"NyansafoƆ, mo wƆ hen?” Yes, where are the wise men of NDC and why are they not asking the relevant questions in Binduri? Why have they allowed themselves to be tricked so badly without even trying a little bit to understand the happenings in Binduri?  There has never been such a clear case of “give a dog a bad name and hang it” than what is happening in Binduri NDC.

Here is everything you need to know about happenings in Binduri NDC and this time I don’t expect you to just read and believe me but at least let me spark your desire to ask further questions rather than just believe what you are served with. 

The emergence of Upper East regional Chairman, Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba's interest in Binduri

In 2014, Alhaji Osman Akasum Alem (A.K.A Country Club) handed over the reins of Binduri NDC chairmanship to Simon Aruk Azimbe. He then went on to contest Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba for the Upper East Regional chairmanship position. As you will expect, Simon Azimbe offered his home support to Alhaji Country club against Alhaji Bolnaba and this will give birth to Alhaji Bolnabas’ hatred for Simon Azimbe and Alhaji Country Club. He waited patiently for an opportunity to finish off Alhaji Country Club who contested him twice and also pay Simon Azimbe back for not supporting him.

The 2019 primaries contest between Simon Azimbe and Dr. Robert Kuganab Lem

In the 2015 primaries, Dr Robert Kuganab Lem enjoyed massive support from Simon Azimbe and Alhaji country club. In fact, it is common knowledge in Binduri that they were the main brains behind Dr Kuganab’s primaries victory. After his victory in the primaries, Simon Azimbe and the entire constituency executive body put in a spirited effort to make sure Dr Kuganab won the main election.

After winning the election to become the Binduri MP, it didn’t take Dr Robert Kuganab Lem up to two years to lose the trust and support of over 90 percent of the core team that supported him during the primaries and main elections. He had less than four of the constituency executives still sticking with him. If you are asking yourself why this will happen, you need not to be told, just sample 10 people at random in Binduri and ask them about the human relation skill of Dr. Robert Kuganab Lem and you will understand how it happened. This man was all over the place wanting to be lord over everybody in Binduri. He saw himself as the only wise and educated man in Binduri. He wouldn’t take any advice and expected everybody to bow when he passed by. He still thought he was back in UDS doing his Dean job and expecting his students to worship him.

Noticing the huge mistake that they had made by bringing this book long Doctor into the Binduri politics, a lot of people in the top rank of the party in Binduri were already yearning for a change and so Simon became the go to person. He accepted the mantle to contest.

Fast forward to 2019, Dr Kuganab had lost the trust of majority of the top NDC members and that also gave birth to the strategy with which he won the 2019 Primaries. Having realized he had lost the top guys, Dr Kuganab quickly started investing in the branch executives as the 2019 primaries was approaching. The Branch executives had not had lots of direct dealing and contact with him and so making it easy for Dr. Kuganab to convince them that his falling out with the top members was because they were demanding things for themselves to the disadvantage of they the branch executives and that he was more interested in empowering branch executives. The branch executives bought into the campaign by Dr Kuganab and he also promised them Heaven on earth if he wins the Primaries.   

Dr Kuganab beat Simon Azimbe Narrowly with 49 votes. In his victory speech he shocked the very branch executives that voted for him, he stated that people claimed Simon Azimbe was the one who helped him win elections and so now he had proved everybody wrong by defeating the said Simon Azimbe.

He went further to mock the defeat of Simon Azimbe on several occasions claiming Simon Azimbe was left crying in a class room after the defeat. This was the birth of the Simon and Dr. camps in Binduri. After Dr Kuganab won the primaries he never pursued unity but rather mocking Simon and his team having in mind that the Binduri seat was a done deal for NDC.

In the midst of all the teasing by nobody else but the parliamentary candidate himself, Simon Azimbe still paid a visit to the MP to congratulate him on his victory in the primaries. Dr never showed the curtesy of even visiting Simon Azimbe to console him and ask for his help.

