If, New Patriotic party (NPP) flagbearer running mate, Dr Mahamud Bawumia hopes to be saved from his recent shameful ‘bawumanomics’ gaffe by his constant refrain of ‘propaganda’ any time he is put to the test, then he is indeed in big trouble.
The fast pace at which Dr Mahamud Bawumia is becoming another Nana Akomea of the opposition party is indeed unprecedented, as he has since his ‘bawumianomics’ lecture portrayed a typical Nana Akomea posture with an unbridled penchant for flagging issues by shouting ‘PROPAGANDA’ any time he is losing an argument or clearly has his back against the wall, an indication that the NPP flagbearer running mate can easily pass for a good apprentice of the NPP communications director.
When the fallacies, distortions and deliberately twisted facts in Dr Bawumia’s presentation at the Ferdinand O. Ayim Memorial Lecture were exposed, bringing his knowledge of economics and his integrity as a potential number two citizen of this country into question, he quickly retorted ‘PROPAGANDA’ on the part of those who were exposing the weaknesses in his presentation.
On his ongoing tour together his boss, Nana Akufo-Addo, of the Eastern region, Dr Bawumia has sustained the ‘propaganda chorus’ on his lips as the tour went through a number of Zongo communities on the second day. These include: the Asiakwa Zongo, Apedwa Zongo, Nkronso Zongo and Kyebi Zongo.
In all these places, the failed NPP economics whiz kid has told the people that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been engaged in “cheap propaganda” in their communities over the years aimed at destroying the NPP.” He said all that the NDC does is to go to the Zongo communities and tell them lies during elections and after that, abandon them, adding that propaganda will not put food on their tables, pay their children’s school fees or give them jobs.
“During elections, members and leaders of the NDC come round the Zongos to tell lies about the NPP, only to win the elections and abandon you, and that worries me a lot,” he claimed.
Dr Bawumia who seemed like he has been coached to go on a suicide mission also veered off into the sensitive area of politics of religion. “I am a Muslim and Nana Akufo-Addo has given me the opportunity twice to be his Vice President if Insha Allah he becomes president,” asking, “how can the NDC say the NPP doesn’t like Muslims and the Zongos when they continue to select Christians as their flagbearer and running mate?”
Paying homage to the Kufuor-led NPP government for providing care for Muslims and the Zongos, Dr Bawumia said all the social interventions introduced by the NPP government inured to the benefit of all including Muslims in the zongo communities.
The NPP flagbearer running mate’s comments however generated wild murmurings within the zongo communities, with many asking where the man is coming from, as to whether he was in this country during the time NPP was in power, The Catalyst can state.
Quick references were made to the treatment meted out to former Vice President, Aliu Mahama, regarding deliberate schemes put in place by the movers and shakers of that administration to alienate him from the core decision circles of the government.
The issue also brought back painful memories of Aliu Mahama being hounded out, and denied the opportunity to become the flagbearer of the NPP in 2008 after he had served as vice president in the government for 8 years and the mantle given to Akufo-Addo as against former President Kufuor’s preferred choice, Mr Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanten, which had put Aliu Mahama totally out of the equation.
Muslims cannot forget the traumatic experiences and nightmares they had had for 8 long years under the NPP government, considering the inhuman treatments suffered by potential pilgrims to Mecca, on a yearly basis. According to some, the NPP government treated them like refugees, in their own country, as they were left at the mercy of the weather with men and women camped in one place to suffer all manner of humiliation.
The situation, they stressed, has changed drastically for the better since the coming into power by the Mills-led NDC government. They said the NDC government has ensured that they are now accorded their deserved dignity as Muslims who are fulfilling a major requirement of their religion, and given the needed assistance to embark on the pilgrimage to Mecca in great comfort, which was a very expensive commodity they could not afford under the NPP government.
Some had even gone as far back as the Rawlings regime, when the former President made sure that Muslims were honoured with national holidays on their festive days just like Christians against stiff opposition from the NPP stock.
Described as yet another set of fallacious claims by Dr Bawumia, this has sent tongues wagging wildly with the question on the lips of the people in these zongo communities being as to whether Dr Bawumia, alias ‘bawumianomics,’ apart from showing signs of being under Nana Akomea’s ‘tutorship, is not the direct incarnate of Goebbels, who is the father of all propaganda, himself.