– Veep’s man tells NPP

The Special Advisor to Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama’s Campaign Team, Dr. Amoako Tuffour, has cautioned the NPP to choose between electing the Vice President as its flagbearer and win the 2008 elections or elect an Akan candidate and be beaten into slavery by the opposition NDC.

He said if the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) fails to be guided by history and go ahead to present an Akan presidential candidate in the 2008 elections whiles it has a northerner in the person of the sitting Vice President, whom he added is from “Zaage Zongo” in the flagbearership race, “the NDC will beat us into slavery”, stressing that the opposition NDC will do so by spinning the NPP-AKAN-PARTY card.

Dr. Tuffour said this over the weekend at Mankessim in the Central Region where the Vice President officially launched his campaign to lead the NPP into the 2008 elections.

According to Dr. Amoako Tuffour, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) can only win the upcoming crucial 2008 general elections only if it presents Alhaji Aliu Mahama, whom he described as the “most important candidate of all our history” and the sole Northerner among the about 19 presidential hopefuls of the party, as its candidate in the 2008 elections.

The man, who said he is an election strategist and a true Danqua-Busia-Dombo traditionist, reminded his party members that it was similar situations that caused the division and subsequent electoral disasters in the 1956 and 1979 elections.

Recounting the 1979 elections, he said the party made a suicidal mistake when Victor Owusu, an Akan candidate refused to allow Alhaji Yakubu Tali, a northerner, to lead the Popular Front Party (PFP) into the elections, a scenasrio he said led to the splitting of the party into two, PFP and UNC.

He recounted how Dr. Hilla Limann took advantage of the said division and won the 1979 elections, throwing the Danqua-Busia party into near permanent opposition till 2000.

Dr. Amoako Tuffour was quick to add that he was not out to play the tribal card but insisted that he was being guided by history - a history that the ruling NPP did not have any choice but to accept it and ensure that it does not repeat its past mistakes that nearly spelt permanent doom for them.

He pointed out that people will definitely ask questions and probably fault the NPP if it rejects Alhaji Aliu Mahama’s bid, the only northerner among the lot, saying it will then substantiate the opposition NDC’s claims that the NPP is an Akan party and that all other non-Akan members are disregarded in the party.

He said the NPP should be mindful of the potential propaganda the NDC is likely to use against them, pointing out that the only way the NPP can refute this allegation was to elect Alhaji Aliu Mahama as its flagberaer.

He revealed also that among the about 19 aspiring flagbearers of the party, 14 are Akans and that the Vice President is the only northerner, adding that he is the only candidate capable of winning the floating voters in the country for the NPP, identifying the floating voters as; the Zongo, Northern and Volta votes.

He said the Vice President is a humble and respectful person who is also hardworking, honest, fair, firm and capable of winning the hearts of the people of this country to push the nation forward to gloryland.

When Alhaji Aliu Mahama mounted the podium, he began his speech by reciting the first line of the National Anthem; “God bless our homeland Ghana”, and asked the teeming supporters to repeat after him several times.

He then thanked President Kufuor and the NPP for making him the number two man of the country for two consecutive terms saying that this has enriched him with the requisite experience and that after rising through the ranks to attain Chief Apprenticeship, he is seeking the mandate of the party to step into the shoes of his “Master” who is about to hand over.

He said NPP’s victory in 2008 is assured, but quickly added that “only if the NPP makes the right decision”, insisting that the right decision is Aliu Mahama.

Aliu Mahama noted that his vision for the country, if elected as the flafbearer of NPP and eventually succeeds President Kufuor as the President of the Republic, will be to empower the people of this country and ensure prosperity.

Among dignitaries who graced the occasion were the MP for Gomoa West Hon. Joe Hackman, former Central Regional Minister Hon. Isaac Edumadze and the sitting Central Region Minister, Nana Ato Arthur.

The rest included the DCE for Mfatsiman, Papa Quainoo Arthur.