Why the Bawumia factor represents a mortal threat to the NDC

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Okponglo Guy 9 years ago

This was the type of discourse that used to prevail on this platform.

Ghana needs Bawumia period! We need to put competency above divisive ethnic based politics.

Economic and social development must drive our politics.

This was the type of discourse that used to prevail on this platform.

Ghana needs Bawumia period! We need to put competency above divisive ethnic based politics.

Economic and social development must drive our politics.
PIGMYALITIC DWARF 9 years ago

WHEN YOU AKUFO-ADDO WAS ASKED ON RADIO INTERVIEW ABOUT THE TRIBAL PHILOSOPHY AND COMMENTS OF YOUR SO-CALLED FELLOW AKYEM, CLOSE FAMILY FRIEND AND PROSPECTIVE CHIEF OF STAFF - YAW OSAFO MARFO - WHICH WAS RECORDED ON TAPE - THA ...
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WHEN YOU AKUFO-ADDO WAS ASKED ON RADIO INTERVIEW ABOUT THE TRIBAL PHILOSOPHY AND COMMENTS OF YOUR SO-CALLED FELLOW AKYEM, CLOSE FAMILY FRIEND AND PROSPECTIVE CHIEF OF STAFF - YAW OSAFO MARFO - WHICH WAS RECORDED ON TAPE - THAT IT IS ONLY AKANS FROM THE 5 AKAN REGIONS OF GHANA THAT DESERVE TO GOVERN GHANA, YOU THIS DWARF SAID ON THE RADIO INTERVIEW THAT OSAFO MARFO ACCURATELY CAPTURED AND WAS TALKING ABOUT THE REALITY ON THE GROUND.

YOU DIDN'T CARE ABOUT THE SENSIBILITIES OF MILLIONS OF GHANA'S ETHNIC MINORITY WHO ONLY KNOW GHANA AS THEIR COUNTRY, YOU CARED ONLY ABOUT THE APPROVAL OF YOUR FELLOW AKYEM MAN AND FAMILY FRIEND AND YOUR ETHNOCENTRIC NPP PEOPLE.

A WHOLE FORMER FINANCE MINISTER WHO DOESN'T KNOW THAT THE SERVICES COMPONENT OF GDP (MOSTLY FROM THE COSMOPOLITAN GREATER-ACCRA REGION) CONTRIBUTES MORE THAN 50% OF ANNUAL NATIONAL ECONOMIC OUTPUT. A WHOLE FINANCE MINISTER WHO DOESN'T KNOW THAT GOLD AND COCOA CONTRIBUTE LESS THAN 10%.

IN ANY CASE IS COCOA NOT GROWN IN PARTS OF THE OTHER REGIONS. DO WE KNOW WHAT IS BENEATH THE GROUND IN OTHER REGIONS THAT HAVE NOT BEING EXPLOITED YET???

IF YOU HAVE SUCH A CLOWN CLOSE TO YOU WHO IS GOING TO BE IN YOUR KITCHEN CABINET, AND REFUSE TO DISASSOCIATE YOURSELF FROM HIS SECRET COMMENTS CAUGHT ON TAPE, ARE YOU NOT A TRIBALIST????

IN OSAFO MARFO'S HOMETOWN, SHOULD ANY ILLITERATE PERSON (OR FUCKING UGLY-LOOKING DWARFISH PERSON WITH KAAKAMOTOBI FACE, BIG MOUTH THAT CANT CLOSE AND EYES LIKE FROG) WHOSE FAMILY HOUSE IS CLOSER TO THE GOLD MINE (IF ANY AT ALL EXISTS) THAN OSAFO MARFO'S HOUSE ARGUE THAT HE DESERVES TO BE FINANCE MINISTER OR CHIEF OF STAFF AT THE FLAGSTAFF HOUSE BEFORE HIM OSAFO MARFO????????

