Bawumia As A Northerner And Muslim Cannot Lead NPP – Alan Boy Confirms What NDC Have Always Said

E.G Buckman, a staunch Alan Kyerematen supporter has opined that fielding Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as the NPP’s candidate in 2024 will be an expensive experiment.

In a rather shocking opinion, the former constituency youth organizer of the NPP in Cape Coast has claimed that the Party’s ideal trump card to Victory will be to field a Southerner Christian as flagbearer and a Muslim-Northerner running mate.

Read excerpts of his full write-up below….

It is early days yet but the coordinated attempt by a group of people to forcefully push the Bawumia agenda on social media has compelled me to write this piece.

I write to bring the minds of the NPP supporters across the country to certain significant political realities that are either deliberately or naively being ignored by those who are behind this social media action.

Political parties are formed with the sole objective to win political power from the people for the good of the people. Political parties do not produce power on their own.

What they do is that they produce people and manifestoes for power from the people. Political power resides with the people who at every election decide which political party is good enough to govern them based on the candidates and manifestoes they present.

In other words, political parties can be viewed as production units that produce candidates and manifestoes and offer them for sale on the political market for profit (power).

One major mistake most of the political parties make is that they rarely take into consideration the nature and dynamics of the political market when deciding on which candidates to produce for an election. These days most delegates only take into consideration the highest payer.

Political parties usually have the erroneous impression that those who have been voting for them in previous elections would always vote for them regardless of their conduct and the type of candidate and manifesto they present to them.

Truth be told, no political party can win an election with its core or registered supporters. Political parties would necessarily have to appeal to people who are called the floating voters before they can win elections.

So, when a political party makes a decision that tends to cause disaffection among a section of its core members, its electoral fortunes dwindle significantly in an election.

In the last elections, some decisions which turned out to be detrimental cost the party a great deal of political fortune. In 2023, the party will be making a very critical decision that will significantly determine who will lead the party to victory in the 2024 elections.

The decision-makers (the delegates) can either get it right or get it wrong. If they allow money alone to be the determining factor, they would get it wrong.

Again, if they don’t broaden their horizon of thinking and take into account certain critical factors, particularly the ones that pertain to the peculiar nature and dynamics of the Ghanaian political market, they would surely get it wrong. 

I really don’t expect every NPP member to agree with me on the issues raised in this piece, but if you are a member or sympathizer of the party who cares about the 2024 elections, dispassionately reflect on every one of the issues raised below and possibly share with your NPP friends.    

The Winning Formula that must Stand

A winning formula is hard to come by and so when you are fortunate to find one, you keep it conscientiously, especially when you find yourself in a very competitive environment.

The NPP has derived for itself a winning formula that has proven to be almost perfect since the year 2000. The wisdom of those party fathers who came up with this gift of formula to the party must be appreciated and respected.

Without doubt, the formula was derived based on the nature and dynamics of the Ghanaian political market.

Here is the power-winning formula: A Southerner Christian and a Northerner Muslim. And, as I mentioned, it has almost worked to perfection over the years.

In the year 1998, after winning the party’s presidential primary, J. A. Kufuor used this formula to secure political power in the 2000 elections with 56.9% and used the same formula to retain the power in 2004 with 52.4%.

In the year 2008, candidate Nana Addo used this same formula when he combined with Dr. Bawumia for the first time.

The two almost broke through the two terms wall to secure third term for the party.

The party narrowly lost the election in the second round after leading in the first round.

That narrow painful defeat had nothing to do with the formula. It had everything to do with certain avoidable mistakes the party committed internally.

In 2012, Nana Addo, seeing the efficacy of the formula, repeated it and, in my opinion, won the election which was stolen from him. It ended up in court but the Supreme Court upheld the declaration of the Electoral Commission.

Interestingly, it was this same formula that won the NPP power in both 2016 and 2020 elections with 53.7% and 51.30% respectively. Note this, in their 2008 and 2012 victories, the NDC only managed to win by 50.2% and 50.7% respectively.

They couldn’t make 51%. This serves as clear evidence of the efficacy of the NPP’s formula.

