Aliu Mahama

It must be Aliu Mahama

There is a popular American saying, “why fixed something that has not spoilt.” The believe is that President Kufuor and Aliu Mahama led NPP administration had done well; and so far all the aspirants including delegates and supporters have based their campaign messages to the people of Ghana on the excellent achievements of this team. That said, why should we as a party want to change this winning team?

The programme and policies that have attracted a lot of goodwill for the NPP and are likely to propel the party to a 3rd successive victory were jointly championed by the President and his Vice. President Kufuor led administration has set in motion tremendous socio – economic and political programmes. Delegates of NPP, if you have the No. 2 (Aliu Mahama) with the No. 1 (President Kufuor) of this dream team leaving, why will any election winning minded person by – pass the Second – In – Command (2IC) by bringing somebody who is relatively new to experiment with his ideas, and destroy what has been laid down by President kufuor and Aliu Mahama presidency.


The Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama has brought all these aspirants especially the former Minister - aspirants under his leadership as the Acting President and Acting Chairmen of Cabinet for 2 – 3 years out of the 7years rule of the NPP government distinctively without a single problem. He has coordinated and organised all these big brains creditably as well as making sure that they come out with good results. Many Ghanaians believe that it will even not be out of place, if Alhaji Aliu Mahama should be described as a Co – President to President Kufuor since he has presided over the nation for almost half of the 7years.


I have not heard anybody whether NPP or not, saying Aliu Mahama has failed in his capacity as the Vice President. I have also not heard any of the aspirants saying Aliu has failed to perform as the Vice President, Acting President and Acting Chairman of government business (Cabinet), not for a single day. He is the only aspirant Ghanaians have never complained about his job. The smearing campaign against the Vice President has being that “he was not part of us.”


In the face of this, the Vice President has shown that he is a true party man, unlike those who go about trumpeting to the whole world what they claimed to have done for the party. If not to score cheap political points, nobody can say that the Vice President was not part of the NPP tradition. Aliu Mahama has remained one of the major financial contributors of NPP since 1992. The conservative NPP I know wouldn’t have accepted Aliu Mahama to occupy the 2nd highest position if he wasn’t part of the tradition. In 2000, he campaigned throughout every single corner of this country to make sure that NPP secure victory that year. Aliu was re - nominated 2004 by President Kufuor and overwhelmingly endorsed by the whole party. So what are the detractors saying?

The Vice President’s contribution in terms of votes canvassing from the Northern Regions out stage any of the aspirants contributions from their constituencies towards the popular votes of NPP in 2000 and 2004. Bearing in mind that, NPP had only 3 seats in the Northern Region, no seat in both Upper East and West before 2000; when Aliu became the Vice Presidential Candidate in 2000, NPP got 278, 537 popular votes and increase it by 60% to 446, 494 in the Northern Regions. This was two times more than any of the votes added to the presidential votes by any of the aspirants from their various constituencies. Aliu’s contributions towards NPP in every aspect of the party’s development can never be push aside by anybody.


Popularity leads to marketability but no matter how popular a product is, if that product has expired or comes with blemish that product will fail to sell on the market. Aliu Mahama is the only aspirant whose popularity is without any single blemish and for that matter will be very easy to market on the political market come 2008. My simple message to the NPP delegates is that Alhaji Aliu Mahama is a huge asset and they should not allow any negative propaganda against the Vice President to derail them from voting massively for him on congress day.