Politics of Monday, 25 July 2022
Source: Wissam Adam
2022-07-25Let’s all rally behind NPP Upper East parliamentary candidates in 2024 election
The flag of NPP
Congratulations to the NPP for successfully concluding its executive elections from the base to the apex and in between.
The attention of the newly elected executive should immediately be to the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary candidates’ elections – The General & Commanders to the leader the battle of “breaking the 8”
If the current composition of Parliament is
Read full articleanything to go by, the 2024 election is more about Parliamentary seats than the Presidential position. And what would be the contribution of the Upper East Region? This is the region that contributed only one seat [down from 3] but disproportionately benefitted from appointments than other regions.
Check the list – Works & Housing Dep. Minister; DG – Ghana Port & Harbours Authority; DG – Maritime Authority; CEO – Buffer Stock; CEO – Northern Electricity Distribution Co; CEO – Northern Development Authority; CEO – National Petroleum Authority, Regional NADMO Director.
What reason have all these 8 heavyweights plus a Regional Minister, 15 M/DCES, and 17 Regional Executives got not to deliver more than 4 seats from their home region? To whom much is given, much is expected.
For the NPP to break the 8, regions must work to break their own records. In the case of the Upper East Region, their best result was in 2008 with 4 seats. So, the project goal for 2024 must be to break the 4. This can be achieved if the party works to avoid their internal self-destruction – the “either me or nobody else mentality”
The work of the newly elected NEC is already cut out for them in the Upper East Region. First, NEC should bring all the 41 persons listed above into a room for a day and have a tough conversation with the goal of agreeing on a strategy and getting full commitment to delivering a minimum of 5 seats in the region. As a follower of the fortunes of the party in the region, I make the following observation:
1. Binduri (our only Seat) – should be protected by learning lessons from Navrongo, Zebilla, and Tempane 2020
2. Navrongo: - was given away in 2020 – it would take a miracle to win it back
3. Bolgatanga Central, Bulsa South, Garu & Talense: - These 4 constituencies have the 2020 candidates now as sitting DCEs. They all have their work cut out for them.
4. Bawku central: - Cannot be won with incumbent PC – look for a credible candidate from the other ethnic groups
5. China/Paga & Pusiga: - “two birds of same feathers”. The 2020 candidates are both first-timers and former employees of the same (Stanbic). Their performance at the election was far beyond expectation, yet they are the two who have been ignored by way of appointments and left to their own fate.
It is even being rumored that the two are being starved of resources to prevent them from contesting in 2024 and for the party to field their preferred and wealthy candidates
Pusiga is more interesting given that 5 of the 8 above-listed appointees are from that constituency which makes it a must-win seat otherwise these appointees should be backlisted for future appointments. It is also the trickiest in terms of the ethnic and self-interest dynamics.
So, the party needs to play its cards carefully and also get all the 5 government appointees plus DCE to commit (hearts, mouths, and pockets) to a win.
Rumors are making the rounds that some government appointees conspired to frustrate the winning of the 2020 candidate to pave the way for their own interest in 2024; and that the 2020 candidature was bought out even before the 7th December 2020 elections.
Those rumors are beginning to play out. Though there is an ongoing court petition, a new potential candidate has already taken over the show. That is the CEO of Buffer Stock – Alhaji Abdul Wahab Hanan – who, during a day visit to the constituency during the 2020 campaign made a promise of 3 ambulances for the Muslim community. That promise was the foundation for his interest in 2024.
Three months after December 7 elections the promised ambulances were delivered and two weeks thereafter some form of research was conducted to determine who can win the 2024 election in the constituency. Some of the questionnaires were specifically about Hanan but not once were the former PCs mentioned.
What conclusions do we expect from that type of research just 2 weeks after donating ambulances?
The 2020 candidate who, for lack of resources, sold some landed properties for the campaign to achieve a historic result [closing the gap from 5000 to 63] and still battling with the court petition has virtually been overshadowed.
It is a pity. Is NPP worth selling your property for? But this candidate should have also learned lessons from Mr. Complex who also sold his properties in the past and nobody remembers him today.
If primaries were held today Hanan would defeat the Dubiure by a wide margin and why not – money talks. Hanan has already bought out the 32 new Constituency Executive and Electoral Area Coordinators with a motorbike each and busses them to his residence in Tamale for meetings.
But the bigger question is: Will he win the general elections? Beyond the delegates and into the general elections, Hanan is also preparing the grounds by sponsoring 15 Muslims for Hajj 2022, providing 30 boreholes, building sheds for chiefs and sub-chiefs, and distributing articulated truckloads of rice, sugar, fertilizers, and plastic chairs.
Hanan has also made significant developmental contributions to other constituencies, especially Bawku Central. In a meeting with party members in Pusiga he indicated that he has made similar contributions to 7 constituencies and if he decides to contest in any of them, he will win hands down.
So, he was not contributing to Pusiga because he wanted to stand for MP. There is no reason to doubt him. He has also recently acknowledged at a meeting with delegates in the USA that 2024 is more about parliamentary elections than presidential. Below is a quote attributed to him by MyNewsGh.com [7 June 2022]
“It is no more a presidential and parliamentary election. It going to be a parliamentary-based election. The quality of parliamentary candidates we put in various constituencies will determine whether we will be able to break the 8. It’s very important”
Despite opening telling the meeting in Pusiga that he has no intention of standing for MP, a recent publication in “The Daily Dispatch” seems to suggest otherwise. Believing that Hanan stands by his own words, it would be appreciated if he is able to help secure two seats in the region, especially Bawku Central and Pusiga by working with the other appointees from the constituency to support the 2020 candidate in Pusiga and he [Hanan] stands in Bawku central.
A Native of the Region – observing from afar
