NPP Presidential Primaries – Tribalism and Corruption/Looting would determine who becomes their flag bearer

It is absolutely ridiculous and outright absurd for Ben Ephson to inferred that religion would determine NPP Presidential primaries (pitting Christians against Muslims). This is not only dangerous proposition and must be condemned by all in no uncertain terms. The Primaries would be an indictment on NPP pillage of state resources, brutality of Ghanaian people, if would be elected flag bearer is part of this government from 2017 to 2024.

We all witnessed what this current president, Nana Akuffo Addo, and his supporters, did to late Vice President Aliu Mahama, when it was very clear that Aliu was the clear choice of the NPP party delegates, after the party hierarchy were forced to open up the race for everyone to contest.

What happened to the late Vice President Aliu Mahama wasn’t the religious card as is being propagated now by Ephson, but crucially his tribal (Northern Ghana) affiliation was clearly used against Aliu. Some of the delegates, mainly, from the Akan speaking regions, told this writer that there is no way they will allow a Northern to lead NPP into a major presidential election, in 2016.

In the run up to the 2012, 2016 and 2020 elections, members of the NPP (in the case of the 2016 elections, 4 individuals who later become MINISTERS in the Nana Akuffo Addo’s administration) openly made derogatory tribal comments about H.E. John Mahama, who is a Northern Christian, to the degree that a female minister (still in office) openly stated, “we are taking our country back”! The question to ask is, “whose country is she referring to anyway?”

Over 90 percent of those who have directly benefited from the oil discovery off the western coast of Ghana (which is in this writer’s home region) to date are from the ASHANTI, EASTERN AND BRONG AHAFO REGIONS OF GHANA.

Everyone knows that the NPP Party is intolerant to other tribes who are not from Ashanti, Eastern or Brong Ahafo Regions of Ghana when it comes to their presidential primaries.

Already some supporters of a particular serial loser, have started to play this dangerous tribal card against the sitting Vice President Muhammadu Bawumia.

In a discussion on Good Evening Ghana, Kobina Mensah, aka Kobby Mensah, a political analyst at the University of Ghana, stated that Muhammadu Bawumia has not made a formidable foundation against the Trade Minister Alan Kyeremanten to earn the presidential slut, and further stated that he has not attained “party stalwart” status that would earn him a slot against Kyeremanten. The fact that Kyeremanten has run and lost 3 primaries does not make him a “formidable candidate”. Being a serial loser is not an entitlement to become a flag bearer of a major political party. Kobina Mensah’s analysis is such a lazy discourse that it must be dismissed outright.

In his keynote speech at the NPP final rally at Mantse Agbona, James Town, Accra, in 2016, this current President, Nana Akufo Addo, praised the exceptional economic prowess and intelligence (though this writer who is development economist and a law graduate, dispute this fact) of his vice, Muhammadu Bawumia, and noted that Bawumia would be his rightful successor to be the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party in 2024.

To be fair to the other candidates, (which this writer does not rate highly anyway) none of them has been tested against the competency of this vice President, Muhammadu Bawumia. Many are speculating that this current president, Akuffo Addo, would leave office in the wee days of his presidency in favour of his vice president, Muhammadu Bawumia, to finish the remaining days of a very corrupt administration.

Since the NPP came to power in 2016, the Ghanaian people have witnessed their mode of government (of Nana Akuffo Addo/Bawumia) and thus in 2024, after nearly 8 years running the country, can compare what they were able to achieve with the previous 8 years of (Mills/Mahama) NDC administration.

In the post military regime era, the first President of the 4^th republic, late Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, made sure that, it is no longer acceptable to make openly derogatory tribal comments, but some politicians, particularly in the NPP and NDC have long since 2000 mastered the art of appealing to tribal prejudice in coded terms (NPP will play the religious card in presidential contest – Ben Ephson, Ghanaweb 06/10/2021). Ephson is “saying the unsayable” and what he perceives would happen in the run up to the NPP 2024 primaries and beyond. However, as the title of this essay states, “whoever plays the tribal card in the 2024 presidential election would lose heavily”.

Ghanaian people are much wiser than in previous elections as the 2020 elections attests to. The Ghanaian electorate make decisions based on informed opinion, even in the so called “world bank” of the two parties, Ashanti and Volta/Oti Regions of Ghana.

During the 2016 generals, Nana Akuffo Addo and his running mate, Muhammadu Bawumia, appealed to the Ghanaian people who were abandoning the NDC, for their role in “dumsor, insecurity and graft” by emphasising issues like Bawumia’s economic competence, law and order and to fight corruption and arrest the free falling of the cedi against the US dollar, which were strongly linked in voters minds to NDC looting of state resources and bad governance. But whether Muhammadu Bawumia really believed his own rhetoric, since becoming the vice president and over seen massive corruption and looting of state resources, awards of contracts to NPP party cohorts etc, is open to question.