IN TERMS OF TRIBALISM, THE AKYEM FACTION OF THE NPP LED BY YOU NANA ADDO MAKES THE NPP ASHANTI FACTION LED BY KUFUOR LOOK LIKE SCHOOLBOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gideon G 9 years ago

Where on earth would Nana Addo give Bawumia space to operate? Though Bawumia may be Good

Where on earth would Nana Addo give Bawumia space to operate? Though Bawumia may be Good
AKPINI 9 years ago

Yes, Great essay

Yes, Great essay
Nii Teiko 9 years ago

Kwarteng must learn how to connect to his audience. His stupid style of writing put readers off.

Kwarteng must learn how to connect to his audience. His stupid style of writing put readers off.
THE REAL C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

HKP can on fool the uninformed with this bollocks based on false premises. Before my very eyes, he has attempted to shift the blame for tribal politics onto the laps of the NDC! How academically and intellectually dishonest c ...
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HKP can on fool the uninformed with this bollocks based on false premises. Before my very eyes, he has attempted to shift the blame for tribal politics onto the laps of the NDC! How academically and intellectually dishonest can one get?

The NPP tradition were engaging in ethnocentric politics way back from the 1950s down to the 1969 Gen. Elections when most Ghanaians were not born. I have been recounting that history for all to know and HKP is also damn aware of that. How come then he could write this and then continue to make inferences from it in support of his arguments and conjectures? What is below is simply putting the cart before the horse.

"The NDC has self-consciously positioned itself within the Ghanaian political terrain as the “non-Akan” party, tapping into a strain of historical and emotive suspicions, prejudices, antagonisms, and grievances, both real and imagined, held against “Akans” (but especially Asantes) by a number of ethnic minorities. To these groups, the NDC has presented itself as their natural political home. As part of its electoral strategy and to give clearer definition to its identity-based coalition, the NDC has also worked hard to define and tag its main rival, the NPP, as an “Akan party” and, thus, not a political home for non-Akans like Northerners, Ewes, and Ga-Dangbes."

No, the NDC didn't work hard at all to define the NPP in ethnocentric terms. The NPP leaders, including Adu Boahen, Kufuor and Akufo Addo and Ghanaweb NPP scums and bigots did that effortlessly for all of us to see except the hypocrites. The NDC has only been trying to profit from, and justly. One historical fact not known to most people is the truth that much of NAZI propaganda against Jews were lifted from Zionist writings which proclaimed Jews as the specially chosen people of Yahweh and thus superior to all humankind.
The ethnocentric chickens are simply coming home to roost for the NPP.

Andy-K
FRED 9 years ago

Total rubbish from a demented idiot.Only fools would say this basura is something to read. Come the D-day, you tribal bigots and criminals would surely hung yourselves in your bathrooms. Complete trash. Bawumia is an ignorant ...
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Total rubbish from a demented idiot.Only fools would say this basura is something to read. Come the D-day, you tribal bigots and criminals would surely hung yourselves in your bathrooms. Complete trash. Bawumia is an ignorant fool amnd a pathological liar, as aweel as a thief who willñ be dumped after the elections.
Adjapong NTRA SAKYI 9 years ago

I guessed from your English that you could not understand what has been written to be able to make any meaningful contribution. Please why don't you keep your ignorance to yourself? Ghanaweb is read all over the world so I am ...
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I guessed from your English that you could not understand what has been written to be able to make any meaningful contribution. Please why don't you keep your ignorance to yourself? Ghanaweb is read all over the world so I am pleading with you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ not to disgrace yourself again. Allow those with capacity to understand issues make their meaningful contributions.
Prince 9 years ago

NPP we've win already we're waiting for 7th Dec

NPP we've win already we're waiting for 7th Dec
Prince 9 years ago

John Mahama has lose already because his asparing mp for Asunafo North campaign is that we should vote for Nana Addo and vote for him....victory is already inn..Ndc they see themselves losing but they don't won ...
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John Mahama has lose already because his asparing mp for Asunafo North campaign is that we should vote for Nana Addo and vote for him....victory is already inn..Ndc they see themselves losing but they don't won't to see the truth

