Investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, has lambasted some leading figures with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who are calling for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to be dropped from the flagbearership race because of his ethnicity.
Manasseh in a lengthy write up on his Facebook Wall, November 1st, recounted the sacrifices the 2024 Flag bearer of the NPP made for the party including standing in as a witness in a televised petition during the 2012 election petition that caught the attention of many Ghanaians and made him a lover boy whom most party folks at that time wanted to lead the party in the 2016 elections.
“Some top NPP members I interviewed for my book said Dr. Bawumia’s acceptance to testify was an act of bravery and sacrifice, for it had the potential to obliterate his political career”, portion of the post read.
“Some top NPP guns even tinkered with the idea that he should be fielded as the party’s candidate for 2016.”
He bemoaned the sickening treatment Bawumia is now facing in the hands of the same party fateful because of his tribe. NPP has long been tagged as an Akan party and people who are from different tribes are not fully welcome to take up higher positions in the party according to Manasseh’s post.
He buttressed his point with a statement made by the Member of Parliament for Asante Akim South, Kwaku Asante Boateng.
He wrote: “The vilest of all tribal vitriol against Bawumia came this week from the Member of Parliament for Asante Akim South, Kwaku Asante Boateng.
In an interview granted on Adom FM, the MP is quoted as saying the following about Dr. Bawumia’s desire to lead the party: “When there is a vacant seat in the family to be filled, you don’t give it to an outsider who was brought into the family to serve. You don’t elevate an outsider or a slave who was brought in to serve to the highest seat.
We brought Bawumia and made him Vice President and that should be enough. You don’t elevate such an outsider to the main seat. He has been honoured with the Vice President and that should be enough. He was an outsider who just served us.”
He believes such comments put people who are non-Akans as low class citizens in the New Patriotic Party, a situation the party has to take critical steps to address.
He further admonished the party to desist from attacking the personality of non-Akan people who want to hold critical positions in the party but rather judge them based on their competence and character.
“Indeed, Dr. Bawumia has served the party, as you admit. In 2016, he worked like a donkey. He took all the bullets, and much of the political wounds he continues to nurse today were sustained on the campaign battlefield. His services helped to win the election. That victory put the party in power, where some of you have made hundreds of millions and billions through multiple lucrative government contracts.”
“If Dr. Bawumia is seeking to lead your party, judge him on the content of his character and whether he has paid his dues. Anything short of this would not be an attack against not only Bawumia, but everyone who does not belong to the dominant ethnic group whose hegemony you seek to perpetuate”, he cautioned.
