Politics is history written by winners. And NPP Volta regional chairman John Peter Amewu is a winner – if you ask NPP insiders.
Sitting in Joy News studio for an interview with Francis Abban, he sat like a winner, smiled like a winner, and he laughed twice – both like a winner.
He was there to tell the story of how the NPP turned the ‘NDC’s world bank into a microfinance company’Or if you like, how the NPP downgraded an NDC stronghold like Moody’s downgraded Ghana’s economy.
This doesn’t have to be an opinion if you study the numbers.
President Mahama in 2012, commanded 81,880 votes in Ketu South constituency held by NDC MP Fifi Kwettey.
Four years later, Mahama had to drag in 65,279 votes. Nearly 20,000 votes –vanished. Fifi Kwetey watched an electoral horror movie as his 77,837 in 2012 was chopped off to 48,723 in 2016.
The governing NDC still won, right? Well yeah. But you don’t know the Volta region.
When President John Mahama makes the thunderbolt sign on the campaign trail, it was to signify how he is going to put daylight between him and his main NPP rival.
He was literally thinking about the Volta region whenever he did that sign.
Remember the guy in your church whom everyone looked up to, to finish off the fundraising target with his hefty contributions? Yeah – that is the Volta region to the NDC.
So the NPP’s target was not to win but embarrass the winner so much the victory is phryric. Peter Amewu coded named this strategy VR – Vigilance and Reduction.
We can disagree about climate change, but it won’t be a debate that Amewu achieved his target.
So sitting satisfied in the Joy news studio, Peter is the rock on which the NPP campaign was built and the gates of a formidable NDC machinery could not prevail.
His target was 19% minimum, 30% maximum. But Amewu had a different way of explaining his ‘failure’. He said NPP increased its 2012 votes by 92,000 in 2016 nationwide but the Volta region contributed 30,000 votes to this fresh increase. So one region gave NPP a third of its December 7 spoils while nine other regions shared two-thirds.
Statistics? When can it mean only one thing, O God?
The NDC has concluded, the Volta region misfourtune is down to the apathy of the Voltarian. Ask Amewu. He puts it down to sympathy from Togolese.
His explanation that fits the NPP conviction that “there are Togolese nationals in the register”. He said the party moved to border towns and communities in Togo to beg them to stay away from Ghana’s polls.
“We went into Togo spoke to the Chiefs in Togo spoke to the elders, the youth in the community that enough is enough. We don’t determine your presidency, how come you determine ours. And the people gave us the assurance that they are not going to allow their people to come” he said.
“We tell the people that look if there is economic boom in Ghana the overflow is the benefit to the Togolese. They themselves admitted it.
They complained to us that the border activities traffic density have tremendously reduced during this four-years under Mahama” he revealed the Operation Eagle eye’s strategy.
He said he made at least 16 trips to Togo to drum home this point.
‘The few Ghanaians who came out of Togo to come and vote, voted NPP’, he shared a view that the NDC would find as heresy.
Peter Amewu said the Eagle Eye operation was not an aggressive strategy. It was a relationship-building strategy with Togolese citizens.
That was why although about 20,000 Togolese registered during the voter registration exercise in Ketu North, President Mahama still lost 20,000 votes because the 20,000 foreigners stayed home.
He said the NDC sensing a seismic shift in the Volta region politics, sent Fifi Kwetey and Vice-President Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur to go to Togo
A day before the election, Fifi Kwetey including the Vice-President were in Aflao. They had a big rally trying to entice the people to come and vote.
Francis Abban’s question to him about “how much of President Rawlings absence from the Volta region worked for the NPP” drew a dirisive laughter from Peter Amewu. The NPP in the Volta region in an unsual move went to court the NDC founder.
Rawlings’ absence he said, helped the NPP gain at least 3% more of the World Bank funds. He explained that he realized that despite Mahama’s talk of being a unifer, the wedge between him and the former leader was wide.
I realized that he was not a good unifer so what I did was to quickly go behind him and meet with President Rawlings. That also did the trick. There is not less than 2 to 3% point gain as a result of that meeting with president Rawlings and what was discussed”.
I want to say a very big thanks to him. Even on the night of the election when the results were coming in, he did call”
Some 2 to 3% of that figure must be given to Rawlings. It was a great mistake that they had left the former president behind” he said.
Akufo-Addo in his victory speech acknowledged President Rawlings. And Amewu says the Volta regional NPP executives are planning to go back to the founder who turned his back to the NDC and pat him on the back.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.
