Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the former Vice President and presidential candidate hopeful, has told the New Patriotic Party (NPP) delegates that the party has never voted on tribal lines but based on competence.
According to Dr Bawumia, the North in the past supported leaders who were not from the northern part of the country.
Dr Bawumia highlighted that the NPP’s founding tradition has always considered competence, loyalty and ability to win when choosing leaders.
Speaking in Wa during his ongoing campaign tour of the Upper West Region, Dr Bawumia explained, “When you look at our party, we have never voted on tribal lines. We always vote on the basis of competence, of capacity and who can win the power for us”.
“That is how it started with our forefathers, SD Dombo, Abayifa Karbo and co, when the leadership was ceded to Busia. If it were on a tribal basis, the Northern People Party would have kept the leadership in the United Party,” he said.
Dr Bawumia added, “The north also supported Kufuor and didn’t support Malik in 1998. The north also supported Akufo-Addo and didn’t support Aliu Mahama in 2007. That is how it is in our party.”
“Simply because the north is supporting me doesn’t mean it is tribalistic. There are 15 other regions that is supporting Dr Bawumia, so it is not about tribalism.”
“This party doesn’t vote on tribalism. We vote on competence, and we vote on who can help us win power. And so all those people who are out there in our party making tribal and bigoted statements should desist from that because their comments are not ruining Dr Bawumia; they are rather ruining the image of the party.”
Also, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the 2024 running mate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has told the party that whoever emerges as the presidential candidate of the NPP needs the support of every ethnic group.
According to Napo, a single ethnic group cannot give any party a president in Ghana.
Napo highlighted that political parties are national parties and not ethnic groups.
He further highlighted how some Ghanaian personalities from different ethnic groups rose to become the country’s president.
Speaking during an interview on Adom TV, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh explained, “Whoever emerges as the presidential candidate needs the support of every ethnic group. In Ghana, everybody comes from somewhere and is going somewhere. Before Kwame Nkrumah went to parliament, wasn’t he from prison?
When Nkrumah went to legislature assembly, wasn’t he from prison? I’m getting to the point that ascribing seats is wrong. We have to start doing things deliberately to let us all be Ghanaians. In the UK, wherever you are coming from, you can stand for the presidency”.
He continued, “Kwame Nkrumah became the first president, and Busia from the Bono Region became the second prime minister, but went to the legislative Assembly on the Ashanti ticket. Are the Bono people not a minority group in Ghana? Dr Hilla Liman, the third one, is from Sisala, but Ghanaians voted for him.
What I am saying, It is very National. No single ethnic group can give us a president in Ghana. We have to have respect for all ethnic groups to allow people to say that this is the best candidate.
The fourth president, Rawlings, was an ‘Ewe’, a typical national figure. Other Ghanaians voted for him; the whole of the North supported Rawlings like crazy”.
Napo further warned that when religion and ethnicity are added to politics, it ruins the national interest of Ghanaians.
“Since time in the memorial, the NDC’s largest vote came from the Ashanti region, and I have always said that once you introduce religion and ethnicity in politics, you have ruined the national interest of Ghanaians”, he added.