RE: You can’t lead NPP as a Muslim and a Northerner - Former constituency executive

On January 3, 2021, a news article was posted on GhanaWeb via My News GH that attracted a huge number of hits and comments.

By the time I finished reading the article, I was seething with anger. Yes, good brofo, but it came across to me like a snake eating or swallowing its own tail. The author is a hired assassin who went through a whole juggernaut of what-nots and what-ifs to sell a heavily jaundiced idea that a Muslim northerner will never be president of Ghana on NPP party ticket. How strange he seems to want to pin that notion only on the NPP and not the NDC? Are there no Akans in the NDC?

By his very weak analogy, Barack Hussein Obama could NEVER have been president of the United States of America. He was black, with an African father, and carried a Muslim name, and not any Muslim name, but Hussein, a brain wracking and hate baiting name that reminded Americans of one of their worst enemies.

The author disingenuously cited the example of Senegal as a country that has a 96% Muslim majority and therefore would never put a Christian at the top of a presidential thicket no matter how good that person is and offered that as an example worthy of emulation by 71% Christian majority Ghana.

The trouble with his argument is that he offered that monstrosity of thought as a burden only NPP has to bear, exempting the NDC of that bankrupt idea. The question is, why did he cite Senegal when he could have cited the Ivory Coast that is ethnologically identical to Ghana but for the French language? Akans form 42% of the Ivorian population, almost like Ghana, and have their hands around the economic engines and wheels of that country, just like Ghana where the Akans constitute 46% of the population. Notwithstanding this, the Ivorians overwhelmingly voted for a northerner economic guru, Alhassan Ouattara, who happens to be a Muslim and has the same essential credentials as Mahamudu Bawumia.

I agree with those who say the article was an NDC induced tear-jerking article. It is hogwash framed up in sweet English, but hogwash, nonetheless. Some parrots also speak good English, it doesn’t make them any smarter. Just mimicry. Isn’t that an impudence and insult to band all Akans together as innate fools and bigots, incapable of discernment, decency, generosity, compassion, and fairness?

That mainly only NPP Akans suffer from that disease not the Akans in NDC or any other tribe and party? What obtuse hogwash? Ashantis, in particular, are on record to have voted overwhelmingly against their own kin, General Kutu Acheampong, with his incongruous Union Government referendum. In the 2020 elections, Ashanti Region gave the NDC the highest number of votes per any region besides Greater Accra. Would Buckman want to say Mahama would not have received that many votes if he was a Muslim? Do not project your own biases and bigotry onto others.

The NPP would make a mortal mistake to fall for this bait and treat Bawumia unfairly, on no other grounds, than that he is a Muslim northerner. They would lose the North for not one term but generations to come. Let’s bite the bullet and go to 2024 with the Bawumia-Alan ticket, just like the Obama-Biden ticket. “Adepa na eton ne ho”. And a faint heart can never win over a fair lady. The last time I checked, the Democrats in the US repeated the dose, they have returned with another black and white ticket, or should I say white-black ticket and broke another taboo, with a black woman as the first woman vice-president ever. A black woman got there ahead of a white woman at the first trial.

In conclusion, I want to say this to the author, E.G. Buckman, eat your rope-a-dope poisonous cake yourself. Ghanaians know a good thing when they see one. Hence, they say, “adepa na eton ne ho”, to wit, good product markets and sells itself. Shame on you. Bawumia-Mahama match up will end with serious injuries for Mahama, almost fatal. Mark my words. How can Mahama beat Bawumia on any platform? Mtcheew! Allow our ears to enjoy some quiet before we return to work full throttle 2021.

By: Eric Kwasi Bottah (aka Oyokoba)

Email: ebottah@hotmail.com