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Opinions of Friday, 28 February 2014

Columnist: Akosomo, Kwadwo Nyantakyi

Akofo Addo and Alan must bow out for Bawumia

Unseating an incumbent president is not sinecure and the bumping and elbowing of Nana Akufo Addo and Mr Alan Kwadwo Kyeremateng as they strive to establish themselves as favorable for the leadership of NPP presidential candidacy for 2016 has rendered them very divisive and unelectable. Choosing one of these two aspirants to lead the party will be recipe for disaster. Yet, the NPP party will not need to campaign the breath and length of the country if the right person is chosen by consensus. Of all the leadership aspirants the only one without blemish and who commands respect among the divided NPP party is Dr Mumuni Bawumia. Bawumia is young, good-looking, articulate, tall and unassuming. He comes from the North and a real “tinpanbia” northerner and if given the nod will debunk the notion that NPP is Akan party.
Of all the parties in Ghana NPP is the only party that has large die hard support base. The NPP support base of Ashanti, Brong, East and Nandom would never be pregnable with whatever achievement of the enemy government. Therefore it does not matter who is chosen to lead NPP party the Danquah/Busia/Dombo base will rally around that person. What is lacking is the independent vote and Bawumia’s political attractiveness will apparently reduce even the most hardened Ewe or the Akan hater to adoring jelly. The two past elections proved that our candidate has not attracted that independent vote and therefore need a change at the top. Old age and diminutive structure does not influence prolific votes from the independents. The odds are heavily against NPP this time as Mahama is incumbent. Some boneheads think Mills went for 3 times but forget who he contested with. Kuffour was handsome, tall and likeable person, Mills couldn’t defeat him but here came Nana and Mills became the president.
Innocent reader don’t get me wrong, I adore Nana and will support him all the time but when the Al Hajj paper claimed, “Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who is cooling off in his ‘hideout’ in far-away UK, has finally thrown in the towel on his widely rumoured third term bid for the presidency due to old age and health” all well-meaning NPP supporters like myself were happy. It is my fervent plea that the leadership of NPP huddle and come up with Bawumia’s name as the presidential candidate for 2016. Akufo-Addo for 2016 will be a politically incorrect choice. This is what NDC is praying for; if Nana gets the nod for 2016 then God would have answered their prayers. Nana holding the flag will be a great tragedy for NPP in 2016 and an anti-climax for Nana's political career.
The NPP had equal playing field with Mahama during the 2012 election as Mills and Mahama had then performed poorly in gov’t. At this time Mahama is the incumbent and has advantage. NPP cannot face him on divided front, give Dr. Bawumia a chance and he will surely deliver one touch for NPP
Alan was indifferent during the Supreme Court hearing, only showed up at the judgment day to be part of the victory parade or the sympathetic group, he cannot be trusted, please reject him. In conclusion I want to repeat Bawumia is man of vision with political influence who can change the NPP demographic base. Even the avowed haters of Akan people the Ewes will flock to him and independent votes would not elude NPP