'Kyerematen most incompetent, Bawumia will be declared Burkinabe by NPP' – Murtala

Trades and Industry Minister Alan Kyerematen is the “most incompetent” person among the prospective flag bearer aspirants of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Tamale Central MP Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed has said.

In his view, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia, who is also in the reckoning for the flag bearer slot, is a disaster of a politician, who will be declared a Burkinabe by his own party in the run-up to the flag bearer race due to, in his view, the NPP’s tradition of sidelining non-Akans from high leadership positions.

“I told Dr Bawumia when he came to parliament when the budget was read, I said: ‘Big bro, I want to tell you something: by the time you have your contest to choose your flag bearer, they’ll tell you you’re a Burkinabe because you have the Auditor-General, he went on a by-force leave as a Ghanaian and returned as a Togolese. You have a history. If anybody says they will not allow Bawumia to contest, there’s a history”, the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) lawmaker told Eugene Bawelle on Class91.3FM’s current affairs programme ‘The Watchdog’ on Saturday, 24 April 2021.

On the competence of Dr Bawumia and Mr Kyerematen, Mr Murtala Mohammed said: "Dr Bawumia; everybody knows he’s a disaster; Alan, I have a dossier on him. Alan is the most incompetent [politician]. Let him win the flagbearership”.

According to him, the “danger about the NPP is that the Asantes have told the Akyem faction” and the party that “they will not allow any candidate apart from Alan Kyerematen”.

President Nana Akufo-Addo, the opposition lawmaker claimed, “was considering someone, the former Minister of Education, as a running mate; in fact, it was Ken Ofori-Atta that they wanted to pair with Bawumia so that Bawumia and co., will go and continue to loot” but “because of health, they are considering my good friend Mathew Opoku Prempeh and they have hinted Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu that they could consider him, so, that statement he made [that the NPP should opt for a non-Akan as flag bearer after President Akufo-Addo] was not [because he is] in love with the non-Akans”.

“It was just because he sees himself as a possible running mate”, Mr Murtala Mohammed said.

He promised to release the dirt he has on Mr Kyerematen if the Trades Minister emerges winner of the race.

“When Alan [Kyerematen] becomes the running mate, I have a dossier on him”, he said.

As for Vice-President Dr Bawumia, Mr Murtala said the least said about him the better. “A woman who has given birth to a child in the market does not need an announcement of the outdooring”, he quoted, adding: “When he [Dr Bawumia] greets you ‘good morning’ or ‘good afternoon’, you should look for the position of the sun before you respond”.

Mr Murtala Mohammed also adduced historical evidence to back his claim that Dr Bawumia would be sidelined by his own party because of his northern ethnicity.

“S.D. Dombo and Busia and co., whatever arrangement that they had, they agreed that Busia should be the leader, you never recognised S.D. Dombo as a founder of the party until 2004”, he said.

“It was only in 2004 that the current Minister of Local Government, Mr Dan Botwe, when he was the General Secretary of the NPP, said [it should be] Busia-Danquah-Dombo and after 2004 that ended it; you never recognised him as a founder”, he claimed.

Murtala Mohammed continued: “You people [NPP], you said Nkrumah was a Liberian. His mother, who was 86 years, virtually blind, was dragged before commission after commission that she should say Nkrumah was not the biological son. The history is there”.

“The same people said Rawlings was not a Ghanaian. Thomas Broni contested elections with Collins Dauda; Collins Dauda had previously been a member of parliament and when he was going to contest with Thomas Broni, who was then a deputy minister for the interior under President Kufuor, Thomas Broni went to court that Collins Dauda was not a Ghanaian”, Mr Murtala Mohammed further noted.