The Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has narrated how he nearly convinced President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to drop Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as his running mate for the 2012 elections.

Speaking in an interview on Kumasi-based Pure FM, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, said that his choice of running-mate for the 2012 presidential election was the current Minister for Interior, Ambrose Dery.

He added that he wanted Bawumia to be dropped because the party lost the 2008 election with him as the running mate and he believed Dery was the best choice.

“In 2012 when I was the minority leader, I didn’t root for Bawumia. My choice (for running mate) was Ambrose Dery. He was my deputy and I wanted the president to pick him.

“I sat with the president and he asked me why I wanted him to pick Ambrose Dery and I told him that if he wants to go according to our traditions; Ambrose is a Northerner, he is not that old.

“Number 3, I thought Ambrose was much more political because Kufour made him Upper West Regional Minister, later he became a minister of state at the Ministry of Justice… so I believed that in terms of politics, he was more mature,” he said in Twi.

The majority leader, who is also the Member of Parliament for Suame, added that he wanted Dery to be Akufo-Addo’s running mate because he was a Dagaaba, the second-largest ethnic group from the northern part of the country since the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had lost the support of the largest ethnic group, the Dagomdas.

He, however, indicated that Akufo-Addo managed to convince him that Bawumia was the best choice for the NPP for many reasons including the fact that he was an economist while Dery was a lawyer.

Watch Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu’s remarks in the video below: (From 1:07:00)



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