The crucial journey to “Break the 8”, starts in earnest for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in March of this year. According to party General Secretary, John Boadu, the NPP will begin the process that eventually leads to the selection of a presidential nominee in the first quarter of the year.
“Break the 8” is the theme for NPP’s campaign in 2014. It’s simply to become the first political party in the 4th Republic to go beyond the two-term office that has characterized all administrations that have ruled in the stated Republic. However, there is deep divide over the date for the party’s presidential nomination. While, some party members and supporters want the NPP to select a presidential candidate by the end of the year—2022, there are others, who believe the projected date is needless.
Proponents of this year’s NPP presidential nomination believe, if the NPP flagbearer-ship election was held this year, the party will have enough time to market its presidential candidate. However, those who are opposed to the 2022 idea date believe the ruling government will lose focus and instead concentrate on partisanship programming that will be detrimental to the fortunes of the NPP in the 2024 elections. In effect, that has the potential of derailing NPP’s theme: “Breaking the 8” in 2024.
According to the latter group, the party’s success in 2024 is largely hinged on how government deliver on its promises and not the period needed for campaigning. According to NPP’s constitution, the party is required to select a presidential candidate two clear years before a national election.
In event of the NPP being an incumbent government however, the party’s constitution prescribes a maximum period of a year to general election, before the party elect its presidential nominee. The spirit behind the latter preposition is that government would have concentrated on delivering on its promises within the period.
And if anything at all, the sitting president would be inaugurating projects and other completed promises in the of the presidential candidate and that offers a very positive campaign tool or message to retain power. Within the presidential nomination chain is the election of polling station executives, then the party will continue with that of executives at the ward levels; then party executives at the districts; continue with the election of regional executives and finally complete with national executive elections.
As per the NPP constitution, delegates for the party’s presidential election will be selected from elected executives from the ward levels through to the national executives. As has been the normal practice, potential presidential nominees and their assigns, do scheme to get delegates that will promote their cause during the long chain elections; right from the ward levels to the national executive voting.
There are already serious allegations against the camp of the Vice President suggesting that aside the likelihood of enjoying incumbency advantage, some members of the administration are also scheming to jolt the chances of other aspiring candidates to favour the sitting number two man of the land.
The campaign team of Alan Kyerematen, the Trade Minister, who some members of the NPP contend, should be the obvious candidate for the NPP in the 2024 election, has expressed displeasure at the manner the recently organized National Delegates Conference of the party was skewed in favour of the Vice President.
Assigns of Alan specifically mention the names of former National Youth Organizer, Abayefa Karbo and the current one, Henry Nana Boakye as the architects of the Dr. Mahmudu Bawumia agenda at the said conference. Another presidential aspirant, Joe Ghartey was equally appalled at the events at the Conference.
Some of the known members of the Alan team who spoke against the obvious bias against their candidate have been suspended by the party. Top party members like Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, the Majority leader and the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs has been an open advocate of the Bawumia candidacy.
In the past, he made pronouncements, which interpretation, clearly showed where his allegiance resides. He has now stepped up his campaign for the Vice President. He led the Vice President to all of his public rounds church services during the 31st Night and the New Year’s day.
Hon. Kyei Mensah Bonsu has been at the fore-front of advocating a Northerner candidate for the NPP. In the estimation of the Majority leader, after producing two Akan Presidents in John Agyekum Kufuor and Nana Akufo Addo, it’s time the NPP considered someone from the North, arguing that will dispel the notion that the NPP is an Akan party.
There are even suggestions within the NPP that the Majority Leader is looking to partner the Vice President on an NPP presidential ticket, hence, his burning desire to push the Bawumia agenda. The former Chief Executive Officer of the Bui Hydo-Dam project, Fred Oware is also one of the chief advocates of the Bawumia candidacy.
Fred Oware is a former vice chairman of the NPP and currently the chairman of the Bawumia campaign team. He’s the one donating funds on behalf of the Vice President to run party offices at the districts and the ward levels. Incumbent party chairman, Freddy Blay, sees nothing wrong if the President of the Republic supports the presidential bid of his Vice President.
This was after the President had declared at Walewale, the hometown of the Vice President that Dr. Bawumia “is the best assistant” since the inception of the 4th Republic. Some political pundits have concluded that the import of that statement clearly exposes the President’s support for his Vice President. In the estimation of other political connoisseurs, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the President supporting his Vice President because he couldn’t have worked with an enemy all these years—from 2008 through to date.
There are however, serious questions being raised about Kyei Mensah Bonsu’s reasoning and logic. Some NPP folks wonder whether Ghana is constituted of people of Akan and Northern extractions. There are many ethnic indigenes in Ghana who are neither of Northern nor Akan origin.
So then, what is the basis or justification for Kyei Mensah Bonsu’s Northerner candidate hypothesis? Some NPP members are questioning. What about the people from the Volta Region, the Greater Accra Region, the Bono Region, the Western Region and other areas that are distinctive from Akan speaking areas and the Northern Regions?
In the estimation of others, who are backing the candidature of other presidential aspirants, Kyei Mensah Bonsu’s permutations are warped, and are a part of the grandiose design by the sitting administration to get the Vice President nominated at all cost, as the presidential candidate of the NPP in 2024 elections and clearly that has the potential of setting the NPP on the edge.
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