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Opinions of Tuesday, 18 July 2023

Columnist: Iddrisu Abdul Hakeem

Bawumia's highest vetting mark: Alan asked by NPP to go to court?

New Patriotic Party (NPP) New Patriotic Party (NPP)

It’s anonymously said that “a man who mismanages economy in China is killed; in Japan he kills himself; in the western world he is imprisoned, but in Africa (Ghana) he repackages and presents himself for vetting to become president”.

Fellow Ghanaians, by and large, if you have been keeping track of the activities in the Ghanaian political landscape throughout last week, you would have noticed how congested it was and very impregnated with matters of both catnip and saga of sorrow.

From the careless goof and barnyard epithet by the president's daughter when she was 'disrespectfully' making a phone call in the middle of national anthem, which actually embarrassed the president and called him out for nauseating hypocrisy and double standard when he took a sick chief to the cleaners for not standing up for the same national anthem; the highly questionable vetting results of NPP flagbearership aspirants to the chilling leaked tape about the Inspector General of Police, one doesn’t need a political thermometer or barometer to examine how the political ambience has been boiling, tensed and heated up. Especially, with the vetting results of the flagbearership candidates of the New Patriotic Party, NPP.

You can say what you like, but President Akufo Addo remains the greatest political Tundra, tarantula as well as the most capo-di-tu-ti-capi of the governing NPP, who, though falling into the abyss of political history and infamy, still holds all the aces to champion his personal interests over the party's interest.

And let no one think the President had no choice in the flagbearership race of the party since he himself has personally failed Ghanaians. At least for the sake of his political toddler, Ken Ofori Atta the embattled finance minister whose mess the President is mandated to clean, and to babysit him before
clearing himself off the highest office of the land he has consistently made a gigantic butt of joke of in the eyes of the world for the last seven years.

But whether his choice and stakeholdership in who becomes the next flagbearer and presidential candidate for the NPP is the best choice or not, president Akufo Addo currently remains the proverbial 'coffin seller' in the political space of Ghana. His wishes are simply catastrophic. What does the coffin
seller wish if he or she needs to sell? More deaths, not so?

President Akufo-Addo’s wish in the unfolding flagbearership contest of the NPP is not only as deadly as fake drugs to their crumbling and dismantling party, it’s as lethal as fake condoms to the country and Africa at large. And the vetting results released by the party's vetting committee spoke volumes about
how the president doesn't have the country at heart.

Clearly, the president wishes to hand over leadership of the NPP, certainly not Ghana, to Dr. Bawumia. Yes, not for the sake of the “sodomized economic manager” of Ghana by the Ghana Cedi, but to clear the cobwebs of an inevitable failure and perpetual political hibernation from the way of his 'million dollar' cousin to cruise on.

Without doubt, Ken Ofori Atta appears to have similar ambition as his uncle the president. And it is that, he must become president of Ghana even that must be materialised with every pharaonical method such as human sacrifice.

Because, it's quite palpable and more certain than Satan's place in hell, that the 88.3% mark for the Veep was fantastically forged and fabricated. Unless those who vetted him had a personal interest with zero knowledge of economic management, no way the market women in Kejetia or Makola, or the ordinary unemployed university graduate could have scored the Veep such a higher mark about an economy he has already ran aground. Or, was the questionnaire of the vetting about beauty pageants and presentation? Since that’s what the economic Jesus (or is it the apostle Paul? Haha) knows the best.

Selection of beautiful women and economic lectures. Otherwise, there’s no way the questions couched by the vetting committee could have been well answered by the Veep if they were about the Ghanaian economic management.

To say that Dr. Bawumia scored the highest mark at a vetting which was purely about economic management of this country as it stance, is to glorify Asamoah Gyan’s lost of a penalty shootout in the football pit and coming out to score a penalty goal after the match between Ghana and Uruguay in 2010.

How can Dr. Bawumia’s economic management trajectory be this shambolic and for some reason he was able to convince a panel of vetting committee that he still can be better than others? How? “Did we go or did we come?”

Indeed, when the news hit me, for a minute, I personally took a pinch of salt about the results and had to crosscheck who and who constituted the panel of the vetting committee. I wanted to check, firsthand, whether perchance, any staff of the Electoral Commission was involved, especially, the EC chairperson Jean Mensa, or not. Because, majority of Ghanaians believed the vetting results could have been rigged in favor of the veep.

Their reason is not far-fetched since the current economy under his watch as the chairman of the Economic Management Team, has been in a sorry state for the past seven years. Thus, with this exacerbating cataclysmic economy under whose brutal weight every Ghanaian has been groaning, what at all did the Veep present to the vetting committee to merit the highest mark and topping his colleagues?

In the first place, the decision of his colleagues to contest him has been an apparent disagreement with his economic management style, and believe there's room for rescue and improvement. The results therefore appeared discriminatory, biased and not a true reflection of what the candidates could have presented. But it’s very understandable to many right-thinking and cleaned-minded Ghanaians.

