The Vice President just confirmed this week that he is also in the reckoning for the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) presidential nomination. Although his followers are calculating reasoning to convince many that perhaps, Bawumia’s late entry is as a result of prodding by party faithful, and not by his own wish, such vibes have long been consigned to the political bin of Machiavellianism.
It’s such manipulative tactics that often revolutionaries use to cajole poor unsuspecting souls that perhaps, these manipulators are their Messiahs on earth. Followers of the Vice President are trying to adopt such archaic form of politics, but the veiled approach has been unveiled. The truth is that the Vice President launched his campaign immediately after the 2020 elections. His noninvolvement in the NPP presidential race, would have constituted one of the eleven wonders of the world.
Of course, his candidature was in full glare immediately after the 2020 elections when Bawumia designed billboards started dominating the skylines throughout all the major big cities of the country, with Accra, getting the major share of the cherry. There is also the pretentious deputizing for his boss—the President, where the Vice President engages in all manner of guised partisan politics at state functions assigned to him by the President, just to boost and enhance his presidential bid. You don’t need a third eye to read in-between the lines.
Through his proxy allies at both the presidency and the office of the Vice President, Ghanaians knew of the Veep’s intention for the 2024 presidential slugfest very clearly, years ago. He was all set to battle the Alans and the Kennedy Agyapongs for the NPP presidential ticket. It’s intriguing how after the launch, Bawumia and his team are not informing Ghanaians about how to get Ghana back on her feet, but his spokespersons are moving all over with warped campaign that are wrapped in pettiness and irrationality.
How can anyone challenge the wives of the candidates in the NPP contest to show their mettle, heading into the November 2023, presidential primary of the NPP? Is it a mark of desperadoes on a desperate trajectory? A Bawumia surrogate and a former MP for Fanteakwa South, Kofi Okyere Agyekum, aka, Arafat, is challenging the wives of the other candidates, particularly, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen to show their forte in politics, as if they are in the run for the NPP presidential nomination.
Potential First ladies to be boisterous as their husbands? Are they the ones going to earn a spot on the 2024 general elections as presidential candidates or the NPP delegates election on the ballot papers? The concept of First Lady is an American creation, where it was presumed that with the President being referred to as the First Gentleman, his better half, should also be characterized as the First Lady. It has no basis in the American constitution. It’s only a restitution of reverence to the occupant of the White House.
Of course, there were a few First Ladies in Ghana who went out of the shadows of their husbands, the President, to establish their own identities, which complimented the works of their husbands. Otherwise, most of them remained backbones of their husbands on the quiet. We’ve had so many First Ladies, but perhaps the only one who courted both dynamism and hatred to the office, was Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings. She is even today being praised for forming the 31st December Women’s Movement that catered for the needs of many vulnerable women and the girl child in the Ghanaian society. There’s also the bit about her that was so repugnant to assimilate.
At some point in her reign, she was considered the First Lady Who All Must Obey. And indeed, that was the situation. Many appointments made by her husband, Jerry John Rawlings to public offices, it’s alleged lied within her bosom. Nana Konadu’s First Ladyship was clearly an exception to the regular First Lady tenure we’ve experienced in Ghana. And these were clear departure from Nana Konadu’s intrusive posture during the presidency of her husband, Jerry John Rawlings.
There was Theresa Kufuor First Ladyship that was calm and resolute behind her husband. Naadu Mills remained the most innocuous First Lady who always was mindful of her place at the presidency. There were some bits and pieces about Lordina Mahama, but largely, she remained that supportive of John Dramani Mahama, her husband on the low key. Even the current First Lady Rebecca Akufo Addo has not meddled in the political stewardship of his husband.
Instead, she has founded a foundation that caters for the needy in society. It’s been same since the First Republic with Fathia Nkumah; the Second Republic with Naa Moko Busia; General Acheampong’s Faustina Acheampong; General Akufo’s Emily Akufo and Dr. Limann’s Fulera Limann. So, what is Arafat looking out for in any of our prospective First ladies? To behave as if when their husbands get the nod to be Ghana’s President, they will upstage their husbands? We certainly, do not need any slay queen First ladies as some potential First Ladies are prospecting to be.