Nokware_ Asa 9 years ago

The VISIBILITY of an individual, who had perjured himself and turned himself into a laughing stock before the whole world?
Look, but for Jsc. Atuguba, your rehabilitated 'hero' should have gone to jail! The real movers and s ...
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The VISIBILITY of an individual, who had perjured himself and turned himself into a laughing stock before the whole world?
Look, but for Jsc. Atuguba, your rehabilitated 'hero' should have gone to jail! The real movers and shakers of the NPP, will teach this political novice a lesson, he'll never forget:
Dump him like a bad habit!
And of course, for all those who have doubted your objectivity all along, this piece has completely blown your cover! You better stick to your dubious legal analyses on Radio and TV, and leave the political and social commentary to Bokor and Kwarteng!

hero
Abeeku Mensah 9 years ago

There is a piece you failed to reveal as the basis for the use of Dr. Bawumia as a bait by the NPP. In a country where getting a doctorate degree by fair or foul means is viewed as a sign of intelligence irrespective of subje ...
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There is a piece you failed to reveal as the basis for the use of Dr. Bawumia as a bait by the NPP. In a country where getting a doctorate degree by fair or foul means is viewed as a sign of intelligence irrespective of subject discipline, Ghanaians have fallen for PhD being synonymous to wisdom which you should know to not be true or even close to being true.
Why do you, Prof Kwasi Prempeh, think Dr. Bawumia has been front and center or is despised by the NDC as you say? Is it because he knows what he is talking about more so than Nana Akufo-Addo or anyone else in the NPP and NDC? Is it because what he says has anything in real life application?
If, as Ghanaian voters, we are to assume Dr. Bawumia has command of the issues he talks about then would that not be proof of what the NDC is talking about that he is being used? How could he not be at the top of the NPP ticket were it not for tribal preferences if he knows more about issues and or how to solve the nation's problem than Nana Akufo-Addo? You, Kwasi Prempeh, cannot argue that Dr. Bawumia's command of issues and or his qualifications matter to Ghanaian voters relative to NDC counterparts but not important to NPP folks when it comes to electing NPP flag bearer can you? For me Dr. Bawumia is very typical of Ghana's educated elite class who would like for Ghanaians to grant them unearned respected but have no worthwhile work product to talk about. Let Dr. Bawumia and or Nana Akufo-Addo run on their own record in office at the Bank of Ghana and the AG and Foreign Affairs respectively. Dr. Bawumia should provide/publish his policy work product at the bank of Ghana, and then we can talk. Until then you have rather made the case for what the NDC is talking about doctor.
Robert 9 years ago

I agree with you that Ghana's tertiary education system is not fair and people could obtain PhD by any means. However, PhD is not a joke at all. Stop speaking rubbish about PhD holders. Coming out with a dissertation topic is ...
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I agree with you that Ghana's tertiary education system is not fair and people could obtain PhD by any means. However, PhD is not a joke at all. Stop speaking rubbish about PhD holders. Coming out with a dissertation topic is not easy. Every PhD holder will know that Mahama has a porous team. Just publish an article on academic journal and see the feedback alone. Benighted ignorant who won't humble himself.
SENDERO 9 years ago

A much as I respect HKP for his general erudite analysis on SIl, in this regard I must beg to differ and state that Bawumia poses absolutely no threat to NDC.

Bawumia has been on the ballot sheet 3 times and all 3 times NP ...
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A much as I respect HKP for his general erudite analysis on SIl, in this regard I must beg to differ and state that Bawumia poses absolutely no threat to NDC.

Bawumia has been on the ballot sheet 3 times and all 3 times NPP's defeat has been guaranteed and its figures have declined. So where is this threat coming from and in what form?

It is a strange political party that seems to think a defeated running mate should be a sure bet for flag bearer in 2020 (this tells me they know 2016 is lost) and that he will win 2020 easily.

The only running mate in Ghana who has followed his leader's path to the presidency is Mills and even though he was a winning vice in 2008 it still took 3 attempts to come to power. Fortunately for Mills he had the charisma of Jerry Rawlings and the seriously flawed campaign of the NPP in 2008 (it was more of a coronation process than an appeal to voters) to ensure victory.

If in 2008 the NPP had gotten Kufuor to lead the campaign and to make the case for re-election, Mills will have lost again and probably there will not even have been a run-off in the first place.

