Perceptions that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) only gave its members from Northern Ghana subordinate roles but never allowed them to thrive and excel in the party have now been fully dispelled with the election of Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as the flagbearer and leader of the party.
It is now quite clear that the NPP is not anti-northerners like some persons had sought to foist on the party but allows whoever works and deserves to do well in the party to do so.
Presently, many Northern NPP stalwarts are extremely powerful within the party and hold influential positions in the Government of President Akufo-Addo. But three persons stand out for the sheer enormity of the influence they wield within the party and Government: Samuel Abu Jinapor from the Savannah Region; Mohammed Amin Adam from the Northern Region; and certainly, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia from the North East Region.
Member of Parliament(MP) for Damongo Samuel Abu Jinapor, who has been a key member of the Akufo-Addo Government starting as Deputy Chief of Staff and landing the powerful role of Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, is a major force to be reckoned with when it comes to powerful personalities of northern extraction in the governing party. He started making waves in the party at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) as a student leader and politician. He would quickly transition TESCON( NPP’s students’ wing) into Akufo-Addo’s campaign for President.
Abu Jinapor unseated a most powerful sitting National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP in Damongo to become MP. He certainly has the influence and knows how to deploy it.
Finance Minister Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, a longstanding heavyweight of the party even during John Kufuor’s Presidency, ranks among the most powerful in the party. At the University of Cape Coast, he was a very intelligent, respected, and efficient student leader. The fact that he was going to be a great politician was only a matter of when not how. At a tender age, he became the Mayor of Tamale during John Kufuor’s Presidency and continued his ascend.
Dr Amin Adam has become a key campaigner in the Bawumia campaign and is set to retain his seat as MP for Karaga in the Northern Region.
Of course, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is from the North East Region and is the leader of the party. His seamless transition from a technocrat at the Bank of Ghana to a savvy politician is quite remarkable.
He is the one who has shown proof that the NPP is a meritorious organization given his sharp rise from a running mate to Vice President to flagbearer.
The trio – Samuel Abu Jinapor, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia himself – were at the commissioning of Ghana’s first gold refinery and took an iconic picture.
