By Abdul Razak Bawa
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.
Lately and since the resignation of Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanten as the minister of Trade and Industry, his followers, have been chanting an old mantra, which was being echoed sometime back. Time Aso, to witit is time or Aduro Wu Su, to wit it is your turn.
Time Asoor Aduro Wu Su that continue to dog Alan is not new. This has been part of his political diary since he declared to contest for the flagbearership of the party
His supporters are resorting to fuzzy math, half-truths, and even outright falsehoods to confuse delegates of the party to vote for him.
As a student of politics, the first question I ask myself, after I listen to Alan’s followers say, this is his time, what has Alan kyeremanten done for the NPP and Ghana, to even suggest this is his time.
His supporters foolishly argue that, after Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the next in line is Alan Kyeremanten, but what they forget is his only claim to the flagbearership of the NPP, was that in 2006, John Agyekum Kufuor, who was the then president and leader of the NPP, decided against conventional wisdom to impose his tribesman on the delegates of the party.
President Kufour, who was almost done with his two 4-year tenures, instead of supporting his vice president, Alhaji Aliu Mahama to succeed him, chose to bring from political obscurity his fellow Ashanti man to take over from him. Until that time little was known of Alan, as far as the NPP and Ghana is concerned.
Not only was that decision a bad one, but that one that almost dented the achievements of a man, many Ghanaians have come to love after leaving office.
As an astute politician, with many years of experience, Kufuor was expected to rise above tribal consideration and put to rest the widely held view that, the NPP is anti-northerners by supporting his vice, who at the time had served him, the NPP and Ghana well, despite that , as of 2006, they was no way any candidate, could have beaten Nana Akufo-Addo, who had paid his dues not only to the party, but to Ghana.
Where was Alan Kyereamnten in the fight for the restoration of democracy, where was Alan, when the NPP, fought against an incumbent government, which had ruled Ghana for 19 years. Where was Alan when the stolen verdict was written?
We know the names that stood out and were counted, when only few dared to speak. Those who defied the PNDC and NDC era to take part in series of demonstration that had ensure that, Ghana became a beacon of democracy and rule of law and during all these times Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanten was nowhere to be found.
I remember vividly, how appointees were vilified and those who refused or failed to support Alan’s bid to lead the party were sacked by president Kufuor. The resources of the State were put at his disposal for campaign, including military aircrafts.
There was one instance, when Hackman Owusu Agyeman was meeting delegates in one of the Upper regions, when it was announced that, Alan Kyeremanten, had just landed with a military aircraft, the delegates abandoned Hackman to go and meet Alan, because he had the money to spread around.
The name Alan Cash, was not earned through hard work or any resourcefulness, but because he had state money sponsored by president Kufouor to spend.
When it was the time of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to lead the NPP, they was no dispute about it because he had been in the struggle for the restoration of multi-party democracy since 1972, during the Acheampong regime. He was one of the lone voices that were heard during the PNDC regime, he was among the few that defied the odds during the military regime, organizing and taking part in demonstration until the Fourth republic was birthed. He was among the founding fathers of the NPP, so his contribution to both party and nation was never in doubt.
So when he defeated Alan in 2006 in a context that witnessed the introduction of money in our body politics, it was a well-deserved victory.
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s story has taken a lot of time, deploying patience to sustain a steady trajectory that has seen him rise to greatness, from the time he was chosen in 2006, as the running mate of Nana Akufo-Addo, till 2012, when he finally matured into the game.
He was a political neophyte, he was not known to the NPP, and Ghanaians know little of him, except as a deputy governor of Bank of Ghana.
He is smart and gifted, these combined with patience, political brinkmanship and ultimately God’s blessings have all come together to make him best suited to lead the NPP.
When he stepped in as the star witness for Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP, during the 2012 Election Petition, he finally established himself as having arrived. It was a task few people could be able to stand.
When the petitioners failed to convinced the Supreme Court to grant their reliefs, Dr Bawumia, set out to ensure that the party won the 2016 election.
It is a fact that, he won the 2016 election for the NPP and Nana Addo. His series of lectures attacking former president John Dramani Mahama and his government was what convinced Ghanaians that, indeed the NPP has the men.
He spent most of his time in the three northern regions and it paid off. He single-handedly won the three northern regions FOR Akufo-Addo, while doing that, he won some parliamentary seats for the party for the first time since 1992.
He again campaigned vigorously for the party to win the 2020 election.
The record is there for anyone who wishes to compare, Alan comes nowhere close to Dr Bawumia. If Aduro Wu Su, must mean something, it should rather be Bawumia, who should lay claim to that statement.
The Vice-President has the growing body of the young and upwardly mobile sections of the country rooting for him.
Dr Bawumia, can also count on the professionals and the intelligentsia who see in him the embodiment of the modern, urbane articulate and liberal-minded politician.
By all reckoning, Bawumia is by far the more politically grounded and experienced of the two. Indeed it must be said that at first glance, the contest between them may appear to be almost a walkover for him.
Alan believes 2024 belongs to him because he was a chosen candidate of president Kufuor and because Akufo-Addo, had told him, to wait and come after him. Nothing belongs to him. The presidency is not a compensatory gift for him.
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