As people of wisdom say, every action provokes a reaction, and the President was reacting to an action, which is a trade mark of the NPP. One would wonder why on earth would the NPP forget what they initiated, they thought Ghanaian electorate have very short memories, not to be able to recollect the political tactics of tribalism and ethnocentrism that they were the “inventors” and “innovators” of.
In Mass Communications, there is a concept or theory we read in college called, “Diffusion of Innovation”. In this theory, the first people to practice or start something are called “innovators”, then the second are, “early adopters” and the third are, “late adopters.” So the NPP's mother party the UP, invented and initiated tribal politics in Ghana. They did it in a more heartless and inhumane sense, when the late President Busia won the elections, and implemented their Aliens Compliance Order, known in Twi as, “Kow hu kurom” in the early seventies, which the NPP are trying to conceal from this contemporary generation of the electorate, in order to vote for them. They deported many people from the Zongos and the Northern part of the country, alleging that they are not Ghanaians. There were instances where even kids born in this country, were expelled from schools, by the UP (NPP) cronies, telling them to go and join their parents to move of this country.
This made them “early adopters” of it, and was inherited by their children the NPP, who are currently reviving that in disguise, while the NDC just became “late adopters”. This is very justifiable because, the NPP in their penchant, predilection and proclivity for power are using some of their cronies from the North and the Zongos to urge these people to vote for them, because they have a Muslim and a Northerners as vice-presidential candidate.
History has it that, when the Ghana’s first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah observed that the UGCC of the UP tradition party that he first belonged to was dominated by the Akans and characterized by elitism and tribalism, he broke away and formed a splinter party, which was the CPP, which embraced and encompassed others major and minor tribes, such as the Ewes, Gas and Northerners.
Interestingly, history has repeated itself, today with the UP/UGCC’s children, the NPP as they are reviving the bad legacy of their forefathers, while the NDC, which is the true Nkrumahiest party is broad base and diverse, comprising of multi-ethnic groups in the country.
Those of us who voted during the inception of the democratic regime of the fourth republic in 1992, would continue to remember the rife and rampant rage and rant of the NPP, saying, “Yeji Ye Mane”, which means in Twi that, “we are taking back our country.” By this they meant, they would deport people of the Zongos, whom they perceived as non-Ghanaians, repeating what their mother party, the UP did in the seventies, as mentioned above. But thank God, they lost the elections bitterly, due to their evil intentions.
But the desperate, arrogant and aggressive Nana Akufo Addo revived their usual ethnocentric and tribalistic mantra, long before the President asked his people to vote for him, when he was quoted as saying in the Eastern region, “Yen Akanfuo…”, urging all the Akans and the Okenhene to urge his tribe's people to vote for him. So if President Mahama should ask for votes from his own clan, whom he has helped and continues to help in diverse ways, what is their problem? Don't the NPP understand the simple conventional wisdom that says; what is good for the goose is also good for the gander?
The NPP's notorious MP, Kennedy Agyapong who, thanks to the NDC USA's research-savvy communications team, has now shut up, because he knows should he continues with criticizing and castigating the President, his 'glass house' would be broken and fragmented into pieces, so hence his decision to keep mute. He was the one who made a treasonable and inflammatory statement, urging the Akans to attack the Ewes and the Gas, which landed him in jail custody, while another statement was attributed to their Chairman, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey to the effect that, “...Ashantis will take away their birth rights, as they did in Abidjan.” Who are more tribalistic than the other, for God sake?
Mike Ocquaye, a son of the leading member of the NPP, was quoted making a derogatory and deprecating remarks, against the Northerners who benefitted from the GETFUND, to pursue post graduate studies in Oil and Gas management. He said, the NDC government is spending state resources on. “pepefuor…instead of spending on proper humans…” In another statement, he said, “…Ewes and Northerners are bush people, and “Kurasifuor” who do not deserve to benefit from GETFUND.” And a lot of these Akan NPP members are continuously saying over the social media, the internet and the air waves, that, we will not allow, “pepeni/oteni” lord it over us or lead us. And this year’s electioneering campaign, if nothing at all, exposes the sheer hatred, bigotry and prejudice towards Northerners, Muslims and the Zongo people in general by the NPP.
It is very ironical that, the NPP is doing the same thing that they are accusing President Mahama of. Their National Organizer, Alhaji Mukhtar Bamba, is urging Muslims in the North and the Zongos to vote for the NPP, because they chose Bawumia, who is a Muslim. And Bawumia himself is also campaigning in these same areas, telling them he is a Muslim and a Northerners, so he is best to deserve their votes.
However, the bottom line is that, electorate from the North, Zongos and the entire Muslim communities are discerning people, they do not consider religion as a prerequisite and a precondition for them to vote for President Mahama. Besides, they do not care if he is a Muslim or Christian, they know for a fact that, President Mahama was the best among all our Northern politicians, even in his own party, who by virtue of being a Muslim blood, respects and regards Muslims all over the country. He would always attend their social events, like Aduwa, or funeral events, and other festivities, long before he became Vice-President. And where was Bawumia, when President Mahama was doing these to his people? He has a good rapport with people in the Zongos in the south and the Muslim communities in general, and does not discriminiate. Some of us used to represent our newspapers at the castle, as members of the Presidential Press Corps, during the first NPP administration in 2001, and we had witnessed how their administration was dominated by the Ashantis.