It is sad to see the party that has a great tradition of strong structures now turn into a monarchy of sorts with Akuffo Addo "giving it" to Bawumia when he Akuffo Addo exits the scene

If Bawumia wants to become president, he can best do so from a position of strength - i.e. vice president. However, should he lose again in December as a running mate he will be a spent force, easy fodder for the NDC to pick off come 2020.

He will have baggage of repeated defeats going back almost 10 years. He can't rely on Nana Addo to have him elected president (Nana can only help him win the NPP primaries) as Nana himself will have no track record of victory, and whether he can secure the ethusiasm of a then 80 year old JAK, (weeping at the demise of his party by the Nana Addo/Bawumia faction) is highly doubtful.

Bawumia will then go into an election against a formidable winning machine (not necessarily a sound track record in government I must add) called the NDC.

They bait him about how he can't even be vice so what makes him think he can be president? He will have no answer save the analysis he continues to propound with his figures, facts and exchange rates (which most Ghanaians couldn't really care for or like he will be the sitting vice by now).

The NPP will go down to another defeat and will enter a dark room of despair from which it will take decades to escape from

Whilst Bawumia is a bright person, brightness alone never got anyone elected to power. You must have an appeal beyond your party. Bawumia in his 3 efforts seems to fail in this latter category. He has attached himself to Nana Addo's coat tails and consistently he has failed to help broaden the party's base with the NPP stuck in its 2 strongholds of Eastern and Ashanti.

Even up North it seems Aliu Mahama has a better record than Bawumia as in the 2000 run-off he helped NPP secure 48.55% of the vote in his home region while Bawumia could only help NPP secure 38.39% Like his political mentor, it seems he cannot appeal beyond core voters (very vital during a run-off) and it is here where the NDC will laugh off his supposed threat (knowing the NDC they will probably encourage NPP to elect him safe in the knowledge that he will be beaten by their candidate once again).

Sometimes the NPP believes its own press - it convinces itself that an articulate person is the one Ghanaians want as leader. I beg to differ. You get elected when the voters have some sort of feeling for you. If they do, like Bill Clinton you will probably sweep any election you contest. If they don't then you are in serious trouble. Perception is vital - Paa Kwesi Nduom is not perceived as out president like he will have already served his 2 terms.

If Bawuamia want to be falg bearer and then maybe president, he cannot afford to take the NPP down to its 3rd defeat and really its 4th failure to cross the 50% mark it needs to come to power
NICH 9 years ago

SENDERO, you have completely deviated from HKP's discourse. Panic has set in your NDC camp and therefore, your response does not make sense. HKP is stating a fact of political strategies of both Parties mentioned in the piece ...
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SENDERO, you have completely deviated from HKP's discourse. Panic has set in your NDC camp and therefore, your response does not make sense. HKP is stating a fact of political strategies of both Parties mentioned in the piece in relation to tribal politics and the Bawumia factor. Whether NPP lost twice is irrelevant to 2016. Atta Mills lost twice.
ONUA 9 years ago

I have almost given up on Ghanaweb. But this is a great piece of write-up

I have almost given up on Ghanaweb. But this is a great piece of write-up
kofi 9 years ago

Nana all the way

Nana all the way
Saforo 9 years ago

I think you're underestimatimg the input of Dr. Bawumia, and I think the result of this elections would valid that to all to see. The 2012 elections wasn't any hard work of the NDC. It was based on the sympathy vote and the ...
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I think you're underestimatimg the input of Dr. Bawumia, and I think the result of this elections would valid that to all to see. The 2012 elections wasn't any hard work of the NDC. It was based on the sympathy vote and the 4yrs only of the NDC in office. Now they are trying to run away from been in office for 8yrs and the average Ghanaian knows that and want change and economic hardship is against them including dumsor. The odds are against the NDC.
They have lost but NPP needs to be vigilant.
Nana Kofi 9 years ago

This is the type of analysis most of us want to read. Well done, Prof.

This is the type of analysis most of us want to read. Well done, Prof.
sethoo 9 years ago

fantastic analysis.......Bawumia our next president after Nana Addo

fantastic analysis.......Bawumia our next president after Nana Addo

Charles Agbenu 9 years ago

Run Amissa Arthur run run run. Bawumia is coming

Run Amissa Arthur run run run. Bawumia is coming
eben 9 years ago

Great,Great pièce. I suggest all read this read.

