Veep Campaigns with Full State Protocol

After clearing with his boss, and subsequently openly declaring his decision to run, the 61 year old quantity surveyor and Vice President of the Republic, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, hit the road last Thursday enveloping Ashanti region in one massive thunderbolt of a campaign that may scare his competitors with relatively superior ‘firepower’.

His incursion into the NPP’s heartland for the massive convention witnessed his aides chief of Staff Armiyyao who had previously been watering the ground in a pre- campaign blitz, a couple of televison and radio commentators, and large fleet of cars in the usual Vice Presidential convoy, a complement of security detail complete full protocol as though he was on an official trip for government business.

Escorted by horn-tooting police motorbikes, he landed at Gifty Ohene Konadu’s Asante-Akim South capital of Juaso, on Thursday, where he interacted with constituency executives for close to thirty minutes then headed for Baah Wiredu’s Asante-Akim North constituency where he interacted with local party leaders at Konongo before leaving for Bosome-Freho constituency.

At about 6pm on the same day, the former Managing Director of Civil Engineering and General Construction Firm - LIDRA Limited and now the second most powerful person of the land then moved on to the regional capital, Kumasi.

His regional campaign team led by defeated Regional Chairman contender and former Ghana National Petroleum senior staff, Mr. George Ayisi Boateng had gotten executives from the ten constituencies in the capital and their colleagues from the troubled Kwabre West constituency of the Ashanti Regional Minister, to meet the Vice president that night.

Aliu, accompanied by his two aides Alhaji Armiyao and Mr. Buabeng Asamoah, who used to work on Ghana Intergrity Initiative and now a speech writer for the Veep, together with popular TV and radio commentators, Owula Mangotey and Awal Mohammed arrived in the Garden city around 7:15pm and by 7:45 pm all the 110 executives from all the 11 constituencies had gathered at the Residency, (official government residence in the region) for the commencement of the meeting. It was held at the same hall where President Kufuor was alleged to have issued his ‘fatwa’ against aspirants he had sacked as Ministers.

The campaign message of Aliu was simple, “with me as your candidate, the cost of campaigning that the party would have to bear would be reduced because I will still be the Vice President during the campaign season. I am the only one who knows everything at the Castle and I am the only one among the aspirants who has acted as president of this nation for over hundred days.”

He told the party leaders that people have been criticizing the president for traveling a lot and said President Kufuor does not have difficulties in traveling to bring the various investments because he knows that in his absence, there will always be a competent person to hold the fort.

He however did not disclose any specific governmental initiative he had embarked upon and the current state of his known singular initiative, “Campaign against indiscipline.”

Aliu, who had managed to avoid the Obasanjo/Atiku or the Mbeki/Zuma wars with President Kufuor over the last seven years despite speculations about the president’s support for another aspirant, told the potential delegates that, out of respect, he sought the permission of the president before declaring his intention and that should tell all about how submissive he was as a leader.

He also told the party executives that his experience as Vice President for two terms makes him stand tall among the others contenders. “As vice president, I am known every where both locally and internationally. There will not be any difficulty in marketing myself to the people,” the Vice President rapped his listeners.

Many have said he had not brought much on board as far as the support base of the party in the North and Zongo communities were concerned, but Aliu said no to that. He told them that the support base of the party in the Northern parts of the country had increased tremendously since 2000.

The Vice President cited that in the 2000 elections for example, the party obtained 15% votes from the Upper West region and in 2004, it shot up to 34%, something he attributes to his inclusion in the team. At the end of the meeting, ¢33million was dropped on the table to be shared by the participants at the meeting. It was shared equally, ¢3million per constituency, ¢300,000 per participant.

“This was peanuts, compared to the ¢1million that was given to constituency executives who attended the Techiman meeting of Alan Kyeremanten. But the Vice President promised to be back in September and we expect an increase at that time,” one constituency officer told The Chronicle.

BRONG AHAFO

On Friday, Aliu and his team moved to the Brong Ahafo region where he addressed an Islamic programme at Prang and later got constituency executives from Yeji, Kwame Danso, Atebubu and Ejura brought together for a meeting at the residence of the District Chief Executive for Atebubu, Cassius Osei Poku. At this meeting the Vice President re-echoed his Kumasi message to the potential delegates and appealed to them to help him graduate to Kufuor’s position.

On his way back to Kumasi, he met with constituency executives of Agona, Mampong and Kwame Osei Prempeh’s Nsuta Kwaman Beposo and arrived in Kumasi late in the evening. Saturday was another day for Aliu to continue with the preaching of his gospel to the delegates in other constituencies of the Ashanti region. But before he started, his boss, the president, was in town to attend a funeral and Aliu had to pay some courtesy to the President before departing for the Obuasi areas.

Later in the day, the Vice President met with party leaders from Fomena, New Edubiase, Adansi Asokwa, Obuasi and Bekwai. At all the meetings, the same message was preached and the amount per constituency was the same. He visited a few other constituencies yesterday morning and left for his home region, the Northern region, where he is expected to meet with executive of Kumbugu and Yendi constituencies before a meeting in Tamale today.

When contacted yesterday about how the campaign of Aliu was going, one of the Special Assistants to the Vice President, Alhaji Armiyao, told The Chronicle that he was not well and so was not part of the team. He said he could therefore not speak on how the campaigning was moving and on where specifically the campaign team was.

On his part, Mr. Buabeng Asamoah, Special Assistant of the Veep, said the Vice President was on a ‘working tour’ of the Ashanti region and noted that he was at Yendi and was not at a convenient place to talk to the paper on the issue. This was not true. He actually told the press that he would brief them after the meeting which was reserved for party people.

Buabeng had been a regular visitor at the Chronicle and actually worked with Chronicle’s Assistant news editor, William Nyarko, on a project before landing the Job at GII.