NPP SCHEME FOR 2008
*Could help us record a treble - Amoako Tuffour
SOME BIGWIGS WITHIN the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) are playing match-makers trying to hook up Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama to an Akan candidate, preferably Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo, in a high-octane political romance, this paper has gathered.

The contention of the group, who have set in motion plans to this effect, is that Veep Aliu Mahama and Foreign Minister Akufo Addo have got incredible star power and charisma, with both leading candidates very sharp in mind and commitment to the ideals of the NPP.

The duo will also drive the party to a whole new level of popularity and wipe away the charge of the NPP as an Akan party, sources within the group told the GYE NYAME CONCORD.

According to our sources Alhaji Aliu Mahama would be meeting with the matchmakers, as well as Akufo Addo to see if they could seal the deal and begin the process for the political romance to make their team the race-track darling before the party's congress later this year.

Thrilled with the potential good news, some NPP bigwigs told this paper that the move will guarantee equilibrium in the democratic political maturity of Ghana, as well as reflect the changing and developing world of NPP politics.

In a chat, Mr. Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, political spokesperson of Alhaji Aliu Mahama said "if we are serious about the development o f Ghana as an entity, then its time to give the presidency to a cultured northerner."

He charged the NPP to recognise the efforts of the northern political leaders who heroically advocated and defended the Danquah-Busia ideals in the Kwame Nkrumah era, while the elite and bourgeoisie fathers of the present day presidential post-seekers distanced themselves from politics and sent their children abroad, for fear of the late Kwame Nkrumah.

Yaw Buabeng Asamoah also cautioned his party to take into consideration the adverse consequences of the wide scope of poverty, social deprivation, prolonged political manipulation and what the northern and Zongo citizenry perceive as unequal access to power, which the main opposition National Democratic Party (NDC) is using as leverage.

Meanwhile, while members of the Council of Elders in the Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Western, Northern and Eastern regions want Alhaji Aliu Mahama to hang out with Akufo Addo, there could be a bump or two on the road to romance.

The Vice President's relationship with Allan Kyeremanten, Dr. Osafo Maafo, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku is said to be raising eyebrows, with some hard-liners questioning the romance between the Vice President and the Foreign Minister.

But the permutation of pairing Aliu Mahama with Nana Akufo Addo has hearts racing, with some party executives believing that the romance could help mend rift in the party and help the NPP to record a landslide victory in the 2008 elections.

Getting them together would heal a lot of wounds, says Dr. Kwame Amoako Tuffour, the man in charge of the Government-sponsored School Feeding Programme and a member of the NPP Ashanti Regional Council of Elders.

It would "give the NPP the exposure and the wonderful public relations the party deserves", he noted further in an interview with this paper.