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Nana Addo, Dr. Bawumia, Read This Before You Go To BA

By Daily Guide
Opinion Nana Addo, Dr. Bawumia, Read This Before You Go To BA
SEP 30, 2015 LISTEN

Nana, this is the second time I am writing to you about this particular region called Brong Ahafo.  I learn after your tour of the three northern regions, your next stop will be the Brong Ahafo Region.  The reason why I want you to read this before going to that region is that Brong Ahafo and Central regions are swing regions as far as election in Ghana is concerned.

I am very happy you have named this tour: 'Rise and Build'.  I don't know how you and your team came by this theme but I must confess that you took the wind out of my sail.  I had composed an article captioned 'Time For NPP To Rise And Move Forward'.  That was when petty squabbles started rearing its ugly head in the party.  In the run-up to the 2012 General Election, you coined the theme 'All Hands On Deck' and that really worked to perfection.  Baring the intimidation, naked injustice and the pouring of acid on supporters of the NPP not to talk of police brutalities and show of biases, all members of the NPP did put their shoulders to the wheel and the result was what we saw.  But for Togolese voters, Atuguba and his cohorts, you would have been the president by now.  You see how God works in mysterious ways?  Today, some judges are in trouble for collecting bribes.  Who knows which judge collected bribe during the election petition hearing at the Supreme Court?  If there is any Judgment Day we will see them on that day.  And I, your irrepressible Angel Gabriel will be standing at the right hand side of the God of Israel to supervise the judgment and thereafter, carry the message to mankind.

In 2008, the NPP won 15 constituencies out of the 24 constituencies while the NDC had 9 constituencies in the Brong Ahafo Region.  Instead of working to build upon what was achieved, the leadership of the party in the constituencies and the region rested on their oars.  They started blaming each other when the party lost the general election and that created a very wide division among the rank and file of the party.  After the constituency and regional executive elections, the party in the region became more divided than ever.  The new executives treated the old executives with ordinary contempt and acted as if the party belonged to them alone.  That created apathy and indifference.  Those who matter in the party and who could help in one way or the other sat on the fence. As a result of the aforementioned and others, the NPP was able to win only thirteen constituencies while the NDC won sixteen constituencies out of a total of twenty nine constituencies.

The truth is that the NDC did not win but it was the NPP which gave them victory on a silver platter through petty bickering and infighting.  Complacency was also another factor.  Wherever you went in the region all what you heard from supporters of the NPP was; 'Ya wie bibiaa' (We have finished everything).

Nana, if you go to the Brong Ahafo Region, tell them that everybody matters in the party.  Tell them you need past executive members, past Council of Elders, past Parliamentarians, Parliamentary Candidates who stood for election and lost in the past and the current Parliamentary primaries.  Tell them to stop the 'onka yeho' (he is not one of us) mantra and win more souls for the party because the human mind is dynamic.  Tell the constituency and the regional executive members to throw mistrust to the dogs and work as a team so that the party will come to power.  Remind them what ex-president Kufour said that if you are a messenger in a ruling party, you are more important than a General Secretary of a party in opposition.  Don't mince words because this is not the time for niceties or sweet talk.  Tell them not to troop to see you anytime you visit the region but to go out there and win more souls whether you are in the region or not.  When youcome to Brong Ahafo Region the enthusiasm and the euphoria will convince you that the same thing will continue when you leave the region. That is not the reality.  Immediately you leave the region they would recoil into their shells, awaiting the day you or anyone from the top hierarchy of the party would visit the region again. Tell them to keep the flag high and the fire burning from the day you met them.

Some NPP Women Organizers in the region are rather Women Disorganizers.  Instead of going out there into the small towns to organize the women and preach the good news of the NPP, they wait until there is an occasion which warrants the cooking of food for delegates or visitors before you see them in action.  Tell them to lace their boots, avoid the use of lip shines and gorgeous dressing and hit the road running because women voters are in the majority in Brong Ahafo in particular and Ghana in general.  Let them be aware that Ghanaians will never forgive the NPP if they allow the NDC to come to power again to continue to destroy the economy.

As for Dr. Bawumia, you have a unique role to play in the Brong Ahafo Region.  If you think Brong Ahafo is inhabited by majority of Akans, you will be doing a very big mistake.  The Brong Ahafo Region is inhabited by more than sixty percent of tenant farmers and other workers from the three northern regions.  Tenant farmers and those living in the zongo communities outnumber the Akans. Since the days of Rawlings, these tenant farmers and other northerners have been brainwashed to believe that the NPP is an Akan party and that the NPP will declare them as aliens and issue an Aliens Compliance Order, similar to the one Busia used some forty five years ago to drive their parents away.  That poison must be diluted.

Immediately you return to Accra after the 'Rise and Build' tour, come and pitch your camp in the Brong Ahafo Region for some time and dilute the poison that has been planted in the minds of our northern brothers.  Tell them if the NPP were an Akan party ex-president Kufour would not have chosen the late Alhaji Aliu Mahama as his running mate and successfully managed the affairs of the nation with him for the eight years that the NPP was in power.  Indeed, tell them that if the NPP were an Akan party, you would not have been given the opportunity to be the running mate of Nana Akufo Addo on three consecutive occasions because we have equally well qualified Akans in the party who could have been chosen as running mates for Nana.

Remind them that in the political history of Ghana, it was only the NPP that gave a Muslim the opportunity to swear the presidential oath with the Quran, the Holy book of Muslims.  Oh yes, remind them of the roles played by stewards like Mr. Tedam, Tolon Naa, Dombo, Abayefa, Dr. Alhassan and many more from the North who fought for the UP tradition.  Doc, you see, if the NPP should win power in 2016, your role should not be taken for granted.  The people of Accra, Kumasi, Koforidua, Cape Coast etc do not need you.  You are most needed in the three northern regions and the Brong Ahafo.

Doc, if you go to the Brong Ahafo Region, charge the executives to 'Arise and enter the hamlets' Since 1992, NPP has been winning the big towns but when you go to the small villages, the performance of the party is abysmal.  The reason is that we concentrate our campaign in the big towns while the NDC enter the small villages and hamlets, lie through their teeth and present salt, koobi, soap and secondhand clothes to these poor folks.  Anytime the NDC comes to power, they deliberately impoverish those living in the villages and hamlets, especially the tenant farmers so that when there is any election anything that they give them could induce them to vote for the party.  Simple communist tactics which work for them. In some cases they promise to build bridges where there are no rivers and the people believe them.

My dear Bawumia, permit me to request something from you which I think you will not decline to do.  'Release' Samira, your beautiful wife to tour the zongos in the Brong Ahafo Region when you return to Accra.  If you have ever lived in the zongo before you will realize that our women there prefer to listen to their own rather than others who do not know their tradition and culture not to talk of their language.  I can't wait to see Madam Atiko Djaba and Samira touring the zongos in Brong Ahafo Region, spreading the gospel according to NPP. I will be hovering in the firmament, where angels dwell, in the Brong Ahafo Region when you arrive there.  Welcome from Mecca!!!

By Eric Bawah

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