Dr. Bryan Acheampong, a prominent member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Minister for Food and Agriculture, has announced that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the presidential candidate of the NPP, will select a Ghanaian as his vice-presidential running mate, regardless of their tribal or ethnic affiliation.
During the first day of the nationwide campaign tour of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the vice president and presidential candidate of NPP for the December 2024 general elections, Dr. Bryan Acheampong, who is also the Member of Parliament for the Abetifi constituency in the Eastern Region, emphasized the importance of excluding tribal politics from the political discourse within the NPP and Ghana as a whole.
If we conduct a careful check to trace the origin of all Ghanaians, we will discover that we are all one people. The era of tribalism where people claim to be from one place or the other is long gone, and we must desist from all attempts to bring it back into our body politics.
We all need to rally behind the Ghana flag and the Ghana project. We need to work with a genuine heart for the nation to ensure that we build the country. Tribalism in this day and age should not be given a place in our political discourse.
In response to a query from journalists regarding his thoughts on the selection of a running mate for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia from the Ashanti Region, Dr. Bryan Acheampong emphasized that it is the prerogative of the party’s presidential candidate to make this decision. Furthermore, he assured that the chosen individual will undoubtedly be a Ghanaian.
Choosing a running mate should not be subjected to the fact that the person to be chosen hails from a particular place in the country. The election ahead of us is going to be about defending the record of the current NPP government. The NPP ticket for the election will be two Ghanaians and that is what should matter and not necessarily where the NPP presidential and vice-presidential candidates hail from.
It is “un-Ghanaian” if we do that. I will be extremely concerned we our presidential candidate chooses a Togolese or an Ivorian. But if the party chooses a Ghanaian, it does not matter where that person is from, what matters is what the person brings to the table to support the campaign.
We must stop entertaining the tribal conversations because even the presidential candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was not elected. After all, he is a Mamprusi. He was selected because of his competence and he will certainly select a competent person to partner him. This is the kind of conversation I think we should have.
