The clarion calls that went through the various speeches after the election of Nana Akuffo Addo as the flag bearer for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on August 7 was centered on unity for victory in 2012.
Most people were particularly happy when the minority leader in parliament said and I paraphrase-the elections are over, the dreams are over, Nana Addo is the winner. We need all the different talents that were at play and the various resources for a massive victory in 2012.
It is obvious that the intra-party “battle” is certainly over and the current battle confronting the NPP is the external battle of securing the mandate of the electorate for victory 2012.
Sadly, an agenda is being thrown about in relationship to an all Southern ticket or a Nana/Alan ticket for election 2012. Some people are strangely calling such a suicidal note “strategy” my response is; strategy? What strategy?
It will be recalled that, even before the NPP primaries, speculations of Nana/Alan ticket were being thrown about. It was then seen as part of the overall political propaganda and machinations characteristic of any elections. It was quickly shot down in its embryonic stage and I was among the very few who wrote against it under an article titled “An all Southern ticket will not be good for the NPP any day”
Surprisingly, less than a week after electing its candidate for election 2012, some persons mostly the Southerners in the NPP are once again making that infantile suggestion-which to will be a recipe for the massive defeat of the NPP in 2012. The complacency must stop and right now. The fact that we have had our own supporters vote massively for Nana does not mean that, Ghanaians will automatically vote for the NPP irrespective of what candidates we carry into the elections.
The NPP must be told that, such a suggestion is dead on arrival and will NEVER be good for the NPP any day! Let the NPP be told that, unity within the NPP after August 7, is not synonymous to an all Southern ticket.
There are over a billion reasons why such a ticket will NEVER be good for the NPP not only in election 2012 but all elections in the life of the NPP!
First, the NPP is already tagged as an Akan party by its opponents and that tag alone has always gone a long way to affect the fortunes of the NPP. An all Southern ticket comprising of Nana/Alan will just be same as the NPP reading its obituary before its death in 2012! The NPP must be guarded by the adage “It is better to be quiet and be thought of as a fool than to speak and clear all the doubts”
The fact that, the August 7 primaries was contested by only Akans is already an issue to clear which in itself is already too much a task for the party. The party must not deliberately put needless burdens on its head again!
Second, the NPP must continue to put strategies in place to make it a national party and easily attractive to all including the much needed floating voters than this Nana/Alan nonsense!
Is it not so ironic that, all the presidential aspirants rushed to the North to solicit for votes to help them achieve their dreams and are now quite over suggestions that only stands to annihilate the Northerner?
Third, if such a phenomenon is allowed to flourish in the NPP how will the Akilu’s who are not from the South; one day leads the NPP to elections in Ghana? The NPP must be seen as a party that opens its doors and windows to all “minority” tribes.
Nana Addo was hailed when in his victory speech on August 7 he made reference to the Busia-Dombo-Danquah tradition. It made the Northerners to begin to develop the “we feeling” it was however disappointing when Nana Addo visited the Okyehene on the 10th of August 2010 and now switched to “Busia, Danquah and the others”!
I am also saying that, the Dombo’s and the rest who strived to form the NPP will not stand with the party should an all Southern ticket be presented for election 2012.
May I suggest that, a provision should be inserted into the constitution of the NPP to allow a rotation of its flag bearer or candidate between the North and the South for future elections in Ghana, I will honestly launch a massive campaign against the NPP should it present an all Southern ticket for election 2012. Anybody can call rebuke me. I know what I am capable of doing.
The Northerners in the NPP are un-enthused with being called “palanquin carriers” in the NPP. We are also anticipating to be carried on the palanquin one day and will therefore resist any conscious and unconscious decisions that consign the Northerner to the background.

A stitch in time it is said saves nine.

Akilu Sayibu UK

Email: Akilu.Sayibu@live.uwe.ac.uk