So, what would cause a political party to want to change its winning formula? It is really unthinkable that a political party that just won an election would want to change its winning formula when it is so obvious that such a change will cost the party a significant political fortune.

Could it be that a few selfish individuals want to perpetuate and guard their political gains and interest at all cost even if it will cause the party to lose power?

Those who are behind this blatantly unwise move must be made to understand that the core objective of the party which is to win political power for the general good of the people of Ghana is more imperative than any individual or group’s selfish interest.

The most derisory argument I have heard so far from those who are pushing the Bawumia agenda is this: over the years the NDC have been accusing us of being an Akan party, so this is an opportunity for us to change that narrative or tag.

But wait a minute, would the NDC have accused the NPP if they thought their formula was that bad? Certainly not! And would you change your winning formula because your political rival accuses you of it? Isn’t it a common knowledge that children only throw stones at ripened mangoes?

At the right time, we expect the party members to elect the right person who would follow the same winning formula to break down the third term wall to victory in 2024.

The Nature and Dynamics of the Ghanaian Political Market

Every four years, political parties produce presidential candidates and offer them for sale on the political market so as to win political power from the people for the people.

Election results over the years have shown that the market is very competitive and volatile. It is therefore imperative that before any political party decides on its presidential candidate, a careful market SWOT analysis should be conducted to ascertain which of the potential candidates is more viable and marketable relative to the market.

After all, a good product is determined by the consumers, not by the producer. The first principle of selling has always been to sell a product the buyers will be willing and able to buy easily.

A prudent producer doesn’t produce without taking into account the nature and behavior of the market in which he or she intends to sell.

In Ghana’s political market, certain striking features stand out. First, the market is dominated by Christians in terms of numbers. They constitute about 72% of the market.

Again, women constitute about 50% of the market. If truth be told, any presidential candidate who can overwhelmingly garner the support of these two groups of people can easily win elections.

Besides, as mentioned, the market is highly competitive and volatile. The competitiveness and volatility of the market means any small mistake by the party holding the political power can cause power to shift.

Therefore, any serious party that wants to win and keep political power should not overlook these facts about the political market when selecting a candidate.

In Senegal, for example, where the political market is completely dominated by Muslims, political parties would not dare to present non-Muslim candidates to win political power no matter how good that person is.

This is not religious discrimination or favoritism, neither does it suggest that non-Muslims in the country are second class citizens. It simply means political wisdom is being applied to win political power. Remember the first principle of politics is POWER.

I have always opined that a person does not sell pork in a Jewish or Muslim community and make profit. In a country where about 72% of the people are Christians, the last thing a political party would want to do is to put up a non-Christian candidate against a Christian candidate of the rival party.

It would not make political sense at all. If the NPP really want to win the 2024 presidential election, then the earlier this political delusion is sacrificed on the altar of reality the better.

Why would people want to delude themselves into thinking that a well-packaged fresh apple will be preferred to a partly-rotten banana in a monkey sanctuary! It’s really baffling! Maybe people don’t value political power anymore. This is where the wisdom in the fathers’ winning formula comes to the fore.

One significant truth we must come to terms with is that not every Ghanaian chooses politics over faith. In every society there are people who are religious or faith fanatics.

To such people, faith comes way ahead of anything else, including politics. Such people would always vote along faith lines when the opportunity presents itself. This is an undeniable fact that needs no debate.

Therefore, a wise political party must necessarily take into account the influence of these large groups of people when making political decisions, particularly the choice of a candidate to lead the party in an election, especially when the margins of victory have been mostly negligible over the years.

Once again, let it be reiterated that when a political party does that it doesn’t mean the party is engaging in religious discrimination or favoritism. It only means the political party is prudently applying political wisdom to win political power.

As indicated, sometimes, in order to get the needed result out of a situation, one has to painfully sacrifice one’s personal ambition on the altar of reality.

In the coming months, we expect wisdom to prevail over wishful thinking to save the party from needless internal squabbling, as everything shows 2024 elections are going to be the toughest ever.

If you are an NPP member or sympathizer, let me humbly ask you to allow this political sense to saturate your political consciousness.

Source: GhanaFeed.Com