Attempting to Strategically Mollify Us on the Gross Mis-Selection of Napo Would Make Matters Even Worse

It is increasingly becoming obvious that Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia has been grossly overestimated and may actually not be quite prepared to assume the very adult and heavy lifting task that is the Presidency of our beloved Sovereign Democratic Republic of Ghana. Still, I am also increasingly beginning to be strongly inclined towards the very wistful idea that the Simon Fraser, Canada, Doctoral-Degree Holder is the lesser evil of the two northern-descended major Presidential Candidates gunning for Jubilee House on December 7, 2024. We wish there was a viable Third-Force Alternative but as of this writing, we absolutely do not espy any on the horizon.

But what we can significantly observe here is that absolutely none of us remembers Candidate Akufo-Addo seeking the approval of the former President who had named him to his jobs as both Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, on the one hand, and Foreign Minister in charge of ECOWAS Integration, prior to the selection and the official announcement of his 2008 Presidential Running-Mate and the two subsequent electoral seasons that followed the latter. Of course, we also know more than pretty well that the sort of generally cordial relationship, at least officially, that is known to exist between the Vice-President and the lame-duck President Akufo-Addo absolutely did not exist between the latter and former President John “The Gentle Giant” Agyekum-Kufuor.

Even so, the 2024 Presidential Candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party who early this year bitterly complained to the nation, during the unfurling of his electioneering-campaign manifesto at the University of Professional Studies in Accra (UPSA), that he had essentially and fundamentally been made painfully aware of the fact that he was only a Driver’s Mate by even Akufo-Addo cousin and former Finance Minister, Mr. Kenneth Ofori-Atta, ought to have been fully in the know that the very first step to effectively and decisively asserting his political and managerial independence of the immediate boss and the predecessor who had, apparently, not taken good care of him for most of the past seven years.

Instead, Vice-President Bawumia has scandalously proven himself to be either an ungrateful liar and/or a complete coward who cannot be trusted the least bit when it matters the most. Now, the strategically belated and awkward attempt by the Parliamentary Majority Leader, Mr. Alexander Afenyo-Markin, to mollify the tempers of those of us who feel uncontrollably and implacably insulted by the very inadvisable decision by Dr. Bawumia to settle on Dr. Matthew Opoku-Prempeh – aka Napo – leaves us with absolutely no other constructive alternative but to be reticent and niggardly with our support of the 2024 Bawumia Presidential Campaign.

But even such reticence or niggardliness is primarily due to the fact that we eerily recognize the alternative to be even more apocalyptic and catastrophic. Like the metaphorical rock and a hard place. If, indeed, the Parliamentary Majority Leader is genuinely convinced that the very last word has yet to be said about the gross mis-selection of Dr. Opoku-Prempeh as the 2024 Presidential Running-Mate of Candidate Bawumia, then, by al means, let the Winneba or Effutu Constituency Member of Parliament “Show Us the Money!” as New Yorkers are wont to say (See “NPP Running Mate: 'No decision made yet, so let's be careful how we describe each other' – Afenyo-Markin on NAPO's selection” Modernghana.com 6/28/24).

If, on the other hand, Mr. Afenyo-Markin is offensively merely seeking to buy time so as to go on with business as usual, the young, well-meaning energetic man had better prepare for a “surprise package,” as an elderly man in my village of Akyem-Asiakwa used to say while I was growing up some 50-plus years ago. I also hope no vindictive attempt is made to silence and trash Mr. Andrew “Andy” Appiah-Kubi, whose righteous grievances and wisdom-packed protestation need to be fully heard. Trust me, there are more party stalwarts who think and believe like the Asante-Akyem North MP than those handful of party chiefs and rascals who bayed for Napo. These people don’t vote in my region and neighborhood; they also don’t vote in those 15 other regions.

We do not want to see Candidate Bawumia spend most of his electioneering-campaign time crisscrossing the country and profusely and endlessly apologizing on behalf of his insufferably ill-bred and arrogant Running-Mate, when he ought to be studiously and sedulously promoting his paradigm-shifting national-development agenda. I fear for the near-future wellbeing of the New Patriotic Party and Ghana as a whole!

*Visit my blog at: KwameOkoampaAhoofeJr

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
Professor Emeritus, Department of English
SUNY-Nassau Community College
Garden City, New York
June 28, 2024
E-mail: [email protected]