The 2020 Election and the defeat of Dr. Robert Kuganab Lem

By this time the Branch executives started realizing Dr Kuganab had played them to win the primaries. He wasn’t redeeming the several promises he made to them and his bad human relation was becoming clearer to the branch executives as they started encountering him more.

When the 2020 campaign heated up Dr Kuganab was running a one-man campaign, he then ordered all top NDC guys to stay in their branches and campaign there for him. He didn’t want anybody following him around. He knew his support had waned among the constituency and branch executives but he was hoping to ride on the love the constituents had for NDC to win the election and then take the glory for it. He came up with a campaign mantra that “nzak nzak” meaning everybody should focus on their branches while only he and his select few group went around campaigning. The least said about his campaign utterances and strategy the better, he was openly still fighting NDC members and refusing to even greet or shake hands with some members. All this can easily be confirmed by just a random sampling of people in Binduri.

Lo and behold the know all Dr and his few group of loyalist including the then constituency secretary Imoro Mohammed could not win the election alone, they lost the seat to NPP.

It is common knowledge within the rank and file of NDC that anytime this Lecturer was summoned by party leaders who had picked signals that he was going to lose the Binduri seat, he told them he was going to win in excess “SAAAALI” and then give the balance to support other constituencies. It is this level of pride and over confidence that made him assume he didn’t need anybody and that there was no need to try to bring others onboard. No wonder the then General Secretary, Asiedu Nketia, said to him in one of the constituency stake holder meetings after the 2020 elections that if he intends to contest for the Binduri seat again then he needs to be schooled in a classroom. I heard he was even instructed to go back and apologise to his constituents for disappointing them.

Yet this man walks around a free man waiting to contest the upcoming primaries while one Simon Azimbe remains in the cold. This is what the Akans term as “the frog has eaten his pepper and the lizard is sweating for it.”

The blame game after losing the election

After losing the elections, Dr Robert Kuganab Lem and his team led by the Secretary Imoro Mohammed started looking for somebody to blame for their failure. They had already found a common enemy of their enemy in the regional Chairman Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba. The regional chairman still had a score to settle with Simon Azimbe and Alhaji country club and this would come as a big opportunity for him to also pay back.

The secretary single handedly wrote a report accusing Simon Azimbe and his top guys as the cause of the defeat. He even had to forge the signature of the then chairman for this particular report. With Binduri NDC already split in two the DR camp got their own people to accuse those on Simon’s side and then submit a report to the regional executives, playing directly into the hands of the regional Chairman Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba to continue from there.

The biggest Irony and joke of their accusations was that those accusing others for the defeat lost by worse margins in their own branches and electoral areas than those they were accusing. After telling people to focus on their branches and electoral areas how do you blame Simon Azimbe when he actually worked hard and won in all the branches in his electoral area for Dr. Kuganab while the parliamentary candidate himself lost in several branches in his own electoral area and backyard (Kpalugu checkpoint, Tempielim etc.). In the electoral area of the secretary Imoro Mohammed who led the blame game of Simon and his loyalist, Dr Robert Kuganab lost two branches, Zawse Clinic and Zawse Sakapri Natinga. Meanwhile it was a 100 percent Branch win for Dr Robert Kuganab in Simon Azimbe’s electoral area. WHAT OTHER EVIDENCE IS BIGGER THAN THIS? Our people say that “to confirm the unhygienic attitude of a fowl, just look at its dwelling place”

Are you saying Simon Azimbe decided to win for Dr Robert in his branch and electoral area where he has greater influence and then went to cause the defeat in Dr Kuganab’ and his Secretary Imoro Mohammed’ electoral areas? "NyansafoƆ, mo wƆ hen?” This is the same man who asked everybody to go back and focus on their own branches and electoral areas. Who then should be blamed for the defeat in Dr Robert Kuganab and his Secretary Imoro Mohammed’ electoral areas? Is it Simon Azimbe simply because the regional chairman has a score to settle with him?