#changingminds

Great,Great pièce. I suggest all read this read.

#changingminds
Asem 9 years ago

This is one of the best pieces I have read on Ghanaweb. More grease to your Prof. Prempeh.

This is one of the best pieces I have read on Ghanaweb. More grease to your Prof. Prempeh.
Solomon Ebo Nyam Shyy.....Tema 9 years ago

A great knowledgeable article...
Thank u Prof....

A great knowledgeable article...
Thank u Prof....
KONKOTI 9 years ago

It is not so much that the NDC has projected the NPP as an Akan party as that the NPP, itself, has consciously defined and projected itself as an Akan party! Consider, for example, their "yen Akanfuo" tribalist effusions and ...
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It is not so much that the NDC has projected the NPP as an Akan party as that the NPP, itself, has consciously defined and projected itself as an Akan party! Consider, for example, their "yen Akanfuo" tribalist effusions and their Akan-centric tribalist political philosophy pronouncements! When a leading member of the party, who is its current presidential candidate, resorts to "yen Akanfuo" tribalist mobilization of Akans to win national elections, what he's doing is defining and projecting the party as an Akan party! NDC has not prompted him to do so! When another leading member of the party espouses a tribalist, sectionalist and Hitleric political philosophy that entitles only Akans to govern the polity because, as he claims, the resources of the country emanate from the Akan regions, what he is doing is defining and projecting the party as an Akan party!

It is, thus, no wrong or immoral on the part of the NDC or non-Akan Ghanaians to label the NPP what the NPP, itself, defines, identifies and projects itself as being! If the NDC identifies the NPP as an Akan party, it is because the NPP itself defines itself so! There's nothing wrong with identifying and labelling the 'Devil' by the very identity it not only defines itself but also projects itself as being! It is simply calling it as it is!

Further, it's totally misleading to portray the NDC as party that has positioned itself as non-Akan party, whether consciously or unconsciously! What the NDC has defined and projected itself as being is a NATIONAL party: a political home for all tribes and ethnicities including Akans, whether Twi-speaking or non-Twi-speaking, and religions and what have you! This has been one of the attractions of the NDC as a political party! The NDC can mention, and rightly so, that it has had both Akan and non-Akan leaders unlike the NPP which has had only Akan leaders!

In effect, the non-Akan party/Akan party dichotomy that the author has tried, albeit weakly, to establish in his analysis of the NDC political behaviour and identity vis a vis the NPP's is misleading! What would make a valid measure -- and representative of the situation on the ground -- would be a national party/Akan party dichotomy. Not only has the NDC identified and positioned itself as a national party; it has rightly labelled and pronounced the NPP as an Akan party based on NPP's own identification and making of itself!
Mawutor 9 years ago

Nice piece. Very objective. I've also thought likewise.

Nice piece. Very objective. I've also thought likewise.
Kwabena Yeboah 9 years ago

Excellent exposition. Well done keep it up. I believe in the not too distant future this divisive political strategy by the ndc will not have the expected impact as more and more of the population becomes literate.

Excellent exposition. Well done keep it up. I believe in the not too distant future this divisive political strategy by the ndc will not have the expected impact as more and more of the population becomes literate.
BCOLLINS 9 years ago

Nice piece prof. Your piece unveils the facts and dynamism in our Electoral history since 1992. Such revelations will make certain politicians on the side of guilt reduce your piece to a mere propaganda. Well done Prof.

Nice piece prof. Your piece unveils the facts and dynamism in our Electoral history since 1992. Such revelations will make certain politicians on the side of guilt reduce your piece to a mere propaganda. Well done Prof.
Kofi Owusu-Bediako 9 years ago

Bravo! With your sound analysis of the recent past and the present, you've been able to make a very likely prediction of the future of the NPP and the Bawumia factor. Congrats!

Bravo! With your sound analysis of the recent past and the present, you've been able to make a very likely prediction of the future of the NPP and the Bawumia factor. Congrats!

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Why the Bawumia factor represents a mortal threat to the NDC

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