Disrespect Shown To Alhaji Aliu Mahama By The NPP

If I had been born in any of the three northern regions, and had been a member (God forbid!) of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), I would be watching unfolding events in the party with incredulity - and an increasing sense of exasperation.

In virtually every democracy in the world, there is a convention that the nation's sitting vice president, succeeds the incumbent president - and runs in the subsequent national election to choose his or her successor.

There are many Ghanaians, including some southerners (who care about the plight of the three northern regions), who wonder, why this is not apparently so, in the case of the NPP. Such Ghanaians wonder whether it is not yet another example of the miasma of tribalism that envelopes the NPP.

Would it ever have been the case, dear reader, if the malevolent clique of powerful oligarchs who now dominate the NPP so completely, and maintain such an iron grip on it, would have allowed anyone in the party the space (because of the obvious effrontery it would represent in their view!), to attempt to mount a challenge to a sitting vice president if he had hailed from a different part of Ghana - say from Kokofu in the Ashanti Region?


Such Ghanaians feel that one of most shocking scandals of our time, is the deafening silence in the Ghanaian media, and elsewhere in our homeland Ghana, about the apparent sidelining of Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama, by the ruling party - in choosing a successor to President Kufour.

Why are the powers that be prepared to risk publicly washing the very dirty linen of a political party dominated by tribal supremacists, and some of the greediest oligarchs Ghana has ever had in its chequered history  - when there is a sitting vice president, who in the scheme of things, ought to be the second most important figure in the NPP after there sitting president?

If the current vice president is healthy and of sound mind, why do they not make sure he succeeds our current president? This is something that should provide food for thought for those of our compatriots, who hail from the three northern regions - for, it speaks volumes about the real nature of the NPP.

When it suited those who now have such an iron grip on the NPP - as they put together a strategy to win power in December 2008 - they looked to the north and selected someone from that region, who would balance their party's ticket for the presidential election of December 2000.

The interesting thing about the Danquah-Busia tradition, is its consistency. Many of those who have dominated the various parties of that tradition, have been tribal supremacist individuals - and it has always been thus. Dr. Danquah once dismissed the government of Dr. Nkrumah as a regime with  some "Ntafuo" in it. It would appear that nothing has changed since that infamous remark!

That selfsame Danquah-era contempt for outsiders (non-Akans),  by the tribalists in the Danquah-Busia tradition, still persists even today, amongst the greedy and hypocritical oligarchs who now dominate it.Yet, winning votes in the three northern regions was a crucial factor in the NPP's victory in the December 2000 elections.

It is the determination to ensure that the party's  Kokofu-football-politricks will continue after 2008, that makes those who think they own the NPP, prepared to risk everything, to elect someone more 'suitable' to them to run for the presidency.

And that is why when it came for Alhaji Aliu Mahama to take his turn and step into the shoes of President Kufuor, as is the convention in virtually every democracy in the world, those who dominate the NPP are using the cloak of adherence to the principles of internal party democracy, to enable them handpick a more 'suitable' successor - who will doubtles ensure that their favourite traditional rulers will be able to continue their behind-the-scenes manipulation of the institutions of state to enable them dominate our country from the shadows as its unelected rulers!

Let all northerners of conscience take note - and send a clear message to the NPP in 2008 (if the NPP does not elect Alhaji Aliu Mahama as their presidential candidate for the presidency in the December 2008 elections) that northerners are not hewers of wood and drawers of water for any group of Ghanaians - but are full and equal citizens who also deserve to be presidents of the Republic of Ghana: and vote accordingly. Period.

May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana always. Long live Ghana! Long live freedom!

Kofi Thompson can be reached by email at: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com and by SMS on: +233 (0) 27 745 3109.