addo since 2008 and has remained his unchanged running mate and then Vice President to this day.

It means also that he is a known quantity, he has become known and the people who worked for Akufo-Addo definitely know him. Those people I submit, are the newly elected and retained executives of the party at the levels mentioned above. As if that was not enough, he has marshaled a lethal collection of old constituency executives and newly elected members hungrier for power than was the case in 2016.

The fact that an average of 31.9% of old constituency executives were retained and as many as 67.7% of executives elected for the first time with the negligible 0.33% being old electives who have changed positions within the executives (as for example moving from Organizer to Chairman) shows the reconfiguration of the NPP for the epic political battle of 2024.

As if the above is not enough, the party executive has returned 12 out of the existing 16 regional chairmen, with 2 new ones and 1 outlier, outlier because from the scheme of things the newly elected eastern regional chairman was not the choice of the system.

The reality then is that the system has 15 out of 16 regional chairmen irrespective of how the central regional elections pan out, what with the candidates thereof all being ‘system people’?

Nonetheless whether or not sponsors of the newly elected eastern regional chairman go to beg for “acceptance” as some MPs and his cohort have planned to do is immaterial to what is about to happen to the positioning of the NPP for the presidential contest of 2024.

What is important is the signal the voting mass of executives has sent: “go and correct the mistakes you made in 2020 and make sure you bring us all together to break the proverbial 8-year cycle”.

This is why persons like Anthony Namoo, Owusu Sekyere, S.B. Kangberee, Divine Otoo Agorhom, and Antwi Boasiako (Wontumi) who were destined to be thrown out for their irritating performance in 2020 have found a respite as to be returned to the offices they held prior to the contest of May 2022.

The results of the regional executive election also show that reconciliation at the topmost levels of the party has started; nothing could erase tensions more than the lower strata of the party speaking with one clear voice to offer forgiveness to the higher strata and expecting better from them as the party forges ahead for the next general election.

The combined effect of these internal election results means that by the time the national executives would be elected in July 2022, Dr. Bawumia would be poised to have a party that is ready for political battle and a candidate that has tested the political terrain since 2008 at the highest level of competition for the highest office of the land.

This is one of the things that sets him ahead of the pack no matter what challenges his fellow aspirants may want to throw at him.

The above is not to downplay or overlook the quest by known quantities within the NPP to clinch the coveted flagbearer position in order to lead the party to the epic political battle of 2024; epic because it would be the first time under the 1992 constitution that two former vice presidents from the two leading political parties shall directly seek the mantle of Presidential leadership at the same time and not as running mates.

It would also be because both of them hail from the northern regions of Ghana with likely running mates from the southern part of Ghana. It would avail the people of Ghana, the choice as to which of the sons of the north is deemed worthy to lead the Republic of Ghana for the 2024-2028 year.

Shenanigans

It is within this context that one finds the return of dirty, disingenuous, and backward rantings of some flagbearer hopefuls as unfortunate. In the light of the growth and development of Ghanaian politics, it has been the expectation that a shift from the politics of rancour, insults, and acrimony would have become the norm.

Rather, it appears that those who are likely to lose the contest have chosen the option of cheap ventilation of anger to throw non-sticking dirt on Dr. Bawumia, what with their propagation of wild allegations of questionable logic crafted from a misguided mindset of entitlement? As the celebrated broadcaster, Kwami Sefa-Kayi put it, “just like someone said Bawumia is alien to the NPP.

Someone who has been a running mate for the party for four elections, you are now saying he is an alien. If you are campaigning for someone, do it well”. In my six decades of political observation, I can say without any equivocation that such statements are a sign of defeat even before the contest is held.

The re-emergence of such political rhetoric and the shenanigans thereof is also the reason why the postulations of the likes of Nana Akomea, former Director of Communications of the NPP are nothing but fallouts of wishful thinking within Ghanaian contemporary political thought.

The statement attributed to Sefa-Kayi is a response to a known supporter of the otherwise gentle and affable Alan Kyerematen who in the opinion of this writer would make a great President of the country any day.

Unfortunately, this “alien theory” crafted by his agents and assigns is alien to the thinking of the NPP which is geared towards outreach and inclusiveness, simply because the NPP and its supporters by themselves CAN NOT win an election on its own strength without the support of ‘aliens’.

This statement, released by a former Member of Parliament has inadvertently rekindled an interest in the who-is-who in the Alan Kyerematen campaign and what it portends firstly to the internal stability of the NPP and then for the Republic of Ghana should he win the Presidency in the event of a win at the 2024 polls.