It is a human nature that, we all feel incline to support someone related to us, by race or tribe, who is in a contest, especially if we feel the person is fighting a winning battle. For instance, if a black man is fighting a white man in a boxing competition or football match, there is a strong tendency for the black spectators to support the black boxer and vice visa. Likewise in the political arena, people would prefer to see their own ethnic kith and kin at the helm of the national affairs. Would Nana Addo go to the eastern region or Ashanti to tell his people to vote for Mahama and not him? If not, hence the President has every right to canvass votes from his own kith and kin in the North, because, unlike the NPP's former Vice-President, Aliyu Mahama, President Mahama has been more kind and humanitarian to the people of North and Zongos, since his days as an MP and deputy minister of information in the early nineties, and this is the best time to ask his kith and kin to pay him back, for his long years of service, one of those is the decision to give more scholarship to the students from the North and the Zongos, in order to breach the north-south huge gap of education in medical field. So he has the right to lobby for their votes, for one good turns deserve another.
President Mahama has helped lot of students from the North, the Zongos and Muslim communities to get admitted into colleges and universities in the country, who were being discriminated against, in spite of their excellent and extra-ordinary academic performance, due to their ethnic and religious origin, and I was one of them. This is a normal norm, and the President by virtue of his influential position, has been of tremendous help, which enabled them to explore their God-given intellectual potentials.
There are also a lot of graduates even from other tribes and ethnic groups that the President helped to secure jobs, when he was an MP and a minister.
When he was the deputy minister of information in 1999, he intervened and authorized the GBC radio in Kumasi, to restore a weekly Friday Muslim program, which was lifted off air for obvious reasons. This happened about twelfth years ago, when he never have thought of leading this nation. The Muslim clergy in Kumasi prayed to God to make him President in the future, when he later visited them in the blessed month of Ramadan that God would answer prayers instantly, and I was a witness to this event. Lo and behold, it is over a decade now and these devoted and pious servants of God (most of them are dead now) have been vindicated when became the President in the late 2012, and will win again to continue leading the country for the next eight years, because those who prayed for him and continued to pray for him, did it through the voice of God, by virtue of their piousness and piety to the Al-mighty.
President Mahama's unexpected meteoric rise to the presidential pedestal is reminiscent of Joel Osteen's wisdom, a renowned US reverend minister who said, “What others say and do cannot stop you from fulfilling your destiny. Your destiny was handed down by Almighty God.”
President Mahama was the one who gave Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage a more human face. This was a total mess under the NPP administration, because most of the prospective pilgrims, who are very prominent personalities, used to be left to sleep under the vagaries of the weather and under trees at Helwalk stadium, and there were no decent places of convenience. This clearly indicated that, the NPP took Muslim pilgrims and their all important annual ritual for granted. This is part and parcel of the reasons why the Muslims and the Zongo people, who voted for the NPP during their eight years, are now willing to vote for President Mahama and the NDC, come December 7th, 2012. And no amount of witchery of the Osono, or elephant part would stop the crossing of Rubicon.
In his speech at the recently celebrated Muslim Eidul Adha Festival at the Independence square in Accra, the President, although a Christian warned all the heads of high schools in Ghana, who are forcing Muslim students to attend church services, to put a stop to it. He even went the extra mile to authorize the ministry of education to communicate this rule to all these schools.
This is an unprecedented move, which has never been taken by any President in Ghana, to address freedom of religion. And everyone knows that, during the NPP regime, this phenomenon was worse and they never address it, in spite of having a Muslim Vice-President in office. The fact is that, the NPP used Aliyu Mahama for the Northern and Muslim votes only, without which they could never have won, and then dumped him when he wanted to contest for presidency, because it was there and then that, they exhibited to him their true tribalistic and ethnocentric colors, that the party is the bonified property of the Ashantis only, and no one could be voted at their primaries to contest for presidential elections, but an Akan.
Frankly speaking, the President hit the nail directly on the head when he said; Northerners are fed-up with playing second fiddle of Vice-Presidency. Undoubtedly, Northerners have blazed the trail in the Academia in Ghana for many years. They also have been tried and tested as capable people, with the requisite academic qualifications and professional acumen to lead this country.
Regarding the NPP's continuous unsubstantiated allegations upon allegations of corruption against the President, who just took over power only few months ago, we of the NDC US Communications and Research Team, are in the process of compiling facts, connecting the dots and digging deep in order bring back to the public limelight, the gigantic and gargantuan cases of corruption and embezzlement by the NPP, during their eight years in office, which was unprecedented in the political annals and archives of Ghana.
We will be serializing them, blow by blow, starting from this week. Our aim is to inform and awake Ghanaian electorate, especially the youthful prospective voters, who are not aware of the economic suicide the NPP inflicted on our national cake, for their entire eight years period in office, in order to help them make wise decision not to return them into power and vote for President Mahama and NDC, to continue with the late President Mills' Better Ghana Agenda. So folks, stay tuned!


“The struggle of a man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” --- Milan Kudra (1929)

Husseini Y. Baba AlWaiz, Press Secretary, NDC New York