Following the visit of the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to the Upper East Region where he visited some districts as part of his working visit to the five Northern regions of Ghana about a month ago, the Vice President, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, followed up with another working visit to Northern Ghana to visit and inspect government projects that the president could not inspect.
The one day working visit to the Upper East Region took the Vice President to Bolgatanga, Navrongo and Paga.
The Dr. Bawumia arrived in the Upper East regional capital Bolgatanga on Friday 14th October, 2022 where he met government officials and regional New Patriotic Party (NPP) executives, loyalist and leading members of the party at the Presidential Villa in the Regional Coordinating Council at about 9:00am.
The first call was in the Kasena Nankana West District capital, Paga, Ghana’s ancient North Western border town to neighboring Burkina Faso. Dr Bawumia’s first stop was at Paga Pio’s Palace, to pay homage to the respected traditional authority and receive the blessings of the Paga Pio to inspect government projects in his traditional jurisdiction.
Even before he could touch down from his vehicle, he was greeted by a huge crowd, cladded in Party paraphernalia and chanting sporadically,” Next to Lead, Best to lead”. They wore T-shirts with Dr Bawumia’s picture with similar inscriptions as the words they chanted while others held placards.
The President of the Republic will end his constitutional two term limits in 2024 hence the need for the ruling party to select a suitable replacement candidate for the 2024 general elections. The name of the Vice President, the Trade Minister and the Agriculture Minister has popped up strongly as aspirants to the highest seat of government.The Vice President has not yet declared publicly his intention to replace his boss, however, we have had some bigwigs in the ruling party including the Majority Leader of Ghana’s Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu and other Members of Parliament declaring support for the Bawumia Presidential ticket.
Campaign for Bawumia Presidential bid
Eventually, Dr. Bawumia got into the Palace of Paga Pio, Pe Charles Awiah Awampaga, to pay homage to the respected traditional authority and receive the blessings of the Paga Pio to inspect government projects in his traditional jurisdiction. The Upper Regional Minister, Hon. Stephen Yakubu introduced the Vice President and delegation to the Paramount Chief and his Elders. Surprisingly, Stephen Yakubu, indicated among other things the intention of the Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia to contest the NPP’s Presidential primaries when nominations are finally open in 2024 even though Dr. Bawumiahas not openlysaid that anywhere.
When it got to Veep’s turn to address the Chief and his people, the enthusiastic NPP faithfuls were waiting to here the presidential ambitions of Dr. Bawumia from the ‘horses own month’. However, he told the Paga Pio that the reason for his visit to the Upper East region was to observe the progress of work on some government projects and policies of government and to listen to the plight of the people on the ground.
“Our purpose for these trips as the President has done every year since he assumed office is to give us first-hand information on the ground, especially with regards to government projects and policies and these visits allow us to hear from people like his Royal Majesty on some of the challenges that are still facing the people so that we can work on them”
The Paga Pio used the opportunity of the visit of the second gentleman to commend the Nana Addo’s government and to solicit governmental support for the construction of roads and educational infrastructure in the Kasina- Nankana District.
” We want to thank the government through the Vice President here,We are highly impressed and the Paga development project is great and we want to appreciate the government besides that there are ‘Agenda 111’ projects ongoing and we hope that once the Vice President is here, we hope the hospital will be completed in due time.
As a token of appreciation and a symbol of the endorsement for Vice President, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia’s Presidential campaign, the traditional authority presented a hand-woven, white smock to him.
“We are praying for you, the whole of the Paga traditional council is praying for you in the contest as you are aspiring to be a President of the Republic of Ghana. It is our wish and prayer that you become the President. Next time, when you are coming here, you are not coming here as Vice President but you are coming as the President of the Republic of Ghana. I am optimistic you will wear the ultimate crown. I invoke the gods to guide and protect you on your journey which I am certain will come to pass”.
The Paga Pio’s declaration was received with applause from the Vice President’s delegation including, the Minister of Interior, Hon. Ambrose Dery, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Hon. Mustapha Yussif and the Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Stephen Yakubu.
The Politics and the Campaign
The Regional Minister made an open campaign for Dr. Bawumia as he called for the support of the Chief and the people of Upper East to support him in his quest to become President. He also asked them to support the candidate the NPP will be presenting for the 2024 elections.
The Impact of Bawumia’s Visit
The Vice President touted some of the achievements of the Nana Addo-Bawumia government as follows:
“We are cognizant of some of the issues that you have raised.You have said that the government has done a lot, we have brought in major policies such as the ‘ Free Senior High School’ policy that is allowing a lot of burden taken off our mothers and fathers and allowing a lot of children to go to school and access education. We are helping our farmers with ‘Planting for Food and Jobs. We Make sure there is Ambulance Service across every Constituency under the ‘One Constituency One Ambulance’ program and other specific programs. You have mentioned the Border Transit project which is taking off traffic on the road and the District Assembly Office complex which is probably over 90 per cent complete Isha Allah (by the grace of God) we will come and commission soon”
The C.K Tadem Factor:
In what looks like an attempt to court the affection of the people of Paga and the Kasina and Nankana people to support his bid to lead the NPP, the Vice President drew paternity between himself (Dr Bawumia) and the Late C.K. Tadem who is a royal of Paga and founding member of NPP.
“C.K Tedam was one of the stewards of our tradition( NPP), was my father, he was someone that Paga gave to our party (NPP) and someone we will always remember and that is why the President named the University after him”
Agenda 111 projects
Dr Bawumia and his entourage which included, the government’s Advisor on health, Dr Nsiah Asare, Ministers of state and other government officials inspected the ongoing construction of the first-ever District Hospital (Agenda 111) for the Kasina Nankana District. The project was still at the ground level which was not pleasing to the visiting team but, the vice president encouraged the contractor put up his best to ensure the early completion of the project.
Visit C. K. Tedam University
Many were wondering what business the second most powerful person of the land was going to attend at the C. K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences. To answer all the skepticism in the crowd including, party sympathizers, residents of Paga and Navrongo and Journalists followed the Veeps motorcade to the University. Up to this point Journalists and the general public followed and were allowed to take pictures, videos and voice recordings of those speaking but, what was thought to be a public hearing had a twist leaving journalists and the general public in the dark, maybe not for party folks.
The Upper East Regional Director of Communications of NPP, Hon. Peter Ayimbisa, who had extended the invitation to the media to cover the Vice President’s tour came to thank the media for their coverage and inform them that the tour was over and their service was excused.
Insider information informed out reporter who was part of the media entourage that the Vice President met with party folks to discuss party issues at the University.
Source:mywordfmonline.com/Adekurah, Wisdom