I dare say, that the who-is-who in the Alan campaign is a collection of bitter, disappointed, and vindictive fellows whose body language and lose talks signal to us all, why we should deny Alan what would have otherwise been a case for his leadership of the NPP. As one founding member put it “Akomea’s suggestion was cleverly put.

He did not state what capacity Alan should partner Bawumia in. I am very sure in the unlikely event that such an unholy arrangement is made, Bawumia would have to purchase a four-year supply of tissue to mop up the tears from the agony he’ll be saddled with. The impasse between the late Rawlings and Arkaah would be child’s play compared to what would happen”.

This statement made by a septuagenarian in the aftermath of Kwadwo Otchere Mpiani’s response to Akomea reinforces the notion of uncompromising persons spearheading the affable Alan Kyerematen campaign. The NPP and by extension Ghanaians DO NOT WANT THAT. If in doubt, just take a sneak peek at the voting pattern of both the NPP and NDC in the parliamentary elections of 2020.

The Concession Agreement

The popular belief within the NPP at this time is embedded in the notion that the three founding leaders of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition must have a go at the presidency in fulfillment of the political settlement agreements made in 1947 and which has found expression in the two wins by the NPP as an offshoot of the tradition: when John Agyekum Kufuor won in the 2000 elections, he had effectively paid the debt of the Busia wing of and to the present day NPP; when Nana Akufo-Addo won in 2016, he had placated the Danquah branch of the party.

A Dr. Bawumia win is expected to bring home the recognition of the contribution of Chief Simon Diedong Dombo to the tradition and thus complete the aspirations of the triumvirate in the pre-independence agreements of the center-right of Ghana’s politics.

This is one of the reasons why by rote and by natural preference, Dr. Bawumia has an unassailable lead in the quest to provide a credible flag bearer for the NPP. He is both a natural successor to the presidency of Nana Akufo-Addo and the embodiment of the representation sought by the descendants of the Northern People’s Party that morphed into the United Party which has found expression in today’s NPP.

It is also the reason why a particular Minister of State with still-born presidential ambitions and a false sense of entitlement spares no effort in denigrating the bona fides of the Vice President although to all intent and purposes, at best that Minister would come 4th in any election conducted by the NPP for the position of flag bearer.

It is also an undeniable fact that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia stole the show from all NPP flagbearer aspirants when for 8 months and more, he was beamed into our homes on a daily basis via radio and television and sealed it with newspaper publications of his performance as the key witness in the NPP’s 2012 presidential election petition.

That singular opportunity which was also the basis upon which the apex court of Ghana allowed the media unrestricted access into its otherwise restricted domain afforded Dr. Bawumia the opportunity not only to present himself as a credible witness in terms of legal practice within the jurisdiction with specific reference to the Law of Evidence but more importantly, portray himself as the poster boy for reform of any kind within the Republic’s electoral operating principles.

It is therefore no wonder that today, he has become the arrowhead for digital, online and communication reform as a basis for economic development in the post-Covid arrangements of Ghana.

That it will be difficult to defeat Dr. Bawumia in the NPP flagbearer contest of 2023 is an understatement. Nana Akufo-Addo’s research boys trained by the revered Victor Newman all hold without any equivocation that Dr. Bawumia would come out of any contest with a minimum of 76.46% of votes if elections are held before March 2023 for the position of flagbearer.

They also assert that in conformity with the NPP constitutional provision that enjoins the party to choose its flagbearer one year before the general election, Dr. Bawumia despite all odds would garner a respectable 88.68% of delegate votes.

It is the opinion of this writer that for a first-timer, that would be a major achievement for any aspirant in a competitive contest within the internal arrangements of any political party under the 4th Republican constitution.

Conclusion

The NPP is bound to have a Presidential Candidate of northern Ghanaian extraction who would win on the first try for the first time since it gained political legitimacy as a bona fide organization registered under the laws of Ghana. That all its presidential candidates have been of southern extraction by dint of history and voting is not in doubt.

What is novel in its march towards the 2024 elections is the spearheading of its campaign by the man who has been around at the forefront of the party’s ambitions since 2008. It is also the case that he has become a household name within Ghana and with it, presented himself as a viable leader of the country.

What remains to be seen is how he will situate himself as the country’s next leader after the era of Nana Akufo-Addo who brought him to political prominence and who may, without doubt, be most comfortable in having Dr. Bawumia as the one to transfer power to as he bows out of the political forefront of the Republic.