Former General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, has indicated that Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, has overstayed his welcome in the party and must be preparing to make way for a party thoroughbred to replace him in the party’s frontline.
In a TV interview that has gone viral, Mr. Agyepong points out that Dr. Bawumia is an outsider who became a member of the party and its running mate in 2008 through unconventional waivers that were granted him.
Agyepong, therefore, emphasizes that the Vice President should be looking at making way for someone else to lead the party into the 2024 elections.
He made the point while addressing the opinion that the Akan-centric NPP only uses Northerners and dumps them.
“When you say that then you have disrespected the party; let us speak the truth. In 20008, Dr. Bawumia was not a member of the party because then General Secretary, Ohene Ntow,… he gave him waver, because the constitution makes it clear that if you have not been a member of the party for five years, you cannot be on the ticket,” he said.
He continued, “But due to the respect we had for candidate Akufo-Addo… And when he brought the nomination, it became the source of misunderstanding that in spite of all the people in the party you could find anyone to be running mate. However, we said okay, since you are the candidate, we will respect your decision. And so the General Secretary gave a waiver, did you hear anybody use it to accuse him? And so if you say we have used someone and dumped him, I don’t understand.”
Kwabena Agyepong’s assertion adds to a thickening premonition that Dr. Bawumia, whose roots are NDC, has his days numbered in the NPP.
In the background, President Akufo-Addo is reportedly scheming to force Bawumia down the throats of the NPP loyalists in what promises to stirs up resistance and splinter the party.
The NPP continues to be at the crossroads in the lead-up to its presidential primaries, as many think the next logical successor to president Akufo-Addo should be Trade Minister, Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanten, who sacrificially stepped out of the NPP’s acrimonious presidential primary in 2007 where he had given Akufo-Addo a good run for his money.
Then Candidate Akufo-Addo had even promised that after his leadership of the party, Alan would be his successor. However, after close to 16 years of leading the party, Mr. Akufo-Addo and his so-called “Akyem Mafia” are reportedly angling to force Bawumia on the party.
Source: whatsupnewsghana