The Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia lied last Friday during the submission of his nomination forms at the NPP Secretariat. He alleged that he was a hustler who grew up under difficult socio-economic circumstances. This blatant lie could have awoken his late father Alhaj Mumuni Bawumia from his grave. According to Dr. Bawumia:
“….I have walked to school in Moshie Zongo in Tamale…..I have been a by-day worker on farms during secondary school holidays ……..I have been a warehouse boy after finishing University……I have been a minicab driver in London……..I was only able to pay fees for one term during my studies at Oxford University and had to survive for the rest of my studies by paying fees…I have been a cleaner at dormitories at the University in Canada….”
These were the words of the venerable Vice President of the Republic. The Vice President was very economical with the truth. It’s a matter of public knowledge that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was born in 1963 with a “silver spoon” in his mouth. His late father Alhaj Mumuni Bawumia ( of blessed memory) must be turning in his grave after suffering such gargantuan betrayal and lies from his begotten son. Alhaj Mumuni Bawumia was not a poor man. He gave each of his sons and daughters the best quality of life and education.
Alhaj Mumuni Bawumia was one of the earliest lawyers to emerge from Northern Ghana in the 1960s. He was highly respected as belonging to the class of Northern intelligentsia and elites. Alhaj Mumuni Bawumia was a distinguished public servant par excellence. He entered politics early in his life and got elected to parliament in 1954 under the aegis of the Northern People’s Party. In 1956, he was re-elected as a member of parliament under the United Party. In 1958, he crossed carpet from UP to CPP where he was duly rewarded with the portfolio of Minister for works and housing. He was subsequently appointed under the CPP Government as minister for Local Government and the Northern Region. During the days of the National Liberation Council Government, he was appointed the commissioner for special development. By 1978 Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia was appointed chairman of the cocoa marketing board now Ghana Cocobod. In 1988, Alhaj Mumuni Bawumia was appointed Ambassador of Ghana to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. From 1993 to 2001, he was chairman of the Council of State, the first Ghanaian to hold office in the 4th Republic.
To seek elective office, there’s no need to engage in falsehood with the view to hoodwinking delegates to vote for you. Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia attended Tamale Secondary School from 1976-1981. During this period, Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia was either a practicing lawyer or the chairman of Cocobod. Alhaj Mumuni Bawumia’s son could not be a by-day worker on farms or walk to school out of poverty or difficult economic circumstances. Dr. Bawumia’s claim of being a minicab driver in the UK must be taken with a pinch of salt. To acquire a license to drive a minicab in the UK, the applicant needs to undergo training in the practice and theory of driving together with a deep knowledge of the geography of London. It took people a long time to pass through all these processes. It’s not as easy as driving an UBER or YANGO in Accra.
Due to the economic capability of Alhaj Mumuni Bawumia, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia did not attend University in Ghana. He attended Oxford University, the best University in the UK where his father paid all the fees. It’s shameful and betraying to deny Alhaj Mumuni Bawumia the credit for paying his school fees in Oxford. At the time Dr. Bawumia attended University in the UK and Canada, his father was either a practicing lawyer or an Ambassador of Ghana to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Nothing could be far from the truth if Dr. Bawumia listed menial jobs undertaken in the UK and Canada during his school days as evidence of a struggling student. He didn’t lack the financial support of Alhaj Mumuni Bawumia to undertake his studies in the UK and Canada.
I shudder to think that he may have taken the trajectory of falsehood to create the false impression that he was a hustler, hoipoloi, or a lumping proletariat and thereby win the sympathy of the unsuspecting delegate. Could Dr. Bawumia have also done that because the story of some candidates and co-competitors appear to be attracting votes from the delegates? Your guess is as good as mine.
What Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia did was not acceptable. We cannot accept similar stories from the sons of E. A Mahama, Asuma Banda, Osei Kwame Despite, and Dr. Kwaku Oteng, just to mention a few.
SULEMANA YIDANA NALERIGU
NORTH-EAST REGION
In response to attention-seeking Yidana: DMB never lied
Let me start by saying putting politics aside, I find Mr Yidana’s note insulting to the large majority of people born and raised in Savannah North! He also shows very clearly that he is ignorant about student life in the UK. Mr. Yidana’s take was a poorly written piece designed to trend, riding on the back of DMB’s popularity, and possibly to position himself in the good books of John Mahama. At best, this was a subpar piece from a political minnow craving to tell his party he has also taken on the man of the moment. Unfortunately, Mr. Yidana displays gross ignorance on a scale usually associated with people pigeonholed in the village square, with little or no interaction with happenings outside their immediate surroundings. Mr. Yidana, judging from the reasoning in his write-up, is likely to be a serial patron of gossip, fabrication and hearsay. For instance, he seems to think that if you are the son of a highly placed politician, a chief or indeed a financially endowed individual, you will never lack pocket money to school; you will not need to find ways of earning income; and your life path would have been fully chartered for you. This is so far from the truth. I know of MPs, Paramount Chiefs, and Ministers of State whose children had to struggle as much as any ordinary child. You will find that it was often through the hard work of their mothers, older sibling, and others, including maternal relatives who often stepped in to help. Yes, their fathers would help but not to the point that the children did not need to raise a finger! The level of support received depended on the number of stepmothers and ‘half’ siblings in the compound.
I give credit and well done to each and every child raised in the Guinea Savannah Ecological Zone who managed to end up in University or college and acquired a profession. Dr Bawumia got to this station in his professional life by dint of hard work! He burnt the candle at both ends on uncountable nights, studying until his brain boiled with pain whose barrier one breaks when you think of the alternatives. Like other ambitious youth of his generation, DMB listened to advice of dedicated teachers, mentors and role models in the community, whom we always had up north until lately. There was the understanding that even though your school was relatively under resourced, in most cases lacking teacher’s, educational material and no electricity 24-7, you had to read and be motivated to work hard so that one day you could look after your parents, especially your mother!
Life in the Uk. Mr Yidana, ask anybody who has had their education in the UK and for that matter the industrial North. Yes, I know Ghanaians who drove MINI Cabs, as distinct from BLACK Cabs. For the latter, yes you need a professional license and to pass exams that could span years, making the graduant Black Cab driver a human digital Navigator. For mini cab driving, so long as you had a valid driving license, knew your way around the city (using digital navigators) you could engage in this work especially in the evenings or at weekends. Some used their own cars whilst others worked with companies. During the summer harvest season, some go apple, strawberry, plum or other fruit picking, being paid by how many pallets you brought in.
I also know others who completed some of the finest universities but had to initially engage in working in the health sector as security or auxiliary nurses (where one has no need for nursing training). Some worked in nursing homes, mental institutions, etc. in various capacities. Yet others worked in transport networks (e.g London Underground and the various bus networks). They did this while studying very hard for their bachelor, doctoral or professional qualifications.
I will end by quoting a proverb that one detects the possibility of hernia in the early days of testicular formation. DMB’s passion and commitment, his style of leadership, his whole attitude to governance, has been shaped by these early experiences. This explains his loyalty and dedication to duty, implementing the human and people-centered policies of his Party and of his leader, His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo. When some leadership aspirants spent hours on our airwaves attacking and undermining, he continued to do the utmost he could to ensure the crucial social and economic interventions were maintained, including the Free SHS, school feeding; NABCO and other youth employment schemes; the idea of dams for the northern areas that experience severe human and animal suffering during the 6-7 months of dry season; strengthening the health insurance; digitalization to make transactions easy for our largely rural and financially poor communities; improving road networks, etc.
Dr Bawumia told no lies there. look elsewhere for undeserved acknowledgment. Change your dissertation topic