Hawa Yakubu felt Betrayed

Investigations into the resignation of Tourism Minister, Hawa Yakubu have revealed an uncanny plot among fellow party functionaries and certain members of Parliament to 'ditch' her.

Always regarded as an outsider, Hawa is reported to have finally decided to resign her position as Minister of Tourism, when events made it obvious that certain party stalwarts were plotting to ease her out of the ECOWAS Parliament on grounds that she could not hold that position and that of a Minister of State.

The very affable minister and mingler is reported to have finally decided that enough was enough so far as her romance with the NPP is concerned. She opted for the more high profiled ECOWAS position.

The former Minister's apparent differences with the New Patriotic Party date back to when the party was confronted with the choice of a running mate to President Kufuor. Even before she could make up her mind, Hawa had been touted as an obvious choice weighing the Northern factor and gender. But that was when her real loyalty as an UP-ist was questioned. She herself acknowledged her deep association with Nkrumahism but thought it more expedient to align with the NPP in the 2000 elections.

The agitation started last year when two ministers including the current Minister of Works and Housing, Yaw Barimah (MP), who were also ECOWAS MPs were quietly whispered to, to resign their positions as they await their next plan of action.

That offer was not extended to Hawa. She only picked it from her own intelligence sources who further informed her that her colleagues had planned things such that she will be the only minister who will then remain a member of the ECOWAS Parliament. The die would then be cast. The "vermin" from within will then move for her withdrawal as MP.

But Hawa had always maintained that she was ready at any time to give up her ministerial position and made same clear to those of her colleagues who were ready to listen. Our source also said that at the head of the agitation, the President had to intervene for Hawa to embark on an ECOWAS assignment when she was refused the necessary protocol assistants.

Indeed it was even reported that both the President and Vice had been pulled into the feud between leading members of the House and the Bawku MP. Sensing danger and betrayal from within, Hawa is reported to have informed President Kufuor of her delimma, thanked him profusely for standing by her throughout, even making her a Minister of State. She then resigned.

Madam Hawa Yakubu is protected by an ECOWAS protocol that makes it impossible to sack a Member of Parliament. A cross-section of Ghanaian Parliamentarians the Network Herald talked to thought the New Patriotic Party may be losing a magnetic politician and expressed doubts whether the party could manintain the seat if Hawa shifts allegiance from the party as a result of mistrust.

Hawa is one of the countable Parliamentarians who penetrated the parliamentary monopoly of the National Democratic Congress in the first parliament of the Fourth Republic. She did that as an Independent candidate which underlies her political might.

Since returning to parliament for the second time on the ticket this time, of the New Patriotic Party, the "Iron Lady" has not ceased doubting the genuineness of all the "party faithfuls" who according to her, keep dropping hints of her first allegiance to the Nkrumahist cause. And political observers are quick to point to a probable loss of the seat for the ruling party if the party big wigs do not employ tact.