Mahama to offer ministerial post to Walewale PNC man

…In attempt to sink Bawumia

The run-up to the 2016 elections is set to see many twists and turns and intriguing moves in Northern Ghana as insider sources have confirmed to the paper that President John Mahama has initiated a full-scale onslaught to shut down the rise of NPP Vice-Presidential Candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on the Ghanaian political landscape.

To this extent, the paper can say authoritatively that at least one Ministerial portfolio has been offered to an indigene of the Mamprugu area in the next reshuffle in a deal meant to ensure that the NDC wins the Walewale seat in the 2016 Election.

The paper can report authoritatively that to President John Mahama and the NDC establishment, Dr. Bawumia has been identified as the biggest threat to the party and the President’s fortunes as his rise in popularity among various groups otherwise considered as NDC strongholds threaten the very heart of the party.

To quickly counter this threat, the President together with other key operations men in the NDC are said to have schemed to undertake a number of manoeuvres aimed at sweeping the carpet off the feet of the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana.

The jewel in the crown for the Mahama strategy is to retake the Walewale Parliamentary seat as this for the NDC will completely shut down the shining star of the Walewale indigene and send the clearest message to the Ghanaian electorate and NPP party whatever the outcome of the Presidential election, that Dr. Bawumia cannot be regarded as a potent force and is someone who has been rejected by his very constituency.

To achieve this, a high-powered meeting was held in parliament house three weeks ago with top ranking men, including General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, MP for Wa West, Rashid Pelpuo, MP for Tamale South and Haruna Iddrisu in attendance.

The one-agenda meeting discussed how best the NDC could win the Walewale Parliamentary seat with the dynamics at play and concluded with a decision to buy out former PNC Candidate for the area, Abdallah Abubakari, to cross carpet to the NDC and contest as the NDC’s candidate in the 2016 elections. The PNC candidate on his own pulled 10,171 votes in the 2012 Parliamentary polls and these votes for the NDC are key to turning over the constituency.

Wasting no time, the team, led by the General Secretary of the NDC quickly descended on Walewale where they held marathon meetings with various persons, chiefly, the PNC candidate for the 2012 election.

The paper understands that after various promises, including a promise to make him a Minister of State, should the NDC retain the presidency in 2016, a promise to pay him all the expenses he incurred in his last parliamentary bid amounting to some 350,000 Ghana cedis and to put him on a monthly salary of GH¢15,000 as well as bear all his campaign cost in the next election, Abdallah Abubakari is said to have agreed to the proposal and quickly announced his intention to contest on the ticket of the NDC to close friends and the PNC leadership in the constituency.

In order to kill two birds with a single stone, the delegation to Walewale also met the former Parliamentary candidate for the NDC in the 2012 election, Azortiba James, to assure him of a Deputy Ministerial job before the current term of John Mahama expires and other huge sums of monies. This move, according to insiders is meant to prevent the former candidate from contesting the primaries or going independent and to also attempt to appease the Mamprusi block who feels largely alienated by the Mahama government with no visible Mamprusi face in the Mahama government.

The Mamprugu area of the Northern region was one of the biggest waterloos for the NPP before the emergence of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia with the party’s Presidential ticket even failing to secure 10,000 votes in all three constituencies then in the area in the first round of the 2000 General Election.

However, with the emergence of the renowned economist, the NPP Presidential ticket garnered as much as 62,000 votes in the constituencies in the Mamprugu area in the disputed 2012 general elections.