13 August 2008
editorial
By noon today, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, NPP presidential candidate, would have submitted the name of Ghana's potential next vice president to the National Executive Committee of his party.
ADM can categorically and emphatically report that the dreams of Hajia Alima Mahama and Alhaji Abubakar Boniface Saddique to step in the shoes of the much respected Alhaji Aliu Mahama would remain that way - just a dream.
Nana Akufo-Addo has swerved them and selected someone else.
Yesterday the presidential candidate closeted with aides and advisors in consultation with his campaign team on his chosen name, which did not include the two young ministers.
A source close to the party told the ADM that the presidential candidate yesterday as a matter of courtesy informed President Kufuor about his choice.
Alhaji MND Jawula, former Chief Director of the Ministry of Health, Alhaji Adam Zakaria, the Principal of Bagabaga Teachers' Training College, Dr. SM Abudulai, a development economist working with the British charity Comic Relief, Dr. Bawumiah, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, and a host of other Northern political/professional/academic stalwarts had been considered.
A source at the campaign office described the list as being made up of "heavy weights". It was with the likes of these heavyweights that Hajia Alima and Boniface had to compete. Said the source: "To tell the truth, they stood no chance." Not surprising therefore, Nana Akufo-Addo dropped them.
In the case of Hajia Alima, said the source, "That unnecessary bussing of women to the candidate's house to disturb his peace was what settled it once and for all. She shot herself in the foot!" Boniface, he said, "was just too ambitious. That did not sit too comfortably with Nana."
But Nana Addo, he said, "would not succumb to take just any person, no matter his personal likes or dislikes."
Before ADM went to bed yesterday, a number of meetings had been held between the presidential candidate and different party members and by the close of work could confirm the name of the lucky person, but purely as privileged information, which would be respected.
With the name available to the ADM, Nana Akufo-Addo has repeated history and stood by his own vow to select a running mate from one of the three northern regions. With that he is following the party's tradition.
In 1992 Prof. Adu Boahen picked Alhaji R.I. Alhassan as his running mate. President Kufuor was "forced" in 1996 to run with Kow Arkaah, due to the Great Alliance, but in 2000 when the NPP went on its own steam, with Kufuor still leading the party, he selected Alhaji Aliu Mahama.
The two of them broke the jinx and set the record in Ghana's political history as the first two-term president and vice president.
Would Nana Akufo-Addo's choice of running mate be as propitious as J.A. Kufuor's? The ballot box would reveal that in December.
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