A member of the governing New Patriotic Party’s Communication Team, Wunison Khan Jambeidu believes some flagbearer hopefuls of the party are deliberately running down the Akufo-Addo government’s economic record in attempt to bastardize the candidature of the Vice-President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
Mr. Khan Jambeidu said although the said flagbearer aspirants are well aware of the devastation the Covid-19 pandemic and the geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine have brought upon the country and its economy, they are rubbishing this fact just to hurt the Vice-President’s candidature because he heads the Economic Management Team.
“There’s someone they (aspirants) are targeting and that is why they are pretending not to know that it is largely due to these 2 situations (Covid-19 and Russia/Ukraine War) that have brought us to where we are and they are targeting Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia because he’s been the head of the EMT and he’s been involved with the running of this economy.
And if they are able to downplay the impact of those 2 situations then it will boil down to the competency and capacity of the people managing the economy and who are those managing the economy that are running to become candidates of the party, largely the frontrunner is Dr. Bawumia and that is the target,” he said.
As campaign for the flagbearership slot of the NPP heats up, some of the aspirants appear to be throwing their party and its government under the bus as they dispute claims by the Akufo-Addo’s administration that the country’s economic turmoil is as a result of the geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine as well as the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some of them including the party’s former General Secretary Kwabena Adjei Agyapong, serial contestant Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, MP for Assin Central Kennedy Ohene Agyepong and former Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko have argued that the situation cannot be solely blamed on external factors and that the government should admit that its failures have also contributed to the crisis.
In a recent campaign tour in the Bono East Region, Kennedy Agyapong questioned the competence of the managers of the economy, stating that the country would not have sought support from the International Monetary Fund if they were on top of their job.
Reacting to these in an interview on State of Our Nation, Mr. Khan Jambeidu said such attacks are aimed at the Vice-President who is a frontrunner in the race.
He, however, advised the aspirants to channel their energies into selling their messages to the delegates rather than attempting to stain Dr. Bawumia’s bid to lead the party.
He argued that it is a misplaced campaign strategy for them to attempt to run the Vice-President and his leadership of the economy down when they are supposed to tell the delegates why they should be made party’s flagbearer.
“I think it will serve each and everyone of them well to focus on the delegates. This is a delegates based election. they should tell the people what they’ve done for this party, what they’ve done for grassroots of this party, what they have done to be able to improve the welfare of the people of this party, the capacity to be able to lead this party, the capacity to ensure that you’ll be able a formidable candidate against John Dramani Mahama. We expect that from each and everyone of them,” he advised.
