Politics not about height – Samira Bawumia

Politics is not about height, Mrs Samira Bawumia has said.

On August 14, Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, during the governing National Democratic Congress’ campaign launch in the Central Regions, said the race to the Flagstaff House in the 2016 elections will not be determined by “how short one is” or “the kind of spectacles” any presidential aspirant wore.

Without specifically mentioning names, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Odododiodio said: “Being a president is not about being tall. It is not about how short a person is. Being a president is not about the spectacles that one wears but the love for one’s country and its people and finding solutions that will benefit citizens.”

This, he said, Mr Mahama had demonstrated by “eradicating the plight of citizens” in his first tenure.

In a veiled response to Mr Vanderpuye, Mrs Bawumia told supporters of the NPP in Agbozume in the Ketu South Municipality of the Volta Region on Wednesday August 24 that: “Politics is not about who is tall or short, but the one who can bring proper development to the people.”

She also said the NDC has nothing to show for the excessive money it has borrowed over the past four years of the Mahama administration.

According to her, although the nation has been blessed with crude oil in commercial quantities, the government has been engaged in excessive borrowing with little or nothing to show for those loans. "The interest alone we [Ghanaians] are paying on debts is more than the allocation they give to six ministries including education and health. There is still nothing for the NDC to show for the excessive borrowing except for unnecessary expenditure.”

Mrs Bawumia also used the occasion to disabuse the mindset of Ghanaians that the NPP is anti-Muslim. "The NPP is the first party to have a Muslim as a vice president in Ghana. Former President Kufuor wouldn't have chosen the Late Alhaji Aliu Mahama as Vice President. They also said NPP will drive away Zongo people if voted into power. How can the NPP drive away Zongo people when NPP is Zongo?”