…accuses national executives of scheming for Bawumia
The camp of the Trade and Industry Minister, John Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, is accusing everybody who seemed to have played a role at the just-ended National Delegates’ conference held at Kumasi in the Ashanti region by the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Individual members of the Alan for President 2024 team, feels that things in the party, are tilted in favour of Vice-President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, to lead the governing party in the 2024 general elections, as its presidential candidate.
According to Abraham Boadi, the ex-Member of Parliament for Lawra Constituency in the Upper West Region and the former National Youth Organizer who is vying for National Organizer slot of the party in the upcoming national executive elections sometime next year, were biased as Masters of Ceremony (MCs) at the Kumasi event.
The duo; Henry Nana Boakye, popularly known as Nana B and Anthony Abayefa Karbo, did the bidding of Dr Bawumia, using the microphone.
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But this is not the first time, Alan Kyerematen is crying foul over the NPP presidential elections. Since 2007, the camp has always accused national executives of unfairness.
The Akufo-Addo camp, has borne the brunt of these accusations which in 2008, led to Alan’s sensational resignation from the NPP on claims that his supporters had been beaten by elements in the camp of Akufo-Addo.
Since then, the Alan camp, has been crying foul in every Presidential primaries of the now governing party.
Abraham Boadi, said the two as MCs for the day, used the platform to project the Vice President.
He said, despite the schemes put up by the two MCs at the conference to forcibly project the Vice President, the scheme failed to fly as the delegates refused to applaud him (Dr Bawumia) after he finished delivering his speech.
He questioned why the sitting president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was made to assume his seat on the dais before the arrival of the Vice president. This, he said, has never happened in the history of the party’s protocol.
He said, MCs at the event broke protocol just to shore up the popularity of the Vice President.
The spokesperson for Alan Kyerematen, who is also the Minister for Trade and Industry in the Ashanti Region, made these allegations against the two MCs on Accra-based Happy FM on Monday, December 20, 2021.
Mr Boadi, who was a former Presiding Member (PM) for the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) singled out Madam Catherine Afeku, the only female among the two male MCs for praise, for being fair to all the aspirants present at the conference.
He emphasized that when it was her turn to MC the conference, Ms. Afeku, exhibited extreme fairness to all the presidential aspirants present at the conference.
The former Assemblyman for the Nyiaeso Electoral area in the Ashanti region asked Mr Boakye and Mr Karbo to bow their heads in shame for using the party’s platform to do the bidding of the Vice President.
Mr Boadi, also known in the political circles as ‘Oppoman’ further accused Mr Boakye of leading the chart to rent a crowd for the Vice President at the conference.
Prior to the conference, a Media Consultant, Raymond Ablorh, had urged the camp of Kyeremanten to disallow any proposal that will give Dr Bawumia undue advantage in the 2023 primaries.
He said they must be prepared to ‘fight’ hard just as President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his supporters did to secure his presidential ambition. In a statement issued on Friday, Mr Ablor said “NPP Executives Trying to Send NASARA to the Polling Stations Level to Consolidate Islamic Votes for Bawumia.
“The proposal to change the incumbent NPP’s NASARA Co-ordinator’s position to NASARA Organiser and move them down to the polling stations level is one of the ways Muhammadu Bawumia’s supporters among the NPP leadership are seeking to help him consolidate Islamic votes during the primaries.
“That move they estimate shall guarantee the Vice President over 40,000 votes ahead of the contest. “Some party people I spoke with agree with Mr Daniel Christian Dugan, Former Deputy Minister of the Women and Children Ministry under John Kufuor that the party is treading on dangerous grounds with dire implications.
“To make NASARA present in all polling stations including places where there are no Zongos is to directly send Zongo votes there which is questionable.”
Interestingly, the NPP MP for the Kwadaso Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Dr. Kingsley Nyarko, has also been explaining himself on why he and his colleagues MPs in the region escorted the Vice-President to the event ground.
He said it is custom for MPs to accompany the President or Vice to the podium at any official function.
Dr. Nyarko, noted that it is wrong for anyone to say MPs are in support of the Vice President’s flagbearership bid, especially at a time where nominations have not been opened for the party’s internal contest.
At the NPP’s delegates conference held in the Ashanti Region over the weekend, MPs at the Heroes Park rose to escort the Vice President to the podium and this was interpreted as they (MPs) showing support for Dr. Bawumia’s candidature for flagbearer.
In an interview on Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show, Dr Kingsley Nyarko said, “You know MPs always rise to escort the President to the platform when he is coming for an event and I think this is not something new. The Vice President came to the conference and we rose to walk him to the podium and that is just what happened and nothing more.”
According to him, walking someone to the podium does not mean you support the individual or they will even win an election.
The MP urged Ghanaians to rather focus on the positives of the delegates conference rather than focus on who walked Dr. Bawumia to the podium.
“We need to focus on the important things and leave the rest. It is not time to discuss who will lead the party in the next election yet. There are important matters at heart and those are what we need to focus on if we want the gov’t to succeed, hence national development,” he added.
