Member of Parliament for Akuapem South, Hon. O.B. Amoah has called out Director of Operations for the campaign team of the Minister for Trade and Industry, Hopeson Adorye for his inflammatory and divisive statement.
According to him, claims by Mr. Adorye that NPP presidential candidates should come from the Southern part of Ghana is false and never a tradition of the Dankwa-Busia-Dombo.
He stated it is also false that an aspiring presidential candidate must be ethnically and geographically linked to Dr. J.B. Danquah, Prof. Busia or Naa S.D. Dombo.
The Akuapem South legislator was responding to a statements attributed to Hopseson Adorye, a member of the NPP Communication Team, who claimed the Presidential candidate slot of the party is reserved for south and the running mate for the north.
Mr. Adorye issued a denial and blamed the Bawumia camp for putting a spin on his words.
According to him, he never said in plain words that northerners are only fit for running mates.
He said, “That video is partly doctored for mischief by Bawumia’s Camp. For the avoidance of doubt, I stated that in NPP there is a particular formula that has been used since the formation of the Party. The formula is Christian-Muslim Ticket. In fact, since 1992, we are the only Party that has practiced Christian-Muslim Ticket. NDC at all times used Christian-Christian Ticket yet dominate all the Muslims Constituencies including Zangos.”
“In 1992, NPP presented Christian Albert Adu Boahen and Muslim Roland Issifu Alhassan. From 1998 to 2008, NPP presented Christian John Agyekum Kufuor and Muslim Alhaji Aliu Mahama. From 2008 up to date, NPP has presented Christian Akufo-Addo and Muslim Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.”
“Therefore per the formula, the running-mate since 1992 has been a permanent reserved position for Dombo’s camp regardless of whether a Dankwa protégé or Busia protégé is leading the Party as the Flagbearer.”
“This is exactly what I said and it is supported by historical data and science. Akufo-Addo’s camp told Aliu Mahama and Alan Kyerematen to wait for their turns. So now what is so difficult for Bawumia to also wait for his turn after his senior Alan Kyerematen,” he quizzed.
Mr. OB Amoah, however, argued it is illogical and false that NPP Vice Presidential Candidate must come from the northern part of the country.
He said, “The falsehood that seeks to alienate the core of our values and support must be exposed.”
“Those who seek to propagate and perpetuate this falsehood that it is the turn of any person from the ‘Busia stock’ and that the ‘Dombo stock’ is not expected to lead this resilient and diversified party don’t know our history and tradition.”
Those who seek the NPP mandate at the party and national levels, he said, must caution, counsel restrain and sanction persons who purport to speak on their behalf.
Member of Parliament for Yendi, Alhaji Farouk Aliu Member who also reacted to the statement argued the founding ideals of the NPP is to build a political grouping of national character that lends, tout de suite, to the liberty of inclusion at the pinnacle of the party in spite of the circumstances of birth, creed, religious suasion or origin.
The Busia-Dombo tradition, he said, has thrived on the tenets, endured all the political hostilities and persecutions in the pre and post independent era and has transmogrified to the great NPP today.
“The least we can do as Latter-Day adherents is to hold sky-high such ideals and guard them jealously. It is a sectional thought to seem to suggest that the Dombos of our trinity are comfortable and fit for perpetual Running Mate in our tradition.”
He stressed it is absolutely out of place to submit that some groupings were good to play second fiddle adding, “Such a notion is lethal and withers the growth of inclusion in our party and must be discouraged, more so, to be shepherded by people considered as leaders on their own accord.”
A member of the party and a former Metropolitan Chief Executive of Tamale, Mr. Iddrisu Musah, aka Musah Superior said his initial reaction after watching the video was one of horror and pain as a person of Northern extraction.
Mr Adorye’s remarks, he said, is sending a certain dangerous message to the Ghanaian people of northern extraction that they are nothing but second class patriots and that their place in the national political space is to play second fiddle to flagbearers who must either be from the Danquah or the Busia sides of the three distinguished founding fathers of the great NPP political tradition.
“This is most irresponsible, denigrating, ethnocentric and illogical. It is downright politically suicidal.”
“Since when did Mr Adorye recognise that when the Busia side gets their turn, it has to be the turn of the Danquah side?”
He noted that Mr Adorye and his likes have a certain sense of entitlement that is difficult to fathom and warned, “It’s about time Mr Adorye and people who think like him come to the realisation that they are no more bona fide members of the NPP than any of us. We all belong to the New Patriotic Party equally.”
Source: MyPublisher24.com