My attention was drawn to an article which has the caption, “YOU CAN’T LEAD THE NPP IF YOU ARE A MUSLIM OR A NORTHERNER” by a friend who knows my love and passion for the NPP.

I was so outraged when I saw what was purported to have been said by a former party executive in the Cape Coast Constituency. My first comment to my friend was, “who is that stupid person who wants to destroy our party.”

When I got home, I decided to read the said article and possibly react to the story to send a very strong message that such behaviours are not tolerated by the party. However, after reading about half of what was written, I paused to ask myself whether I was reading a wrong article, as I saw nothing wrong with what I had read. I decided to continue to the end to see where that irresponsible statement was made in the write-up.

To my utter surprise, I didn’t see anything said or implied relative to the article caption I had seen. Then I became outraged again, but this time towards those who were behind the article with the twisted caption. I immediately called my friend and asked him whether he had read the article.

Apparently, he also hadn’t read the article. So, I asked him to read the article and get back to me. After about twenty minutes my friend called me and was laughing uncontrollably. When I asked him why he was laughing, he said the author of the article isn’t stupid as you said so you better go and apologise to him. We laughed, but honestly, I felt so bad and sad. How could people be so mischievous and evil.

The article I read was one of the best political articles I have read in my entire life. The author was objective, sincere and bold. The fact that he was bold to use his real name and picture suggests to me that he is a sincere person. Many people will use pseudo names under such articles that can be misconstrued. Now to the issues he raised! I think he deserves to be applauded for being bold to bring up such important issues for the party to think about. Every party needs bold people like that to help straighten up things when the need arises.

From what I read; I didn’t see any malevolence on his part. He was just being frank with the issues and I think he made a lot of important analysis that will go a long way to help the party. There were a lot of important issues he touched on that had never crossed my mind before. On my card he would score 9/10 on two of the three issues he touched on and score 10/10 on the winning formula one.

As a mathematician, I don’t see it as a formula though. Maybe I am a bit bias on that one because I have always thought that it was the best decision both Kufuor and Nana Addo made. I agree with him that there is a great deal of wisdom in that combination. That is where we have an advantage over the NDC because the NDC has appointed only one Muslim as their running-mate since 1992 and no Muslim has become Vice President in NDC.

In the article I could see the author’s passion for victory 2024. For me that is one of the takeaways from the article. We cannot afford not to win 2024. What the party needs is victory and only a good candidate plus a united party can bring that victory.

I will urge Dr. Bawumia to consider talking to his supporters to calm down. I was so disturbed when they took to social media immediately after the election to project him as the successor to Nana Addo. Veep, kindly talk to your supporters to desist from posting your picture and other individuals as presidential candidate and vice-presidential candidate. I saw Hon Alan Kyerematen’s picture being used in one of those pictures and now his name is being associated with an article that seems not to favour their preferred candidate. That is not fair to Alan Kyerematen.

Again, those who are behind the twisted article caption should also be talked to. I was made to use foul words against someone who had written something so intelligently and objectively. The caption “You cannot lead NPP if you are a Muslim or a Northerner” is seriously misleading and disingenuous. There is no place in the article where it is mentioned that a person cannot lead the NPP if he or she is a Muslim or a Northerner.

If the supporters of Dr. Bawumia think that E, G, Buckman’s assertions and analysis are not good enough, they can also write an article to counter his. Besides, if those behind that misleading caption think that they are doing that to destroy the reputation of the author of the original article or any individual, they should pause and think again, as it is the party they are destroying.

The NPP tradition is made up free and independent thinkers and so when people write or say something to express their opinion on certain issues, we should not begin to attack them just because we don’t agree with them. Rather, we should weigh what they write or say and see whether they carry something we can work with.

I can say that E. G. Buckman’s article, “WHY WOULD THE NPP WANT TO COMMIT POLITICAL SUICIDE IN 2024” is pregnant with a lot of issues and truths that need to be considered by the party. I am glad I did read it and I wish a lot more people will read it to judge for themselves objectively whether the article is malicious.

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Author: Issahaku Bambah, Yendi.
E-mail: Issabamba325@gmail.com