A National Vice Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has dismissed assertions that the emergence of Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was the cause of the NDC’s poor performance in the Northern Region in the 2016 and 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.

Lawyer Khalid Abdul-Rauf insists that the party’s internal issues, rather than the so-called ‘Bawumia effect’ caused the dwindling performance of the NDC in the Northern Region which was once regarded as a stronghold of the party in Ghanaian politics.

The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the NDC now share an equal number of parliamentary seats in the Northern Region, having eight seats each from the total number of 18.

The NDC’s seats dropped from 11 seats in 2012 to nine seats in 2016 while the NPP’s seats increased from 6 seats in 2012 to nine seats in 2016.

In the 2020 Elections, the two lost some of their seats in the region and gained others, maintaining the nine seats each at the end of the elections.

Many political watchers and analysts attributed the improved performance of the NPP in the region to the emergence of Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia-himself from the North-East Region but born and raised in Tamale in the Northern Region – as the running mate of President Akufo Addo.

The watchers claimed Dr Bawumia was able to penetrate through the NDC’s strongholds and change the dynamics in the region but Lawyer Rauf disagrees.

Addressing the NDC’s Youth Summit in Tamale on Saturday, the former Northern Regional Secretary of the NDC said the party was their undoing.

“There are times you hear the National, those who are not from here will tell us that it is as the result of Dr Bawumia’s impact that is why the popularity of the NDC is going down in Northern Ghana. We sometimes take up the issue to tell them the truth that it isn’t the impact of Dr Bawumia that is making the popularity of NDC dwindle in the Northern Region in particular because we tell them that it is not the case of the Northern Region that we have in the Upper East and Upper West. In the case of Upper East and Upper West, the popularity of NDC has never dwindled, the only problem we have is the three Northern regions which are Savannah, North East, and Northern Region which used to be the bigger Northern Region.

For 2020, President Mahama won all the constituencies in the Upper East Region, is Upper East not part of Northern Ghana? So where is the effect of Dr Bawumia in the Upper East Region? Why is it so in the Northern Region? In Upper West, President Mahama won almost 90 percent of the Popular votes in Upper West, we lost only one seat in Upper East [and won all in Upper West], why is it the case of the Northern Region that either in 2012,2016 or even 2020, the number of seats continues to go down?”

He said unlike other parts of Northern Ghana, divisions, and inability to forgive each other after parliamentary primaries among others were problems he said have continued to haunt the NDC in elections since 2012.

“Why is it that we cannot always let go, we cannot forgive?” he quizzed.

He mentioned Zabzugu, Tatale, Kpandai, Gushegu, and Karaga as some of the constituencies where such self-inflicted defeats occurred in the 2020 elections.

NDC must empower and prepare youth to take up positions

Lawyer Rauf urged the NDC to learn from the NPP to empower and prepare their youth to take up leadership positions in the party from the National to the constituency level.

He cited MP for Gushegu, Hassan Tampuli and Deputy Chief of Staff, Alhaji Fawaz as some examples of young people the NPP have deliberately prepared to contest parliamentary elections in the region.

He insisted that the NDC needed to emulate that, to ensure their seats and strongholds remained safe for the party.

Lawyer Rauf urged constituency youth organizers of the NDC to concentrate on maintaining seats that already belong to the NDC, saying that in the past, the party overly concentrated on snatching new seats, instead of paying attention to seats that it held.

He noted that this made their safe seats vulnerable, hence leading to the loss of some of those seats while trying to win seats that the NPP held.

The NDC Vice Chairman said while those at the constituency worked to maintain the NDC’s seats, the Regional and National Executives would develop and implement strategies to snatch seats from the NPP.