Following the preliminary vetting of the NPP presidential aspirants, the respective campaigns have gathered pace as the candidates crisscross the country to market themselves to the party’s primary voters who will eventually decide who will lead the party to do battle in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Because of the polarization that has come to characterize our body politic in recent years, we tend to associate both intra- and inter-party contests as a mean to win elections as individuals and as political parties. But beside winning elections, the political activities we undertake every four years also serve as a means to preserve the identity of political parties, who, like their human agents, have traditions that distinguish them from other political parties.

It is within this context that in this election cycle, what is happening in the camp of the NPP has raised a lot of eyebrows as far as both the party’s goal of winning the impending 2024 elections and preserving the image and traditions of the party are concerned. Ideally, a primary contest within a political party prior to a general election is supposed to be on a level playing field. However, not even a casual political observer in Ghana today will fail to notice the
fact that as the aspirants straddle the country with their messages, one particular candidate enjoys the support of the state.

As Boakye Agyarko has noted, Dr. Bawumia is the 'establishment candidate out of the 10 candidates vying to lead the NPP. What this means is that while all the other aspirants are drawing on their personal resources to finance their respective campaigns, state resources like vehicles, fuel, cash etc. are powering Dr. Bawumia’s campaign.

Beside these tangible resources, the state is using its power of patronage to intimidate, coerce, and cajole MPs and government appointees to support Dr. Bawumia’s campaign because eventually these people will all vote as delegates in the primary elections in November.

The salvation of the UP tradition

One of the core values of the UP tradition with regard to succession is seniority. The principle of seniority in this context does not connote chronological age as such but rather long period of service and loyalty to the party. This, I suppose, is the context within which Alan Kyerematen’s mantra
"Aduru me so" or “it is my turn” should be understood. It is this principle of seniority, which is not mutually exclusive to competence, that explains why S.D. Dombo declined the leadership position in favour of K.A. Busia when the disparate opposition groupings came together to form the United Party (UP) as a counterveiling force to Nkrumah’s incipient dictatorship in the first instance.

It is the same principle of seniority that guided Alan Kyerematen’s decision to throw his weight behind Akufo-Addo during the run-off at the 2007 delegates’ conference at Legon, a decision that formed the basis of the gentleman’s agreement of support for the former by the latter.

Moreover, Boakye Agyarko may have had this principle of seniority in mind when he intimated about a plan by eight of the aspirants to support one candidate against Dr. Bawumia in case of a run- off in the November primary contest.

The bastardization of the UP tradition

Since Boakye Agyarko revealed this plan of the possible alliance of the other eight aspirants to support one candidate, some people have been quick to react to it and have sought to impute all kinds of motives, ranging from the time-honored tribalism tag against NPP to defeatism on the part of the eight aspirants.

Frankly, such arguments ignore the recent history of the NPP and make it unfair to the other aspirants who all have impeccable pedigree in the history of the elephant party. The fact of the matter is that the present managers of the UP brand have done a great disservice to the UP tradition.

First, they connived and condoned to impose a known CPP operative in the person of Freddie Blay, as Chairman of the party. Honourable Freddie Blay only conveniently worked with the NPP in Parliament as a sole MP on the ticket of the CPP; there is no record anywhere in the annals of parliament that he formally resigned from the CPP before he was “imposed” on the party as its Chairman.

Secondly, as if the destruction of the core principles of the UP tradition with the appointment of Freddie Blay was not enough, the same group wants to impose a new comer like Dr. Bawumia as the leader of the party over UP traditionalists and loyalists like Alan Kyerematen, Boakye Agyarko, Kwabena Agyapong, Kofi Konadu Apraku, Kennedy Agyapong etc.

The fact of the matter is that the assumption of the leadership of the party would violate a fundamental founding principle of the UP tradition, namely, the principle of seniority. Dr. Bawumia is a new comer personally and his pedigree does not help him either.

As late as 2008 when candidate Akufo-Addo selected him to be his running mate, Dr. Bawumia was not even a card bearing member of the NPP and I remember vividly the debate that raged over his choice as a running mate at the time; some elders of the NPP railed against the decision at the time. Dr. Bawumia’s father, Alhaj Bawumia, was a founding member of the Northern Peoples’ Party like S.D. Dombo, but the man opted to join the CPP when that party decided to join forces with other opposition groupings to form the United Party.

