An opportunity though wrapped with disappointment availed itself to Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to grab and run with that fateful morning. The morning when even a cough from Jean Adukwei Mensah, Ghana’s Electoral Commission Chairperson would have moved all media houses, including the palace gong gong beaters to neutralize all noise, and to move many ears, microphones and camera lenses quickly towards that ‘electoral cough’ or even a ‘non electoral sneeze’ with the hope that snippets of the winner of the presidential race between President John Dramani Mahama and former Vice president Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia will be captured.
To everyone’s surprise, Dr. Bawumia’s voice will take over the airwaves to raise the silence bar to an unimaginable height. Mixed expectations took everyone’s thoughts, except for probably those close to him and his inner circle. Dr. Bawumia will concede to President John Dramani Mahama. Soon, the jubilation of not only a new president elected, but also the celebration of peace penned in history hit the streets and homes of many Ghanaians.
Some NPP members are failing to realize that the spokesperson of Dr. Bawumia in the run up to the 2024 presidential elections was one of the reasons Bawumia lost badly. He seemed interested in spinning issues to satisfy himself instead of using facts to project Dr.Bawumia and his NPP party.
Just as there is a difference between marketing a product and a service sometimes, there is equally a difference in the marketing of an individual who is not a politician and a real politician, especially when that person has occupied the Vice presidency seat for eight years and deeply involved in what many characterised as a period of economic mismanagement.
I have always maintained that the fine human being in Dr. Bawumia was long ago killed by some greedy NPP members. Greedy ones who saw an opportunity to market Dr. Bawumia as a commodity in their own way to achieve their selfish interests. An interest that has always been parallel to Ghana’s interest and resulted in enticing Bawumia to succumb because of the sweet laurels it came with along the way.
That selfish disregard to national interest completely made Dr. Bawumia ignore what the nation stood to gain from his knowledge of economics and experience in banking. A situation that seems to have pushed him to be asking the wrong questions, surrounding himself with the wrong people, and continuing making the wrong decisions.
Ghanaians will save him from what seemed to be a political bondage by overhauling his acquired ‘driver’s mate’ status with a disappointing 38% verdict in the 2024 presidential elections. December 8, 2024, became a solemn deliverance day for Dr. Bawumia in disguise.
By that concession speech that fateful morning, he was reborn, with many Ghanaians appearing to have forgiven his political ‘sins’ committed and acquired mostly through his association with former president Nana Akuffo Addo and the NPP. He was hailed for putting Ghana first and conceding.
Surprisingly the rebirth of the real Dr. Bawumia will be short lived, as many begin to question if Bawumia owns his decisions and whether he is indeed a self-made commodity and not one made by some greedy few.
Is it the case that those who have recently deserted his camp and remained silent or joined the camp of Hon. Kennedy Agyapong still see him as a commodity that has refused rebranding or they feel he is expired?
One would have thought that he would reshuffle his inner circle, retire those who were the face of a failed Bawumia campaign team and assign them behind-the-scenes work while he assemble unquestionable integrity-filled individuals to lead his team ahead. Those who will speak on facts and with facts. The ones who will not continue to spin on issues as if he, Bawumia, is still their commodity.
Well, if riding on incumbency will humble you with 38% in a presidential election, one adjudged as the worst political defeat in Ghana ever since the ushering in of the Fourth Republic, will not be a wake-up call to Dr. Bawumia, then he should be ready to be put to a long political coma come 2028 if he gets to lead the NPP again in the presidential contest.
The NPP delegates have nothing to lose in selecting a new candidate. He has been marketed enough and he, Dr. Bawumia needs honest rebranding devoid of an inexperienced spokesperson who will convince him to use falsehood to misinform Ghanaians and defend himself. People who will not push him into dancing indiscriminately with a carved wooden steering wheel thereby reducing a high stake political contest into some backyard children’s after-school play.
The stakes are high and if Dr. Bawumia does not make an immediate shake-up to his handlers, the NPP delegates will find it easy to hand him a disgraceful red card. When that happens, can he share the same stage with Kennedy Agyapong no matter what, when Kennedy Agyapong is on record to have sacrificed his credibility to share the same stage with him campaigning for him after their previous primaries? The stories to be told and written in the event that materializes will be unlimited.
The worst to happen in the event Kennedy Agyapong wins will be Dr. Bawumia forming his own ‘Tsetse fly’ party with the tendency to destroy the elephant family that is already dazed. Unless a second defeat forces Kennedy Agyapong to own and copy-right the ‘Tsetse fly’ party. Kennedy Agyapong will also have the option of marrying the yellow butterfly to hurt the elephant with an irritating ‘Tsetse fly’ punch lines and at the same time smiling with the ‘butterfly’ beauty and sweet nectar.