What is more disturbing is the level of Ghana’s debt since the NPP assumed power. They have borrowed so much money that it is estimated every Ghanaian owes $15,000 United States Dollars. The total debt borrowed by the Nana Akuffo Addo/Muhammadu Bawumia NPP Administration is $52 billion USD. As if that is not enough, they are now playing CHA CHA (gambling) with Ghana’s energy and mineral resources. The FRAUD Agyapa transaction and giving concessions of the Ghana’s crude oil in the Western region of Ghana to their criminal cohorts is a case in point. They have not been able to account for over half of the $52 billion USD borrowed, which many believed have been looted by NPP leadership and their appointees.

What is worrying is those vying to be the flag bearer of NPP are part of this administration from 2017, who have presided over massive looting and plundering of Ghana’s resources by their appointees and thus cannot extricate themselves from the rot that is going on now.

During the NDC administration, the looting of $1 million USD was the norm, now NPP has taken this to another level, with looting of $10 million USD as the new normal. Classic example is the PPA scandal, which to date, no one has been prosecuted.

The two leading candidates for the flag bearership of the NPP, Muhammadu Bawumia and Alan Kyeremanten, are both part of a government, this NPP government, that is now seen as the most corrupt government ever to run this country, since independence in 1957.

The rate of looting of the country’s resources is so alarming that international financial institutions, including the World Bank, IMF, African Development Bank and others have raised concern that the very stability of Ghana is now at stake. The agitation of the youth, whose future is being gambled (CHA CHA) openly by the NPP administration is alarming and very dangerous.

This writer spoke to former economic staffers of H.E President John Mahama NDC government regarding the pillage of state resources by the appointees of Nana Akuffo Addo since 2017 and its impact on the economic management of the country. They stated that the very security of the country is at stake and if this massive state sponsored looting is not halted it would affect the security of the country.

They explained that what is even more frightening is those looting from the state are hiding the money in fake accounts in TAX HEVENS like the Cayman Islands, Mauritius, Panama, Jersey and others. They said these NPP appointees and ministers would bolt from the country the moment NPP loses the 2024 elections and stated that, “how can you prosecute a thief and criminal when he is no longer in the country?”. They said late President Mills tried to get those implicated in the first massive NPP looting after they handed over in 2009, but by then the NPP criminals were long gone. These were the same people that came to lied to Ghanaian people that they are “SELF MADE BUSINESSMEN AND PROFESSIONALS”.

Whoever emerges as the eventual candidate would have a very competent and formidable opponent, the former President, H.E John Mahama. The stakes are so high that President Mahama has threatened to jail anyone who has caused financial loss to the state or has looted money from the state. President Mahama has also stated that every contract awarded by this current NPP government would be reviewed to the letter and any inferences would be dealt with severely.

According to former presidential staffers of H.E. President John Mahama, the next Special Prosecutor would be given extensive powers to go after everyone with ill gotten wealth, who cannot explain how they acquire their wealth, including members of all the political parties, including NDC and civil society and pastors. According to the former staffers, H.E. President Mahama wants to make it clear that state looting and illegal acquire wealth won’t be tolerated in Ghana.

The incoming Presidential Communication Director at the Office of the Presidency, FLAGSTAFF HOUSE, MR SAMMY GYAMFI, would come out with a policy statement that would ensure every governmental appointment would require post holders to openly declare their assets upon assumption of their position and on leaving office, including the President of the Republic.

He also stated that the role of the Auditor General would be expanded and enforcement would be followed by prosecution.

To have a glimpse of the incoming H.E. John Mahama NDC administration, which would be a marked different from the 2012 – 2016 administration one must listen to the press briefings of Mr Sammy Gyamfi, the current NDC Communication Director.

In one of his press briefings, Mr Sammy Gyamfi describe the continuing legacy of exclusion of the poor from better services – inferior schools, the huge wealth gap between the 10% urban elite and the 80% rural and urban and slum poor, and the way in which NPP has manipulated the poor on party lines to divert attention away from looting of state resources, questionable accounting practices in state institutions and short term greed and economic policies that favoured the few over the many, such as the Ghana’s mineral and energy sector, including the country’s crude oil industry and other minerals.

Mr Sammy Gyamfi’s assertions are true and it is very gratifying to hear it spoken by an incoming Presidential Communications Director. But does this mean Ghanaians should embrace the messenger as well as the message? The problem is despite Sammy Gyamfi’s inspiring rhetoric, he remains an elite member of the NDC with backing from major donors and corporate world.

However, according to those close to the Presidential Communications Director and Spokesperson, Mr Sammy Gyamfi, H.E. President Mahama’s big priority has been to stand up for people, including the youth, who do not have a voice under this NPP government, where insecurity and arbitrary arrests of those who criticise the government, have become the norm. According to the Presidential Spokesperson, Mr Sammy Gyamfi, the youth would play a prominent role in the second Mahama administration, where programmes would be rolled out to support youth employment and empowerment.

The youthful NDC Communications Director, Mr Sammy Gyamfi said the NDC policies that would be implemented would have the future of his generation, the under 30s at the fore.

Peter Jeffrey,

Cape Coast,

Ghana.