Politics as they say is a game of numbers. This is true. And so as internal party politics. Ghana prides herself as the beacon of democracy in Africa. And this is also true.
Ghana is heading towards her 8th parliamentary and presidential elections under its 4th republic in 2024 and the stakes will always be on NPP and NDC. NDC already has a household name in the person of Fmr President John Dramani Mahama who once headed the nation for a term and was voted out massively in 2016 by the masses.
Since then, he’s been longing for a comeback to finish his uncompleted works. As to whether He will be leading NDC into 2024 and Ghanaians giving him a second chance is yet to be seen.
NPP on the other hand has started her flagbearership gimmicks by testing the waters with some popular names to see whether Ghanaians will receive them with open hands.
One of such names is Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the current vice president of the republic of Ghana. Since the rumour keeps spreading about his intention to contest for the flagbearship of the NPP culminated with some bigwigs in his party backing his yet to be made official intention, it can be convincingly concluded that he would love to contest for such enviable position and hence lead the NPP into the 2024 elections.
Ghana politics has its tribal divides and so is party politics. The Npp is known to have the Dankwa-Busia divide until it is recently propagated there is also the Dombo divide that has been left in the dark for sometime.
What this means is the NPP now has Danquah-Busia-Dombo divide in its party politics and it is believed Dr Bawumia is from the Dombo divide.
As I started this article with the popular parlance “politics is a game of numbers”, the question now is who are the Dombos and what’s their political influence in terms of numbers in deciding a presidential election in Ghana.
A little trip down the memory line will help I believe.
Simon Diedong Dombo (1925-1998) hailed from the then Upper Region of Ghana. He was a well renowned academician and a politician. He was the member of parliament that represented Jirapa-Lambussie District in the first Parliament of the first and second republic of Ghana.
He later founded what was known as the Northern People’s Party (NPP) which later on merged with the then Danquah-Busia’s party known as United Party (UP) to form what was known as the Progress Party which later on become the New Patriotic Party (NPP); hence the Danquah-Busia-Dombo divide in the current NPP.
Back to the main issue.
The presence of Dr Mahamod Bawumia resurrected the Dombo ghost which is back to hunt the NPP in his quest for the flagbearership.
But will the Danquah-Busia divide allow a Dombo to lead the party or will the deeds of the Dombos themselves become a standing block between Dr Bawumia and the flagbearership position?
Let’s look at what researcher Kofi Appiah found out on his numerous research trips across the 16 regions of Ghana.
According to the budding renowned researcher, Dr Bawumia has a very slim chance of becoming the flagbearer due to his own party members impression about him and his root.
Researcher Kofi Appiah said he went to interview one npp branch executive at Abrepo in Kumasi and asked her about what her impressions are about Dr Bawumia, he said, that’s according to the woman ” as for Dr Bawuma, looking at what the Muslim community in Abrepo did when he came to power and how partial Dr Bawumia has suddenly become in sharing of gifts and positions which are mostly to only his Muslim brothers, I will never campaign for him to lead the party”.
Hmmm, powerful statement from a branch executive who holds much influence, ain’t it?
According to researcher Kofi Appiah, he chanced upon a young graduate whose work after school is field work with Ghana statistical service. He is a card bearing member of the NPP.
As normal, the question about NPP flagbearership was asked and this was his response; “As for Dr Bawumia paaa de3 anka mey3 campaign ama Mahama” . A follow question was asked “why so”? and this was his response. According to him, his rent expired in 2018 and he tried his best to raise money to renew his rent, so he went to Ghana Statistical Service to beg for favour to be enlisted on the agric census so that he can raise some fund to pay his rent. So one top official there (name withheld) enlisted him and even showed him the final list. Two days to the calling of the enlisted enumerated, Dr Bawumia sent a list of about 1000 names which are made up of only his people to be enlisted. And this lead to his elimination from the list. And he still hold that grudge against him”.
These two responses may sound too little to have an impact on a national election but who knows about others especially with the social perception about how Dr Bawumia’s people behaves generally.
