It is five days now since the NPP gained 14,380 votes to claim the seat that was vacated by Ibn Chambas the current Executive Secretary of the ECOWAS.
The NDC, which won the seat in 2000 with Dr. Ibn Chambas as its candidate could only muster 9,080 to run a distant second.
Following on the heels of the NDC was PNC, which polled 605, an Independent candidate, Idi Aziz Iddisah had 289, Ward Brew’s DPP had 144 votes and Dan Lartey’s GCPP had 144.
With this victory the prediction the "Ghanaian Voice" made a week ago had come to pass.
This victory of the governing NPP has upset the prediction of knowledgeable political pundits because in the main it was thought that the NDC’s strategy of reserving the Wulensi constituency to a Kokomba was going to bear fruits but with hindsight NPP people has strategize and beat the NDC people to their own game.
In fact the whole tables were turned to a different direction when master strategist Jake Obetseibi Lamptey who is still the National Campaign Manager for NPP zoomed into the constituency and he had more then enough raw material to work with.
It was believed that the Nanumbas who are the Tribesmen of Ibn Chambas advised party that they going to throw their weight behind the Kokombas. The strategy of the NPP was to convince the electorate in the constituency that at least the NPP Government has honored Dr. Ibn Chambas who was all the time playing a second fiddle at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Education during the administration of the PNDC/NDC.
To them this showed that the NDC intentionally sidelined Dr. Ibn Chambas who was even qualified to be the Leader of the NDC.
To them the compromise they reached that a Kokomba should stand at Bimbilla was a matter political expedient.
Apart from this whilst the NDC field men were in the main staying in Tamale and driving to Bimbilla every day, Dan Botwe, Lord Commey, the Deputy Minister for Manpower Development and Employment etc. pitched camp in Bimbilla had made the people to believe that they are part of them.
Aside from the Vice President Aliu Mahama who is a native son of the Northern Region was probably considered the Bimbilla by-election as a test of his popularity in the region? His strategy of worshiping indifferent mosques at various times was seen as an identification of his relationship with the mosque worshipers.
There is also another side of Vice President Aliu’s contribution to NPP victory.
This dates back to the time when he was not even the Vice President of this country.
"Ghanaian Voice" gathered that when he was a private contractor with LIBERAL he used to provide sheep for the less privileged during the Ramadan season. Even though as the Vice President he does not have the means to do it so his friends are doing it on his behalf.
We also found out that the Northerners who are always afraid because they are tacked as so called aliens feel comfortable and secure under the Vice Presidency of Aliu Mahama. We were told that this is because his own father migrated from Kano and settled at Yendi where he married two wives.
These are the forces the NDC had to contend with. But they were behaving as if they were still in government expecting people to carry out their instructions without "paying" for them.
They forget that the days of using people without paying for their services are gone forever.
As one voter told this reporter at Bimbilla most of the people in this constituency are rich. "We never had it so good. We wish the other election will come out tomorrow"
It is a matter of not going into politics should one give promises, that one is not in a position to fulfill.
From now up to 2004 the NPP has the capacity to help improve the lots of the people. The NDC must be told that this is not the time to reply on empty promises if it hopes to win power in 2004.
This is a lesson to the upcoming election in Wulensi and the sooner the NDC stopped directing the electioneering campaign from Accra the better it will be for it.