Dr. Bawumia must stop and command his team to stop using religious and tribal references in their speeches and engagements. Something Kennedy Agyapong is gradually allowing to crawl into his campaign rhetoric which is not healthy and may lead to his loss if not checked. It can also become an excuse for the Bawumia team to allude to against Kennedy Agyapong should the Kennedy Agyapong team eventually accuse Bawumia’s team of infusing some malpractice in the election of flag bearer of the party process.
Dr. Bawumia must trust and allow fact loving campaign staff of his to work, and limit his wife’s prominence too openly to the public doing parallel campaigns and taking the job of his campaign staff, for this is not a general election. She can be pulling her strings behind the scenes.
If there is any amends that Bawumia needs to do, it is to reestablish trust between him and the muslim communities genuinely and not for the cameras. Some healthy engagements must not necessarily be broadcasted to create the impression that some particular group or groups are only on his side. The community leaders and clerics are there for all candidates, and must not be bought at all cost. Those actions bring negativity to his group.
It is in the same way all candidates must desist from announcing and parading party officials and possible delegates as having endorsed them. These acts reduce the essences of presidential primaries into an unhealthy battle of endorsements, which ends up drenching ideas and messages for the people’s consumption.
Honorable Bryan Acheampong’s success in his bid to become the NPP flag bearer seems to be resting in the hands of Shatawale and the people of Ayawaso. Ask me why, and the answers are in his State of Entrance Pidgin English speech and the Ayawaso Commission’s report.
Bawumia’s poor performance at the 2024 presidential elections seem to have emboldened some ‘unripped figures in the party to begin testing the waters with all sorts of entrance or introductory messages. Some appear to have been scripted and rehearsed and delivered in an unconventional language, pidgin English.
The questions arising from that ‘State of Contesting Address’ delivered in pidgin English, includes whether the audience targeted by the speech are those struggling with comprehending the English language in its original form? Or is it to create that usual ‘I am for the youth on the street’ bait and create an impression out there that he deserves the nod?
If pidgin English were to be the instrument of measure as to who wins presidential elections of Ghana, one of Ghana’s legendary Dance-Hall artistes, Shatawale, would have been crowned the best electoral commissioner when he moved Dr. Bawumia to speak pidgin on national television unscripted in 2024.
Bryan Achaempong is not and can never be Dr. Bawumia’s slightest nightmare in the upcoming NPP presidential primaries. Honorable Kennedy Agyapong is. Bryan Achaempong is unlucky on several grounds if indeed he had the ambition of becoming president of Ghana one day. His involvement in the Ayawaso brutality as made known in the Ayawaso commission report was the coffin that buried that presidential ambition.
His close association with former president Akuffo Addo is another obstacle to his ambition. Nana Akuffo Addo currently cannot point to a legacy to his name that is positive enough to be celebrated by all, and Bryan Acheampong is very much an ardent part of Nana Addo’s story, just like Bawumia is. One cannot talk about Nana Akuffo Addo’s governance without mentioning Dr. Bawumia and Bryan Acheampong names. Kennedy Agyapond is equally guilty of it but at least stood up against some of the NPP administartion’s positions and told it as it is.
One is even tempted to ask whether Bryan Akyeampong’s involvement in the upcoming NPP presidential primaries is to frustrate Kennedy Agyapong’s bid? He could have chosen one of the leading contenders to support instead of throwing himself in the ring as well. Those who carefully monitor the dynamics can picture what his support can do in this contest. It is either to support Kennedy Agyapong to strengthen his bid, or stay as a loner to weaken his bid.
Dr. Bawumia will only need honourable Bryan Akyeampong to weaken Kennedy Agyapong’s bid, and not strengthen his bid, for they were in the same camp before.
Fairness to all must be the NPP NEC’s hallmark, for any bad decision they take to give undue advantage to a particular candidate over the others, definitely increases their time in opposition. One’s father or mother can be the best in their home, but that assessment may not hold when fathers and mothers are subjected to all fathers and mothers in the world in the hunt for the best among the best.
In all the NPP does, one thing they must always remember is that not all Ghanaians will be NPP members or sympathisers. However, all Ghanaians are stakeholders in the NPP as a political party in Ghana by virtue of being Ghanaians as long as the NPP’s continuous aim is to govern the Ghanaian people at some point.
I rest my PEN.
Mustapha Alhassan
Pennsylvania, USA.
