Former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has reminded members of the NPP seeking to create division in the party through tribal and religious bigotry, about the dangerd of their actions to the NPP as a national party.
Speaking to constituency chairmen of the NPP at their Constituency Caucus Meeting in Kumasi on Saturday, Dr. Bawumia urged members of the NPP to reject such divisive campaigns because the NPP is a party encompassing people from “all ethnic groups and all religions.”
Dr. Bawumia’s comment was in reaction to the introduction of religious and tribal campaigns against him by some of the party’s flagbearer hopefuls and their officials.
Recently, Kennedy Agyapong who is campaigning to be elected the party’s 2028 Flagbearer told a group of party members that he should be elected Flagbearer because the NPP lost the 2024 election due to the refusal of Christians to vote for Bawumia, who is a Muslim.
And over the weekend, a lead campaigner for Kennedy Agyapong, Dr. Steven Amoah, who is also an NPP Member of Parliament for Nhyiaeso, said Christians in Ghana are not ready to vote for a Muslim leader, a religious campaign targeted at Dr. Bawumia.
Speaking to the Constituency Chairmen and to party members, Dr. Bawumia urged them to reject such divisive campaigns and reminded them of what the NPP stands for as a national party.
“We are a united party encompassing people from all ethnic groups, all religions and we are all partt of the elephant family. It is therefore very important that we do not allow people for the sake of political advantage to bring us apart as a party,” Dr. Bawumia said.
“I’m saying this because recently people are going religious and tribal. That’s dangerous for the New Patriotic Party. Very dangerous for us if you go in that direction.”
on claims by the ‘religious campaigners’ that the NPP lost because Christians refused to vote for its flagbearer; Dr. Bawumia described the claim as baseless, stressing that it has no place in the findings of the Mike Oquaye Committee, which investigated reasons why the NPP lost the 2024 election.
“What is clear and it is stated in black and white in the Oquaye report, as well as all the other surveys is that religion and tribe were not factors in the 2024 election. So we should not try to create and say that Christians would not vote for Bawumia. My 4.7m votes were there only Muslims who voted for me? It is not possible. All voted for me.
“When Kufuor lost did we say religion? When Mills lost did we say religion? When Nana Akufo-Addo lost did we say religion? That is not a factor but people want to make it a factor for political reasons.”
Dr. Bawumia told the NPP Constituency Chairmen that he would not have contested again to be the NPP’s flagbearer if religion was indeed the reason why he lost.
“If that was the case, I wouldn’t have contested at all. I would have stepped aside if that is the case because I’m not a selfish person. I value the party. If that was the case I would have stepped aside because I would not jeopardise the ability of the party to win the 2028 election. I would have stepped aside but that is not the case.”
“People are trying to do that for their own political advantage and it is really dangerous for our party.”
Source: 3news
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