-As groups root for spio

An elaborate and concerted plan is currently underway among some people within the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) to have President John Mahama select Dr. Spio Garbrah over his current vice, Amissah Arthur as his running mate for the 2012 polls.

Ahobrasihene President John Mahama is expected to reveal his running mate for the 2012 general elections by the end of this week after which the named running mate and the 2012 manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is expected to be outdoored at Cape Coast in the Central region next week. However, before the president even concludes the consultation processes with stakeholders such as, Council of Elders and Parliamentary Caucus, etc of the party, frenetic attempts are ongoing to pressurize him to name former CEO of CTO and a former vice chair of the NDC, Dr. Ekow Spio Garbrah as his running mate for the December election.

It has been widely expected that president Mahama would retain his current Vice-President; Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur as his running-mate for the December elections.

Prior to the nomination of Amissah Arthur and his subsequent endorsement by Parliament as Vice president, and in spite of admonishing by Dr. Spio-Garbrah to the rank and file of the party to respect President Mahama’s choice; some NDC supporters styling themselves as pro-Spio-Garbrah group, kicked against his selection, insisting, Dr. Spio-Garbrah would have been a better choice. And to demonstrate his commitment and loyalty to the NDC party and perhaps, leaving room to be considered by President Mahama for the eventual running-mate position, Dr. Spio Garbrah, moments after Dr. Amissah Arthurs’ confirmation, rejected any remotest possibility of him running as flag bearer of the newly formed National Democratic Party (NDP), a party associated with the Rawlingses. But, a purported research finding by a so-called independent global research group, DaMina, a company owned by Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah’s son, Sebastian and published in the pro-NPP Daily Guide on Tuesday 21st August 2012 claimed; traditional incumbency would not help President John Mahama win the December presidential polls.

“DaMina’s model, published on August 17, 2012, predicted the New Patriotic Party (NPP) recapturing the presidency and dominating Parliament in the forthcoming elections.” The Daily Guide report stated.

Among the reasons cited by DaMina according to the report is that, “despite the common hype of President Mahama’s formidability in Ghanaian politics, his popularity is considerably low in the rural areas of Ghana”.

And this is where the ‘catch’ is: “To worsen his electoral plight, Mahama has chosen former Central Bank Governor, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, as his deputy, a man well known only to the elite press in the capital, Accra, but hardly known by even a majority of semi-illiterate voters in Accra or even in his native Cape Coast”. The report avers.

The report added “The Mahama-Amissah-Arthur ticket will be paired against a relatively well-known opposition duo of Nana Akufo-Addo and Mahamadu Bawumia,”. Then, only last week, a certain Dennis Coffie-Newman, describing himself as an Educational Consultant on Adult Educational Matters and based in Leicester, UK, widely posted on the social media network, “The Twelve Cardinal Reasons Why John Mahama Needs a New Running Mate”.

The author wrote in part: “As we ponder as a party over who partners the President into the 2012 election, I wish to add my voice to the call not to endorse Mr. Kwesi Amissah-Arthur as a running mate…

“If the idea is to endorse a Fante from the Central region, then the President should consider his one-time colleague at the Ministry of Communication, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah. The President can ponder over what I christened as the twelve cardinal reasons why he needs a new Veep in the person of Spio”. According to the writer “The task of winning an election is a different task from that of governance. It is about effective campaigning, persuading people who might not otherwise like you and your party and government to nevertheless vote for you. Amissah-Arthur is not cut out for that task… “The NPP had developed all their campaign strategy around President Mills. Then when Mills died, the NPP had to quickly revisit their campaign worksheets and see how to redirect their fire-power at Mahama. So far, they have tried to link Mahama fully to what they consider the failures of the Mills administration, with regards to overall economic performance and the sliding cedi, and dollar shortages…

“Again, because Amissah-Arthur had been the Governor of the Central Bank during this same period, the NPP also effectively tag him as part of the failures of the Mills era. This is why many NDC strategists are beginning to think that it would make great sense for President Mahama to choose a running mate who has NOT been part of the Mills-Mahama administration so far, so that such a person will be less vulnerable to attacks from the NPP. Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah fits this description quite well”.

Dennis Coffie-Newman continued “Mahama should also not be afraid to have a different running mate from his Veep, by feeling any sense of permanent obligation to Amissah-Arthur. He should remember that he himself was the third choice of President Mills, after Mills had already previously chosen Martin Amidu in 2000. When it comes to campaign, Mahama has been making claims about representing a new era of youthful leaders. Amissah-Arthur is already 61, so cannot readily be seen as a youthful leader. Others like Kwesi Botchwey, at 68, cannot partner Mahama effectively, and has been away from NDC politics and campaigning for too many years. Another youthful running mate would have been Gossie Tandoh, but many NDC cadres and youth blame him for NDC losing the 2000 elections, when he broke off to create the Reform Party. He has never spoken on an NDC platform in the last 12 years, with business being his main interest. In the 12 years as the leader of the Reform Party, he was unable to build it to any strength in Ghana. The Party never had any MPs nor did Tandoh openly ever criticise the NPP even when reform was supposed to also be an opposition party between 2001 and 2009. He would not be welcome so soon after returning to the NDC fold as a running mate…

“The person who NDC youth look up to the most is Dr Spio-Garbrah, to be President Mahama’s running mate. The two men have worked together before harmoniously at the Ministry of Communications in the late 1990s. They have continued to be friends since then. Those who were in Spio’s campaign team in 2006 know that the only person Spio had proposed as his own running mate had he won the NDC primaries was John Mahama. If fate had smiled on John and made him President, it is only fitting that John also returns that favour. The youth believe in Spio mainly because of what he did to set up the GETFund from which many young men and women have been benefitting tremendously for more than 10 years. Many also remember him when as Minister of Education; he was the first Minister to donate a Pick-up car and computers to the NUGS for their office administration”.

He concluded his piece saying “I wish there was a way I could slip this epistle into the hands of the President without having to go public. But those around them sometimes do not make it easy for messages of this sort to reach them. It is for this reason I have to resort to the media to send my pints across to the President. I only wish him well, as our destiny as a party is inextricably tied to the choices he makes as a person”.