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Politics of Thursday, 9 April 2015

Source: The Chronicle

‘Bribe givers can’t win seats for NPP’

Just as the dust over the failed “affirmative action” by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to push more women to parliament is about to settle, the Northern Regional Chairman of the party, Daniel Bugri Naabu has thrown another “bomb.”

According to him, the party hierarchy is going to ensure that only winnable parliamentary candidates contest the 2016 election on the ticket of the opposition party.

He revealed that the NPP executives would engage in serious negotiations with the party members and some of the low influential parliamentary candidates who induce some selfish delegates with monies and other valuables to step aside for more competent, appealing, influential and winnable candidates to lead the NPP in 2016.

Speaking at the maiden Northern Regional Extraordinary Executive meeting comprising all the regional executives, constituency chairmen and their Secretaries, regional council of elders, the 10 NPP northern Members of Parliament and some members of the National Executive Committee, Mr. Bugri Naabu emphasized that the party was strategizing to consolidate its existing 10 parliamentary seats and win 15 additional seats in the coming elections.

The Northern Regional Chairman said most of the parliamentary aspirants usually join the race not necessarily to win for the party, but to announce their presence for future political positions in case the party wins power.

But with the strong hope of bringing Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NPP to power, Mr. Bugri Naabu said the 2016 election was crucial for the NPP and that there was no room for experimentations or test of popularity.

“We need people who can win for us. We don’t need people who will come from abroad or anywhere to come and bribe delegates to vote for them and at the end of the day they lose the election to our opponents”.

The Regional Executive Committee Meeting held at Mafara Hotel in Tamale forms part of a series of strategic meetings by the NPP to win more seats in the Northern Region in the 2016 general elections.

The NPP Northern Regional Chairman also turned the heat on President John Dramani Mahama, describing him as “corrupt and incompetent manager” of Ghana’s economy.

He also described him as an “already expired commodity” that should be rejected in 2016, as happened to President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria.

He accused the president of repeating his bribing of chiefs and other identifiable groups and associations with vehicles and other packages.

Mr. Daniel Bugri Naabu asserted that President Mahama during his recent participation in the Konkomba Youth Association annual congress at Saboba gave out a brand new tractor to the association and a brand new pickup to one of the chiefs in the area.

He, therefore, questioned whether the Konkomba Youth Association was a farmer based organization and the motive behind the donation of the vehicles.

The Deputy Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Bimbilla, Dominic Nitiwul, commended the regional executive for being proactive in mapping out strategies to make the NPP more attractive and to win power in 2016.

Mr. Nitiwul mocked at President Mahama for allegedly deceiving the people of the north with an array of empty promises and for also claiming undue credit for projects initiated by the erstwhile Kufuor government, including the Tamale Teaching Hospital, the Eastern Corridor and Fufulso-Damango-Sawla roads among others.

The Deputy Minority Leader also asserted that the $100 million figure quoted by the ruling government for upgrading of the Tamale Airport runway was highly unrealistic insisting that the amount was supposed to be around $25 million.

Hon. Dominic Nitiwul said that President Mahama had nothing new to offer Ghanaians and for that matter appealed to the people of the three northern regions to kick him out of office in 2016.

He encouraged the NPP to elect competent people who could win more parliamentary seats for the party in 2016 and also work hard to bring Nana Addo to power.

The Bimbilla MP said that he would offer to step down if he realized that there was a more competent person who could win power for the NPP in 2016, and charged his colleagues MPs to do same.