Six months after the deadline has passed, and with a little less than six months to a general election, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) finally prevailed on its flag bearer, Mahamadu Bawumia, to name a Vice Presidential Candidate.
Some people said that it was the worst kept political secret, but Bawumia finally confirmed the opinions of the pundits when he named Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the medical doctor (some say he is a dentist) from Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Region of Ghana, as his man to join him on the presidential ticket.
The Matthew Opoku Prempeh choice is understandable, though to many, not acceptable. Though hardly seen as an obvious choice by many, he comes with the huge support of Manhyia. Some say that the Otumfuo actively campaigned for Napo, as he is fondly called, to be Bawumia’s man. They cite the visit to the Ga Mantse as a campaign visit to drum up support in Accra and among the Ga people, for the Ashanti candidate. Like it or not, for the most part, the Ashantis are not the most popular tribe, when it comes to my Ga friends. And I count them among my friends.
With Napo finally on the ticket, one issue that Bawumia and the NPP leadership will need to confront, is whether or not he would be able to hold up his side of the ticket. Will Napo deliver the Ashanti vote?
This is important, because even though they will not admit it, and have spent much effort to refute it, Bawumia is not the most powerful nor popular of candidates, himself. He is weak on all matters beyond the economy. He is liable to drum up a slew of statistics on any subject to do with the economy, but his performance over the past seven and a half years has exposed him for what his is; all theory and no practice. When it comes to managing an economy in a practical sense, he is about as useful as a farmer from Kotoku in a storm at sea.
So, when it comes to a campaign message, Bawumia economic knowledge, and his woeful mismanagement of same, would not be useful. Bawumia is not going to be able to convince a baby born today that he has any solutions to the nation’s economic malaise, and even he admits this by conduct. These days, he hardly speaks on the economy. He has found a new fad; digitalization. Which isn’t working with many Ghanaians. So, he desperately needed a Running Mate who would bring some new verve, some kind of shine.
Enter Napo.
Napo, in brief, is a medical doctor. And little else. In his three terms in parliament, the number of times he has made any meaningful, soul-stirring contributions on the floor of parliament, can be counted on the fingers of a single hand. Indeed, from the dispatches, he hardly ever makes any contributions on the floor of parliament. He is so hardly to be seen in the media, that one would be hard-pressed to establish exactly what Napo stands for, politically. Many have even assumed he cannot evoke very well, which is not true. He speaks brilliantly, when he has a mind to. And the last point is important. He is difficult to stir to speak, or to engage in any activity.
I can demonstrate this. Today, if one cares, one can place a party activist like Kennedy Agyapong all over the country Ghana, campaigning for NPP. Napo is among the signal few you would find at any program.
And it is hard to establish what he stands for as a person, because he speaks so little. Whether his lack of contributions to the constantly raging national debate is because of his lack of content, or sheer laziness is hard to tell, but I think it is the latter.
He just doesn’t give a damn.
So with a candidate like Napo, it is going to be even harder to translate his political vision (or lack of?) into a campaign message.
I think that by and large, Napo was selected because he is seen as a leading light among the Members of Parliament from the Ashanti Region. The NPP, traditionally, depends on the Ashanti Region as its political base. Bawumia hales from a minority Northern tribe, and in spite of the best of efforts, depending on his non-existent charisma for electoral success in a tribalistic nation like Ghana, can deliver poor results. If Bawumia was on his own, without an NPP ticket, it is doubtful that he would garner even two percent of a national vote. So the NPP ticket is crucial. And for the NPP to be able to deliver, there must be an Ashanti man on the ticket. With a pure-bred Ashanti on the ticket, it would be hoped that the Ashantis would turn out in their numbers to vote.
That is the hope; but is that the reality? Would the Ashantis turn out in their numbers to vote because one of them is on the ticket? That is what the NPP is betting on. It can be a risky bet.
A few years ago, I led a group that organized a demonstration on the streets of Kumasi. It was against the sale of Merchant Bank to an as yet unidentified group of men and women. Today, I break into a grim smile when I hear Okudzeto Ablakwa mouthing off about the sale SSNIT assets. Merchant Bank was a SSNIT asset. It was sold off to people who remain to be identified. Whether the nation received any financial benefit from the sale also remain to be seen. Anyway, back to the demonstration in Kumasi.
At that time, the NPP was in opposition, and something struck me as interesting; not a single NPP member of parliament, including Napo, attended the massive walk. Not one. Even though the sale of Merchant Bank, like the sale of the SSNIT hotels, was also highly contentious. The NPP members of parliament, including Napo, actively snubbed the whole affair.
As we walked, a second thing became apparent. As I engaged in conversation with my fellow demonstrators, it quickly became obvious that the Ashanti MPs were universally reviled by the citizens from whom they receive their political power.
Which brings me to my final point; is Napo someone who translates to the ordinary Joe on the street in the Ashanti Region? Is he someone that the voters in the Ashanti Region would look upon and vote? Is he comparable to Kennedy Agyapong in the Ashanti Region? If he is, then Bawumia’s choice is pristine. If he isn’t, then the Ashanti King has forced a bomb onto the neck of the plaint Bawumia.
One way or the other, we will know better after December 7th, 2024.
“This article was published in the column ‘Periscope Depth’ in the Daily Searchlight newspaper on 8th July, 2024. Be the first to read Periscope Depth in the Daily Searchlight every Monday!”
