Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, running mate for Nana Akufo Addo, 2016 flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), last Friday stormed Ashaiman with a door-to-door campaign.

Led by the Ashaiman Constituency NPP executives, with Baba Alhassan, the constituency youth organiser, directing affairs, Dr Bawumia first met the Ashaiman Traditional Council to officially seek their blessings on his mission in the area.

Nii Annan Adzor I, Ashaiman Regent, said Ashaiman will always be ready to receive the NPP and all political parties.

He indicated that Ashaiman, like all other traditional areas in Ghana, needs development "and so we are ready to work with any political party that will help develop our area."

The NPP presidential running mate later joined Moslems at the Ashaiman Central Mosque to say the Friday prayer and interacted with the Municipal Chief Imam, Alhaji Harun Mustapha Sisse.

Dr Bawumia's message of hope was strongly met at the Ashaiman Fitter Line, Main Station, Central Business Market and New Tulaku, where he had to continue to strain his voice to get his message to the crowd who, at some point, was difficult to control as everyone wanted to shake hands with the guest.

The former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) appealed to Ashaiman to 'drop the NDC yam' in 2016 due to the government's mismanagement of the economy as a result of its incompetence and insensitivity.

He said, "As if their mismanagement of the economy is not enough, the NDC has plunged Ghana into an unpardonable darkness – dumsor – and so businesses are collapsing. More workers are being laid off as a result of the dumsor, which is becoming worse in each day.

"But I can assure you that in Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP, there is hope for Ghana after you have given the NPP the chance by dropping the 'bad yam' when you go to the ballots in 2016. Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP have the men and brains to put Ghana on the strong footing former President Kufuor bequeathed to the NDC in 2008."

He argued that the NDC government has no excuse to motorists and Ghanaians for its failure to drastically reduce prices of petroleum products.

Receiving a rapturous applause from the crowd for his words, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who is also a visiting lecturer at the Central University College, Miotso Campus, Prampram, said his maiden visit to Ashaiman was to give the people hope and assure them that "all is not lost yet as they have the power to change government in Election 2016."

Baba Alhassan, the Ashaiman NPP youth leader, told The Finder that Dr Bawumia's door-to-door visit had rekindled the hopes of the party and the youth, who hitherto had given up on Ghana.

He said, "Ghana will rise to work again if Ghanaians give the NPP the power in 2016. We in the NPP mean well for Ghana."