All those who were not in support of the economic management style of Dr. Bawumia which, inter alia, has been the economic management style of the current contraption of president Nana Akufo-Addo called government, was dealt with by the vetting committee. How could Alan Cash, for instance, get 66.5%? How?

However, it’s as clear as crystal going by the above logic: some candidates were psychologically sabotaged with the marks they received. Otherwise, Dr. Bawumia must have been scored the lowest mark since he is the Adam Smith and architect of the current gigantic economic foul mess in the country.

So far, none of the candidates have protested against the decision by the vetting committee openly; everyone is gaggling, murmuring, and hissing in their own corners.

However, at the Jaman North in the Bono Region, Kennedy Agyapong was reported to have 'wept' bitterly delivering his campaign message to delegates of the New Patriotic Party, NPP. Few Ghanaians have attempted to interpret his 'tears' and whining like a baby in wet diapers, what could have necessitated his torrents of tears?

Whilst many believe Kennedy's 'tears' to the delegates was purely phantom, insincere, and crocodile in nature, others assume it's due to his birth circumstance. Yet, others believe his matchless and peerless contribution to the NPP has been betrayed and ignored, and he has not been regarded as he expected
judging from the support he delivered to the party in cash and kind.

Personally, I believe none of the above is actually the case. In fact, Kennedy Agyapong as a very strong man would never share tears in vain, be it crocodile, 'alligator' or even 'python' tears. I also shudder at Kennedy crying because of discrimination against him because he was not born within a wedlock as some are postulating. This is because he shares the same fate with Dr. Bawumia whom many now believe is the dialing boy of the crowd within the NPP, and that the hierarchy of the party has thrown their weight behind him.

It’s an open secret among some elders that Dr. Bawumia was conceived also
out of wedlock before his parents played smart and got married. Whether being born within or out of wedlock is necessary in a country’s economic management or not, is not the case here. However, Kennedy Agyapong’s out burst of tears could not have been due to the supposed shame his birth circumstance would cause the party and for which reason he’s discriminated against. Because Dr. Bawumia is said to be standing in solidarity with him as a “member of the family”.

To set the record straight, Kennedy himself, on several TV shows, has been very vocal about the circumstances surrounding his birth. He narrated how the father was a fine footballer and met his mother but some family members from the mother side disagreed with their union. Suggestions were made to kill baby Kennedy after he was born by people whom he Kennedy now feeds today. But on his part, Dr. Bawumia has paid less attention on how he came to the world if that is true and has been voiceless about it.

So, there's no way Kennedy Agyapong could have been crying to delegates because he's been sidelined due to his birth circumstance. Because obviously Dr. Bawumia who is believed to be enjoying that favor Kennedy is said to be crying over has the same birth issues. Dr. Bawumia and Kennedy Agyapong are thus two equal halves of the same calabash in that regard.

Instead, Kennedy Agyapong's "tears of sorrow" could have welled from his realization that the vetting results released by the NPP vetting committee was negotiated and manipulated to favor Dr. Bawumia. Because it is a very strong and clear message to any other contender, that the party is not ready to play fair in the selection of their next flagbearer.

And giving that these political fat toes and influential capos and goons of the party seemed to have taken side despite Kennedy's long years of support to the party, broke him down. The Assin Central MP likened himself to King David of the Bible and wish the stone that was rejected would certainly become the builders cornerstone.

Mind you, people cry not because they are weak but because they have been patient and strong for long.

But unbeknownst to many Ghanaians, Kennedy Agyapong is indeed one of the most formidable aspirant in the party's flagbearersip race. And were he to emerge as winner of the race, he would certainly post a dangerous threat to former President Mahama. However, Dr. Bawumia would likely score Kennedy a “mallam goal” if the so-called super delegates don't prim him out of the candidates in reducing the number to five candidates as stated.

There are many party's foot-soldiers of the NPP, and indeed, among many citizens, who are rather under the optical illusion that the context is going to be between Alan Kwadjo Kyarematen and Dr. Bawumia. I disagree. With Alan's cheated and most shortchanged mark of 66.5%, it's clear he has been bruised and
weakened psychologically before the race has even begun. Alan may “go to court” to challenge the vetting results if he would get justice, but for the time being, the contest is surprisingly going to be between Kennedy Agyapong and Dr. Bawumia.

Perhaps, it's because of this commonality regarding their births that placed Bawumia at the top to lead his colleague aspirants with 88.3%, and placed Kennedy Agyapong at the bottom to carry the rest of them with a meagre percentage of 61.3.

Finally, whoever the NPP presents as their presidential candidate going into the 2024 general elections, God shall free Ghana from the current political bondage and economic shackles under their stewardship. In Sha Allah. Aameen.