Former Deputy Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the Upper East Region Andrew Atariwine says inaction on crucial matters on the part of the party’s 2024 flagbearer Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia contributed to he (Dr. Bawumia) and the NPP’s defeat in the December 7 polls.
“For the vice president, I am of the firm belief that there were certain decisions that he should and could have taken as a leader of the party at the time, but he was sluggish,” he stated.
The former Regional Director of Communications for the party pointed out the Bawku conflict escalation in the lead up to the polls and the dispute over the NPP Walewale parliamentary candidacy as two burning issues that the former Vice-President failed to decisively act on that deeply hurt the party’s chance in the 2024 elections.
It was expectant of the then Vice-President and then flagbearer to deal with and resolve the dispute in his background particularly one that involved his staff and a sitting MP, widely regarded as his foster sister, he argued.
He said that Dr. Bawumia’s failure to nip the Walewale parliamentary primary dispute in the bud casted doubt about his leadership capabilities.
“Walewale became the hot spot for this election, the place that the vice president who wanted to be the president of the republic was coming from. That was going to let people begin to ask questions,” he stated.
“What did Vice-President do? He could have called these people behind the scenes, but he left them to their fate.”
Atariwine claimed that the former flagbearer failed to speak on the Bawku conflict escalation in the run up to the elections, reinforcing allegations by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that he was backing one of the feuding factions in the protracted inter-tribal violent dispute.
“If you bring the Bawku issue, not once has the vice president spoken. And I can tell you statistically, the Kusasi people are over a million in the country. And they scatter around the country. So you might think it is just Bawku that small area and you don’t talk about it.”
Aside from these, many party supporters were disgruntled and needed leadership to rise up to the occasion to address their grievances, he added.
However, Dr. Bawumia failed to show the leadership they so desperately yearned for at the time, further hurting the party’s electoral fortunes, Atariwine suggested.
He said this in reaction to a survey by Global Info Analytics show that Dr. Bawumia is among the top three people blamed for the party’s defeat in the last election.
68 percent of the people polled blamed former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the NPP’s defeat, 40 blamed former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, 37 put the blame on Dr. Bawumia while 33 blamed the Vice-Presidential candidate Mathew Opoku-Prempeh.
However, 32 percent held other government appointees responsible, 25 percent blamed MPs with 9 percent putting the blame at the doorstep of former flagbearer hopeful Kennedy Ohene Agyapong.
Atariwine agreed the results of the survey, stating that the former Vice-President can’t be absolved from blame.