The man would go on to join the (P)NDC under Rawlings, rising to become the Chairman of the Council of State. While we have no evidence of Dr. Bawumia’s membership of either the (P)NDC, we also do not have any evidence of even his sympathies with the UP tradition let alone his membership thereof prior to
his selection to pair with Nana Akufo Addo on the party’s ticket.

Dr. Bawumia’s utterances on the campaign trail so far seem to be suggesting that he may be the new comer amongst the lot. However, like the Biblical Paul, he has done more to help the party than anyone of them or even all of them put together, especially because of his defence of the party in court during the 2012 election dispute.

But, if this is indeed Dr. Bawumia’s thinking, he displays a gross misunderstanding of the scriptures which is not surprising given his religious background. Paul was an apostle and not a disciple and on matters of doctrine, he often travelled to Jerusalem to seek clearance from the Elders, headed by
Peter.

So, while there was a Paul, there was a Peter whom the Lord Himself had declared to be the rock of his church. That assignment was not given to the late comer, Paul. The disciples were selected by the Lord Himself and not imposed by anybody as some now want to do with our late comer, Paul!

The alliance of eight to the rescue

On a more practical note, the prospect of Dr. Bawumia assuming the leadership of the party will not inure to the benefit of the party in next year’s elections and the UP tradition will be the victim. Thus, the mooted idea of the formation of an alliance by eight of the aspirants to support the runner-up against the Establishment candidate is a laudable one.

These eight candidates, who all have impeccable credentials as long-standing UP traditionalists and loyalists, must have reasoned that next year’s elections are going to be fought over the economy and if this is so, then there is no way the NPP can retain power with Dr. Bawumia as the flagbearer.

The selection of Dr. Bawumia as the running mate to Akufo-Addo was because of his credentials as an Economist par excellence even though the party has always boasted of very good Economists. The argument was that Dr. Bawumia was in a pole position to help put the country’s economy on a pedestal.

However, despite the initial noise about heading the best economic management team the country has ever had, we are all witnesses to the problems the country has encountered in the economic domain. While all aspects of governance have stalled under the current administration, the economic sector stands tall.

The fact of the matter is that even though Dr. Bawumia is the vice president, he has become the face of the economy that has become the exemplar of the current government’s underperformance in general. Unemployment, especially, youth unemployment that poses the greatest security threat, is now out of control.

Kwabena Agyapong summed up the totality of the economic situation in the country now when he said the “Ghanaian economy is lying on a stretcher before the IMF”. As head of the Economic Management Team, Dr. Bawumia was privy to the reckless borrowing that has landed us in this place. Meanwhile, all his 'beatitudes' about the national currency, the Cedi, has come to naught.

Those who thought the IMF facility was going to be a panacea for our economic problems are despondent now as the economy continues to flounder. After a temporary lull—and what Jubilee House called the “shaming of the Dollar”--the Cedi is now beginning to depreciate again vis a vis the US Dollar.

In fact, according to the latest Afrobarometer survey, half (50%) of all eligible voters expect the economy to be worse than what it is at the moment next year when we go to the polls to elect a new president and parliament.

Since these resources may well be used to sway the party’s delegates in November to undermine the UP tradition, such a situation will, to all intents and purposes, be a suicide pact for the party at the polls next year because the Ghanaian electorate will not like a continuation of the circus we are witnessing currently.

It is within this context of salvaging the UP tradition through upholding its founding principles and circuitously saving the party from an impending calamity at the polls next year that all concerned members of the tradition must applaud even the mere thought of stopping Dr. Bawumia from assuming the leadership of the party.

The only problem I have with this plan is its timing. According to Boakye Agyarko, the planned alliance will only come into effect in November if there is a run-off in the primary election to select the flagbearer.

However, the question becomes: What happens if because of the state resources that have made it a juggernaut of a campaign, Dr. Bawumia’s margin of win becomes so huge to require no run-off?

I suggest the eight or nine UP loyalists caucus right now to rally behind the one viable candidate who is likely to be the runner-up to Dr. Bawumia in the event of him prevailing so that they can use their resources judiciously to make the needed impact.