“Newcomer”, “founding member”, “it is my turn” labels of NPP aspirants discriminatory – Aide to Bawumia

A special aide to Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Akbar Yussif Rohullah Khomeini, has criticised some members of the NPP fraternity for describing Dr. Bawumia as a newcomer.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Akbar Yussif condemned remarks by another flagbearer aspirant, Kwabena Agyei Agyapong, that Dr. Bawumia is a relatively new person who cannot lead the party into the 2024 elections.

“Kwabena Agyepong has repeated the apparent but weak jab that all candidates are throwing at the distinguished Dr. Bawumia’…he has charged delegates not to vote for a candidate he termed a newcomer.”

Citing Article 13(7) of the NPP’s constitution, which details qualifications for a Presidential Candidate, he argued that the framers of the constitution desired to make the party a truly democratic one and erase any sense of entitlement.

“When the framers of the NPP constitution ordained Article 13 (7) and Congress approved the same, they intended to erase any sense of entitlement in the NPP and make it a truly Democratic Party consistent with the views of our founding ideologues.

The conditions stipulated in Article 13(7) are:

No Member shall be entitled to nomination as the Party’s Presidential Candidate unless he/she:

(a) is a known and active Member of at least five (5) years;

(b) is of good character;

(c) is of good standing;

(d) has paid the prescribed fee for a Presidential Aspirant by the deadline set by the National Executive Committee;

(e) is found to be qualified to be a Presidential Candidate by the Vetting Committee;

(f) has signed the “Undertaking for Presidential Aspirants”; and

(g) the Member’s nomination has been endorsed in writing by at least one hundred (100) Members in good standing, ten (10) from each region.”

Akbar Yussif furthered that: “The terms newcomer, founding member, it is my turn, are untenable importations into Article 13(7) of the NPP constitution by desperate politicians. Those who wrote our constitution were wise enough not to embrace such arrogant and discriminatory terms on the question of who qualifies to lead the party.”

A key contender for the party’s presidential elections, Alan Kyerematen, promoting the “Aduru wo so” mantra, has opined that it is his time to lead the party, agreeing that President Akufo-Addo should become flagbearer for the last two elections.