Last Thursday at Alisa Hotel in Accra, an event of great political significance was unfolded before the prying lenses, recorders and microphones of media practitioners in the country.
The National Council of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) met to take certain key decisions to enhance the party’s agenda to ‘break the eight’. The presidential candidate of the NPP, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, introduced his choice of running mate to the National Council for the endorsement of members.
We are told all the party leaders, so qualified to be present at the National Council, unanimously endorsed Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, popularly called Napo, as the running mate of the Vice President putting paid to months of jostling among some leading members of the party to be considered as running mate.
Prior to last Thursday’s National Council meeting, scores of NPP personalities have been featured in the media as better choices to partner Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in the crucial December 7, 2024 polls. Journalists and media owners also had a field day featuring those they consider to be qualified to partner the Vice President.
Sometimes the struggle to catch the attention of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was so intense that some shadowy groups within the party threatened not to vote if their choice is not given the opportunity. It is sad that after Thursday’s event, some elements within the party think the Vice President has made the wrong choice.
Be that as it may, we think the leadership of the party, led by the National Chairman, Stephen Ayesu Ntim can find ways to mend the fences so that the party can go into the electoral battle in unity and work hard to ‘break the eight’. What the NPP must be ready for is the NDC agenda to let loose its guard dogs to attack the reputation of Napo and seek alliance with some irresponsible and stomach journalists to smear him in the media.
Napo is not new to the political space, but we want to remind him about the desperation in the camp of the NDC. Long before Napo was chosen by the Vice President as his running mate, the NDC and its media allies have tagged Napo as arrogant.
In our part of the world, we hate people with conviction who are prepared to speak their mind on any subject. When such characters emerge on the political scene, they are tagged as arrogant and disrespectful. We as students of history want to remind Matthew Opoku Prempeh that these propagandists did the same thing to the sitting President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
And because President Akufo-Addo refused to be distracted by the naysayers, he won the elections in 2016 and retained power in 2020. It is for this reason that we urge Napo to stay focused in the task to be the number two gentleman in January 2025.
In the coming days, the NDC and other detractors will start a ferocious campaign to break his resolve to attract more votes from the Ashanti Region and among the youth of the country.
Prior to this epoch-making event, John Mahama had picked Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang as his running mate, who has so far not been able to energise the NDC campaign. Nonetheless, we see interesting times ahead as the electioneering gears up to the finish line in December. Prior to that(thanks to the NDC communicator’s coinage in explaining the 24-hour economy to include the rearing of lions), interesting times lie ahead, especially when the running mates of the two major political parties, the NPP and the NDC, have served as Ministers of Education over the last decade or so.
Grandma Jane Naana and youthful Napo served as Ministers of Education from 2013 to 2017 and 2017 to 2021 respectively. The two personalities have the responsibility to tell Ghanaians how they managed the education sector during their tenure.
It is about the reality of their service to mother Ghana and not the rhetoric associated with our politics since independence. We are excited about the future regardless of what the doomsday prophets in the NDC would say. Again, for the presidential candidates of the NPP and NDC, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and John Mahama, respectively, the electorate expect them to share with them their experiences and achievements as Vice Presidents.