The regional chairman with his authority over an already biased three-member disciplinary team that included someone who was a member of Dr. Kuganab’ primaries campaign team against Simon Azimbe did not miss this opportunity to hang the Dog given a bad name. they suspended Simon Azimbe and six other executives and Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba was not going to miss the opportunity to also finish off his longtime opponent and so Alhaji Country Club was also suspended. That is how come Bolnaba went independent in the 2022 Regional Executive contest.

The national executives and other MPs in Upper East

Almost all of Simon’s supporters were still not perturbed by the suspensions because they knew the regional executives did not have any sort of evidence to suspend them apart from Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba’ dislike for Simon.  They knew the national executive will squash the suspension when an independent committee is set up to do a proper investigation upon appeal.

Little did they know that Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba had done a good job at convincing the people that matter that there was proper evidence against Simon and his team. May be out of the respect that they all have for Bolnaba they took his word to be the gospel truth, else nothing can explain why everybody will believe and reecho the same thing that there is evidence when actually there is none. Let them not forget that Simon’s team could equally have also gotten people to complain and serve as witnesses against Dr. It was easy for Dr Kuganab and his Secretary to just sample their supporters to accuse Simon and his Team. It was now up to the ones judging the case to subject the evidence to proper scrutiny.

If you are one of such people who have continuously reechoed that there is proof against Simon and his team when actually you haven’t been shown any evidence just know that you have been played and taken for a fool because there is no such evidence, it is only people from the Dr camp accusing people from Simon’s camp and getting the support of a regional Chairman who already had a score to settle.

On the part of the national executive they seem to have played along with Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba because they all had National Executive elections to win and needed to get Bolnaba on their side. Few days to the 2022 national executive elections, some Upper East Regional Executives who are close allies of Bolnaba contacted some of the Binduri executives who are pro Simon Azimbe to tell them that General Mosquito was responsible for the suspensions and so a vote for Ampofo will enable the suspension to be lifted.

The 2022 constituency executive election

The famous Secretary who Dr Kuganab used to mastermind the petition against Simon and his loyalist (take note that this secretary’s name came up as a witness against all those that were suspended. In my next article we will discuss into details the allegations and poor judgmental conclusions drawn by the regional disciplinary committee who later agreed that they had done a poor job) Imoro Mohammed went about manipulating branch executive registers. He was caught red handed replacing names of over ten (10) appointees with names of people he preferred. It had to take the busing of all delegates in the said branches to Bolga to meet the Regional Chairman before they finally agreed to make the necessary changes. This Secretary who turned one-man witness against Simon and his loyalist lost the constituency elections woefully being the last person among the secretary contestants.  

But for the last minute intervention of the Regional Chairman Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba who had his back to cover, the Simon Azimbe loyalist would have swept all the constituency executive positions. The regional Chairman openly had to frustrate and sack Simon and his loyalist from the voting ground. With all that, a weakened Simon Azimbe team captured more than 70 percent of the executive positions.

The way forward

Simon Azimbe and the totality of his supporters who were suspended control a significant number of supporters in the constituency. Until this injustice that have been served on them is corrected people are annoyed in Binduri and will continue to punish the NDC more especially if Dr Robert Kuganab Lem the brain behind the suspension is allowed to contest the primaries while Simon Azimbe remains out in the cold. To be able to ensure true unity in Binduri to snatch the seat back from the NPP I believe NDC should consider the below options.

1. Reinstate all party members that were suspended in Binduri.
2. Allow both Simon Azimbe and Dr. Robert Kuganab Lem to sign a bond to support whoever wins the primaries and then allow both of them to contest the primaries or
3. Prevent both Simon Azimbe and Dr. Robert Kuganab Lem from contesting the primaries and then make them sign a bond to support whoever wins.

Only when a fair ground is found between these two factions will NDC stand the chance of taking back the Binduri Parliamentary Seat and breaking this sad emergence of camps in the Constituency