The campaign for national executive positions in the NPP has gone on with various candidates finding several ways of selling themselves and trying to appeal to the core of the party. The candidature of Mr. Paul Afoko who is seeking to be National Chairman of the NPP has generated a lot of discussion, most of which has been pushed by himself and his media clique.
Interestingly, one strong angle the Afoko campaign has pushed is the idea that his election will secure Northern interests in the party and boost the party’s chances in the north. Again, a strange perception is being forced on the party to accept the illusion that Mr. Afoko is the Northern candidate who is also backed by the North.
As I stated just above, this is an illusion, nothing but that. If there’s any part of the country Mr. Afoko would perform abysmally, it will be among the delegates of the three Northern Regions.
We, from the North, know Mr. Afoko more than anyone and know how he has over the years undermined Northern efforts in the party and sabotaged various personalities from the north to satisfy the his own agenda and the Alan Kyeremanteng agenda, which he is an unrepentant believer in.
Our lack of support for his bid to be National Chairman is therefore, well grounded. Those of us in the North remember how Mr. Afoko not only refused to support then Vice – President Alhaji Aliu Mahama, but proceeded to sabotage and persecute Alhaji’s supporters in the North. Paul Afoko, then the Coordinator for the Alan Kyeremanteng Campaign in the three Northern Regions and who appeared to be as powerful if not more powerful than the President brutishly whipped all government appointees in line for Alan Kyeremanteng with appointees who remained loyal to Alhaji Aliu including DCEs and Coordinators of Government Agencies and Programmes being dismissed summarily.
Mr. Paul Afoko did all these despite persistent appeals from the then Vice – President to him to stop the persecution of his supporters in the North.
The height of Mr. Afoko’s cruelty was when he engineered the dismissal of a District Chief Executive who had lost the son earlier in 2007 and whose wife had just died and was in the morgue, because the DCE had remained steadfast not to support Alan Kyeremanteng despite persistent threats from Mr. Afoko.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that Mr. Afoko is not popular in the north and cannot even win his own constituency.
More important however to the limited fortunes of Mr. Afoko in the North is the scheme that got him to contest the Chairmanship in the first place - the scheme to destroy any chance Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has of becoming President in the near future.
It is by no coincidence that Mr. Afoko’s Campaign Manager is long time Running Mate aspirant Boniface Saddique and it will be amazing for anyone to think that Mr. Afoko will abandon his Campaign Manager’s ambitions to promote Bawumia. Very simply, Paul afoko if he becomes National Chairman, will once again sabotage the fortunes of the Northerner most closest to the leadership of the Party and work for an Alan Kyeremanteng – Boniface ticket. This is not rocket science.
For the Southerners going to Tamale, ask yourself, why does Afoko have so much little support in the North? Why does he have issues in his own constituency? In light of his actions as Alan Kyeremanteng’s Campaign Coordinator in the 3 Northern Regions in 2007, also ask yourself, when did Mr. Afoko realize that he was from the North and that it was important to have a Northerner at the top?
These and more are the reasons why we are going to vote massively against Afoko in Tamale. His whole agenda is inspired by selfish reasons; that has always been his most important concern.

Aside working against an Akufo – Addo – Bawumia Presidency, Mr. Afoko will use the position for his business and use the party’s name to get money from his contacts in Nigeria, Israel and the Arab world and everyone can mark this, those monies will never come to the party, just like all the monies he took in the name of the party and Nana Akufo – Addo never came to the Party in 2008.
A word to our brothers in the South, is enough.

Razak Osman
(A Very Concerned Patriot)