Ndc Usa,ndc New York & Ndc Zongo Caucus, New York Chapter React To The Npp National Organizer , Alahji Mukhtar Bamba’s Call On Muslims To Vote For The Npp Due To Its Muslim Vice-Presidential Candidate
Our attentions have been drawn to a story attributed to Alhaji Mukhtari Bamba, NPP National Organizer, urging Muslims in Ghana to vote for the NPP, due to the fact that, their Vice-Presidential candidate Alhaji Mahmoudu Bawumia is a Muslim.
We here bye asked Alhaji Mukhtar and his NPP to enumerate concrete and tangible achievements the Muslims and the people of Zongos had chalked when they appointed Alhaji Ali Mahama, the Vice-President during their two-terms in office(2000-2008). If he cares to know or rather wants to bury his head in the sand like an ostrich, I personally was a member of the presidential press corpse at the Castle, representing the Business & Financial Times, during the NPP regime in the year 2001, and I knew how Alhaji Aliu Mahama was mistreated.
The current NPP Presidential candidate Nana Akufo Addo and their Party's National Chairman, Obetsebi Lampty as well as the then Chief of staff, Kodjow Mpianim used to hi-jack the cabinet meetings whenever president Kufour would travels out of the country, and they would not even inform or invite Alhaji Aliu Mahama for cabinet meetings. There were instances were he expressed his grieve and grievances to the then President Kufour regarding this ill-treatment.
Unlike President Mahama, who was granted the opportunity by the late president Mills and the NDC,(by virtue of its diverse and broad-based nature) to cater for the welfare of the Muslims and northerners when he was the vice-president, Mr. Aliu Mahama's hands were tied as vice-president under the NPP and could not make any major contribution to improve the socio-economic well-being of the Muslims and Zongos communities in Ghana.
We strongly believe that Muslims in Ghana do not care about President Mahama's religious affiliation since he is a Muslim blood and a Zongo man who staunchly and steadfastly champions the Muslim course, even long before he nursed any presidential ambition. I could remember vividly in 1998 when he was an MP and a deputy Minister of Information, when the only Muslim radio program(dubbed: Muslim half-hour- on Fridays) was suspended at the GBC radio in Kumasi, and when he was informed in Accra, he instantly and instantaneously made just one phone call and authorized the management of GBC to restore the program with immediate effect. This amazing gesture excited the Muslim Imams and Clergies in Kumasi and they invited him and prayed to ALLAH to make him Ghana's President in the future- and lo and behold their dreams has been vindicated and will be vindicated once again.
We know how Muslim students and northerners in general are mostly under-admitted in colleges and universities in Ghana and it takes the influential whom -you- know to get admitted, and Mr. Mahama had a track record of exerting his influence by recommending numerous qualified Muslim students for admissions in colleges and universities when the admission boards had a culture of rejecting them.
Muslims should remember that, the recent scholarship that was awarded to medical students to study medicine in Cuba was dominated by Muslim students- an unprecedented incident in Ghana, and this was master-minded by President Mahama when he was the vice-president. He is still criticized bitterly by the opposition and he gave them obvious reason that there is a huge gap created between Muslims /Zongos and the rest of Ghanaians, when it comes scholarship opportunities to pursue education in medical field.
Talking about the Hajj Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca which was poorly managed by the NPP- as pilgrims would be left under trees, without places of sleep and convenience, President Mahama spearheaded an innovative project of importing canopies from Saudi Arabia, with decent places of convenience for the comfort and decency of the pilgrims.
I urge my fellow Muslims to beware that NPP just used Ali to garner and gather Muslim votes and when he contested for the primaries to be their presidential candidate for 2008 elections he was rejected. The tradition in African and Ghanaian Politics is that the President normally supports his vice whenever he finishes his terms to continue with the party's objectives, but President Kufour instead of supporting his vice-president, he played the ethnic card- a trade mark of the NPP, by clearly endorsing Alan Cheremanteng , because he is an Akan. Now the million dollar question is what is the guarantee that same treatment will not be meted to Bawumia in the (unlikely) event of Nana Addo becoming Ghana's President for two terms, whom even President Kufour once confessed that he[Bawumia] was not a card-bearing member of the NPP prior to his nomination as the vice-presidential candidate.
Unlike the NDC and Democrats in the US, I always compare the NPP[which is not willing to elect a Muslim or Northerner as Presidential candidate] to Republic Party here in the US[which is not willing to elect a Black in their party as President ]. And Nana Addo was among the opposition MPs who walked out of Parliament in 1992, when the NDC MPs won against them to give Muslims Public Holy days to celebrate EIDUL FITIR & EIDUL ADHA. So where lies their claim that their party is all-inclusive?
The NPP thought the death of late President Mills will open a flood gate of victory for them, but when they realized it rather became a blessing in disguise for the NDC, they are now trying to use religion to divide the ranks of Muslims. And with yesterday's historic event at the Baba Yara Sport Stadium-which has shaken the very foundation of the NPP strong hold, and which was unexpectedly attended by former President Rawlings, and gave his unflinching support to President Mahama and expressed his willingness to lead NDC in its 2012 electioneering campaign, it is obvious that the NPP dream of recapturing power from the NDC come December 7th, 2012 will be a mirage rather than a miracle.
Signed:
Husseini Yushau Baba AlWaiz,
Press Secretary, NDC US, NDC New York & General Secretary NDC Zongo Caucus, New York Chapter.