After Okyere Baafi’s well staged comedy of deception and lies, and my good friend, Afriyie Ayew’s mundane 2012 Election Petition vis-a-vis “Aduru wo so” argument, another comical article has surfaced on the social media, making “very strong” arguments for the Vice President, Dr. Alhaji Bawumia.

The only difference in their comical expressions is that this latest one was written by someone who claims to be an NDC guy. From the very beginning of his write-up, he made it clear he is not an NPP member, but a card-bearing and proud
member of the NDC.

This is how he introduced his article: “A disclaimer is appropriate at this juncture before I proceed any further to make my point; I am not a member of the New Patriotic Party, I cannot claim to know the traditions of the party, but rather a card bearing and proud member of the National Democratic Congress, I am only writing as an outsider who has been following the politics of the NPP since 1996”.

How interesting! A man who claims to be a proud NDC member wants to tell us who we should choose as our presidential candidate to face his party’s candidate in 2024. It is like Inter Milan coach telling Man City coach the kind of goalkeeper they should use against them in the upcoming Champions League final. The matter chop hot!

Let’s read something else the NDC guy wrote to project the Vice President: “He is smart and gifted, these combined with patience, political brinkmanship and ultimately God’s blessing have all come together to make him best suited
to lead the NPP”.

This is quite laughable, coming from an NDC guy, isn’t it? This guy seems to be the only NDC guy who is impressed about Alhaji’s performance in respect of the management of the economy, as the head of EMT. And, he says the Alhaji has exercised patience? OMG! He couldn’t have sounded more ridiculous.

Initially, I didn’t want to believe the writer was an NDC guy, but the content and chronology of his argument, and the confirmation I had from those who know him, made me believe he is indeed a light-minded NDC guy who is on a special mission to run down the frontrunner of the upcoming NPP presidential primary, Mr. Alan Kyerematen and make him appear undesirable, but at the same time project the Vice President as the best of the two.

Indeed, only an NDC member who doesn’t want to see Alan Kyerematen on the 2024 ballot against his candidate, or an ignoramus latter-day-saint NPP member who doesn’t really understand the issues, would ask these questions of Alan: “Where was Alan in the fight for the restoration of democracy, where was Alan when the NPP fought an incumbent government, which had ruled Ghana for 19 years. Where was Alan when the stolen verdict was written?”

In all fairness, a man who was there in the bedroom where the Party was conceived, and in the labor room where it was delivered, need not be asked these questions. The writer should have rather directed those questions to Dr. Bawumia, and even asked further of him these questions: Where was Dr. Bawumia from 1992-2007? Which political party did he vote for in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 elections?

Alan Kyerematen, on his part, has always been there from the very beginning to date, serving the party in various capacities. He didn’t join the party midstream, neither was he brought in from outside by President Kufuor, as some people initially thought. In fact, but for the intervention of the late Mr. Appiah Menkah and others, he would have internally contested Kufuor in the lead up to 1996 election.

Moreover, he was part of every single important meeting, negotiation, discussion, demonstration and fundraising that helped to shape the party to make it a formidable party. His name is already cast in gold in the annals of the
party. If the ignoramus cares to know, most of the political parties formed in 1992, fell by the way side at the initial stage of the 4th Republic journey due to lack of men of mettle and metal.

However, ours survived and thrived because of the likes of Alan Kyerematen, who stood up firm and strong to be counted against PNDC/NDC intimidations, threats and brutalities. If men like Alan Kyerematen had not stood up to be counted, and the party had fallen by the wayside like others, which political party would Dr. Bawumia have joined in 2008 from the NDC?

Again, let it be said to the ignoramus that, before Dr. Bawumia joined the party in 2008; not in 2006, as he ignorantly posited in his write-up, the party had won power two times, with the help of people like Alan Kyerematen and his much-talked-about Young Executive Forum members. We were never a party that lacked men who knew how to win power.

We have always had men of political mettle and wisdom. So, that insulting argument that seeks to suggest it was Dr. Bawumia who won power for the NPP in 2016 and 2020 elections, should be told to kindergarten students; not matured NPP delegates who know the history of the party.

But for Nana Addo’s own mistakes, we would have won the 2008 election easily at a time Dr. Bawumia knew next to nothing in politics. Nana Addo’s decision to sideline a lot of the experience guys who didn’t support him at the 2007 Legon Congress, and also unjustifiably disqualify pro-Alan parliamentary aspirants, cost the party the finest opportunity to break the 8 at the time.

As a result of those needless disqualifications and antagonisms, the center of the party couldn’t hold. Due to that, the NDC won majority of the parliamentary seats in the first round, and Ghanaians thought it wise to give them the
presidential seat as well in the second round. Interestingly, the same kind of disqualifications nearly cost us the 2020 elections.

Let me conclude with this: Dr. Bawumia’s 14/30 so-called sacrifice that made him a vice president in a party he neither supported, assisted nor voted for in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004, is nothing compared to Alan’s 30/30 sacrifice that only made him an Ambassador and a Minister in a party he helped to birth, finance, nurture and grow.