A couple of days ago my good friend and brother Hon Atta Akyea, MP for Abuakwa South made some statements on Asaase Radio that drew a lot of negative comments from the grassroots.
He admitted that Presidential Frontrunner Alan Kyerematen will make a very capable president but he should leave that position for Dr. Bawumia and instead accept to partner him as a Running Mate. The legal luminary explained his point further that Dr. Bawumia has been a mate for a total of sixteen years and now that the Driver is leaving it’s time for Dr. Bawumia to upgrade and takeover the driving seat to avoid ‘Akanization’ of the Great Elephant Party.
Obviously Hon Atta Akyea was running down a slippery slope on Asaase Radio and many Kukrudites who heard him have refused to go down that slippery slope with him.
To occupy the Presidential driving seat on behalf of NPP you must first pass a driving test irrespective of how long you have been a mate and obtain a driver’s license which is given to only one qualified candidate at a time. Presently NPP has several Founding Members in a long queue of qualified candidates vying for that one coveted driver’s license. Understandably, this much can possibly be an uphill battle for our dear Vice President.
It would be more productive for Dr. Bawumia to sit down with his Senior Brother and Frontrunner Alan Kyerematen and work out some win-win strategic agreements with him for the sake of party and country. On the other hand, if at this critical juncture Alan should turn the other cheek, NPP should consider running down this slippery slope into a gaping ditch in 2024.
Avoiding ‘Akanization,’ graduating the mate to replace the driver and what have you… We can’t be toying like this with what’s really at stake with ego tripping. Consider the cost of the step down control mechanism afflicting the Great Elephant Family in recent times and the need to do something positive about it.
The well-received proposals that Alan and Bawumia should not contest each other should have been seen as a very good move to set a unified stage to win 2024.
The South-North-North- South leadership variations for national campaign purposes have been so defectively applied over the years. These defects must first be corrected as to produce conducive situations on the ground.
That is why Alan-Bawumia collaboration could be a good precondition first to break the eight, and then create the enabling environment if we should turn this leadership formation on its head to obtain a Northern Flagbearer and Southern Running Mate. It’s now so premature. Otherwise our national campaign strategists should consider themselves completely stuck deep in the mud.
Let’s look at it this way. Instead of getting stuck with graduating from mate to driver, we should appreciate the need for Dr. Bawumia to upgrade at the highest level into the ECOWAS, AU and the international arena as a special envoi leading Ghana’s top-notch technical experts applying themselves outside the box to bring in the goodies to Ghana while Alan remain at the bridgehead as President taking care of proceedings and directing the transformation agenda.
More coming.
Article by Kwasi Seth Dogbe
Former Member; National Research and Strategists Committee “NPP-Headquarters”
