The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is set to launch a major onslaught on vice presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, in the coming days in a bid to discredit and dent his image and reputation, the Daily Guide newspaper reports.
The move to go after the NPP’s number two man – with a few weeks to the crucial December elections – according to inside sources, comes on the advice of a South African consulting firm, Brand International, which is said to be the major Public Relations (PR) outfit and strategist working behind the scenes for the NDC’s 2016 campaign.
The same firm was allegedly instrumental in the party’s 2012 electoral campaign.
Interestingly, when the NPP went for South African security experts, the NDC cried foul, claiming that the party had invited mercenaries.
According to reports, South Africans are of the opinion that the NDC should kiss good bye to the 2016 polls if it fails to run down Dr Bawumia’s prognosis of the economy.
The same consultants to the NDC allegedly asked the president to request for a debate with Nana Akufo-Addo, presidential aspirant of the NPP – a call that has virtually hit a snag.
According to insiders, who claim they took part in several meetings to plan the onslaught on Dr Bawumia, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the advice and decision to go all out on Nana Akufo-Addo’s running mate comes after polls have revealed that his credibility and appeal among the Ghanaian populace are the major obstacles to the re-election of the President in the upcoming elections.
Accordingly, a series of moves have already been initiated to ensure a successful execution of the plot this time round, despite several failed attempts in the past to dent the image of Dr. Bawumia.
These moves, sources said, include digging into every little detail about the celebrated economist/banker in an attempt to find things [gather dirt] that can be used in the planned attack.
To this end, various operatives are said to have been dispatched to almost all schools attended by Dr Bawumia, as well as his former workplaces, including those in the United Kingdom (UK), Canada and the United States (US), while intimate and friends (past and present) are being offered huge sums of money in return for even the slightest of information that can be deemed valuable by the NDC to nail him (Bawumia).
According to highly-placed sources, the recent vitriolic attacks on Bawumia – spearheaded by President John Mahama, Koku Anyidoho, Asiedu Nketia and Haruna Iddrisu – have all been part of the preparatory stages for the main attack, which is due in the coming days.
Several officials in the NDC and the John Mahama campaign team are said to have approved the final onslaught on the NPP vice presidential aspirant who has been campaigning in the Northern Region for the past few weeks.
Dr Bawumia recently rubbished President Mahama’s recent gaffe on the cost of the redenomination exercise undertaken by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) under the erstwhile Kufuor-led NPP administration in 2007.
President Mahama challenged Dr Bawumia, who was then a Deputy Governor of the BoG, to reveal the cost of the cedi redenomination exercise.
“Up till today, no Ghanaian knows the cost of the redenomination exercise and the same people come and say someone is incompetent. When you redenominated the cedi how much did it cost us? Simple things like these you cannot tell us and you have the nerve to come and talk about corruption. Look in the mirror and look at yourselves,” was how Mahama put it.
But in a sharp rebuttal, Dr Bawumia ridiculed President Mahama by referring him to a Daily Graphic report on Wednesday, November 7, 2007, which quoted a former Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Paul Acquah, as saying at a press conference that the Central Bank spent a total of $66.2 million (about GH¢62.188 million) on the redenomination exercise.
For him, the request for disclosure on the 2007 redenomination was therefore, another demonstration of incompetence on the part of the president.
That, he said, was because “if the president really wanted to find out the cost of the redenomination, he could simply have asked his veep [Vice President Amissah-Arthur] who was a Bank of Ghana Governor, especially when the president was the head of the Economic Management Team.”
“Such petty propaganda should be beneath someone of the stature of a president, it does not only tell of a president who does not read, but the fact that he delights in propaganda and ends up embarrassing himself,” Dr Bawumia added.
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