Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama, the son of the former Vice President and a Member of Parliament for Yendi and Chairman of the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Coperation (GIISDEC), has condemned the ethnocentric comment made by Hopeson Adorye, who is a leading member of the Alan Kyerematen camp, noting that his comment is a mockery of the fundamentals of the Dankwa-Busia- Dombo tradition.

According to the lawmaker, such a comment is lethal and withers the growth of inclusion in the party and must be discouraged.

“His statement is a mockery of our founding ideals, that is, to build a political grouping of national character that lends, tout de suite, the liberty of inclusion at the pinnacle of the party in spite of the circumstances of your birth, creed, religious suasion or origin.”
Farouk Aliu Mahama

Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama established that it is the ideology of the party since its inception that everyone in the party no matter where he/she comes from has the same chance of standing for any position as others.

“The tradition has thrived on these tenets, endured all the political hostilities and persecutions in the pre and post independent era and has transmogrified to our the great NPP today. It is in the NPP that the son of a koko seller in the far hinterland of Yendi can rise up to be the running mate of his party and consequently Vice President of his country. That doctrine is what makes our tradition enduring.”
Farouk Aliu Mahama

Holding the Party’s Ideals

The GIISDEC Chairman asserted that as a party, the least to do is to hold sky-high such ideals and guard them jealously.

“It is a sectional thought to seem to suggest that the Dombos of our trinity are comfortable and fit for perpetual Running Mate in our tradition. That prognosis in itself is defeatist, retrogressive and squanders the gains we have made over the years to disbuse our political ecosystem of such impression. That’s not the promise our founders toiled for.”
Farouk Aliu Mahama

It can be recalled that on Saturday, August 13, 2022, while addressing a pro-Alan loyalists after a health walk, Hopeson Adorye stated that it is time for an Ashanti to lead the NPP into the 2024 elections.

According to Mr Adorye, this is a laid down tradition of the Dankwa-Busia-Dombo tradition. He stated that the Northeners, who form the Dombo tradition of the party are only good for Vice Presidential position of the party and as such, have always been given same in the two governments formed under the NPP in the Fourth Republic.

Delving briefly into history, in 1996, after the Great Alliance of the NPP and PCP failed to secure electoral victory with then J.A Kufour and Veep Kow Nkensen Arkah as candidate and running mate respectively, the Southern-Northern or Northern-Southern configurations was adopted by the party.

In 2000, the then flagbearer John Agyekum Kufour selected late Aliu Mahama as his running mate who together won the 2000 general elections. The Southern-Northern pair has since been a permanent feature of the NPP with the two governments formed under the Fourth Republic, having a southerner as President and a Northerner as the vice.

The current trend of events might put a dent on the Presidential ambition of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who is the current Vice President of the Republic and also from the North.