The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) presidential Aspirant Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has urged delegates to reject the idea that the party is tribal and support him heavily in order to “Break the 8” in 2024.
He argued that he was the only candidate the opposition National Democratic conference (NDC) feared would appear on the presidential ballot and urged party members to rally behind ‘Team Bawumia’ by supporting him heavily at the party conference in November.
“I am the third person from the North to run in the party’s presidential primary, and all sixteen regions are behind Dr. Bawumia because I have what it takes to win the 2024 elections,” he stated.
“In the NPP, we’re attempting to achieve something that has never been done. We’re dismantling the Eight. I chose the form when the party opened the nomination period so I could split the eight votes for the New Patriotic Party, he claimed.
In an address to party members in Tumu prior to the polls on November 4, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia claimed there was good reason to pick him as the party’s leader because he had won all 16 regions in the Super Delegates Congress.
“Our opponents claim that we vote along tribal lines, which is contrary to our party’s history, antecedents, and history of defamation.
On November 4, 2023, we will convey a message that we are a national party to demonstrate to them that we are not a tribalistic party, Dr. Bawumia remarked.
Because we are made up of various political groups from across the nation, history teaches us that the party doesn’t indulge in tribal politics when we pick leaders.
The Anlo Youth Congress, the Ga People, the Muslim Association Party, the National Liberation Movement from Ashanti, and the Northern Peoples Party from the North all merged to form the United Party, which is now the NPP, and those are our forebears, he said.
The vice president emphasized that the Northern Peoples Party gained 12 seats in the 1954 elections whereas Busia’s party only secured one.
As a result, he claimed, the Northern People’s Party became the largest opposition group, but it also gave Professor Kofi Abrefa Busia the position of opposition leader, which “tells you one thing: the Northern People’s Party was not choosing leadership on tribal lines.”
He said that in recent history, former President John A. Kufuor’s opponent from the North, Alhaji Malik Alhassan Yakubu, was the first candidate from the North to run for the NPP. However, the people of the North chose Kufuor because the party preferred candidates who could win elections, he said.
He emphasized that this demonstrated the North’s lack of tribalism and that the North did not support Alhaji Malik Alhassan Yakubu.
The fact that Alhaji Aliu Mahama, of blessed memory, ran against the present president Akuffo Addo during that time period also demonstrated how the North voted for Nana Addo, thus demonstrating the fact that the party does not consistently cast its votes based on tribe, according to Dr. Bawumia.
When Adu Boahen ran for office, the Ashanti region voted for him from the Eastern area rather than Kufuor, who is from the Ashanti, he claimed, adding that the Ashanti do not vote along ethnic lines, thus their situation was the same as the North’s.
Since he had run for president four times and had been well-marketed, Vice President Bawumia claimed to be the most experienced candidate among those running right now.
“I know the crowd and the ground,” he told the delegates. “The party has marketed me across the country, and I know how to beat my opponent.”
In order to address the issue of the division between the government and party, Dr. Bawumia promised to provide each constituency ten appointments and each area twenty appointments.
While creating a database of the requirements of the party members, he declared that he would make the designated individuals, particularly those working in state institutions, the Godfathers and God Mothers of the constituency.