The Alan Kyerematen campaign team has expressed surprise that Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is wading into the Aduru Wo So mantra and disagreeing with it thereof.
Spokesperson of the team Yaw Buaben Asamoa insists that the rank and file of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) believes in this unwritten agreement and it is indeed time for Alan Kyerematen to lead the ruling party.
Aduru Wo So is Akan language translated ‘It is your time’ and often borne in reference to Alan Kyerematen, who had contested NPP’s presidential primaries since 2007.
The response from Mr Kyerematen’s team follows Dr Bawumia’s campaign in the Ashanti Region on Thursday, July 6 that he was there for the party when it mattered most in 2013 during the landmark election petition.
He told delegates that those who are claiming it is their time were nowhere to be found when it mattered most.
He reminded all how he mounted the dock as the star witness in that eight-month trial
But in the sharp response, Mr Buaben Asamoa said Aduru Wo So is a potent process in the NPP and it was not when there was an election petition but when the party was formed.
“I am surprised that the Vice President himself is actually wading into this Aduru Wo So business,” he noted in an interview with TV3‘s Christian Yalley at the conclusion of Alan Kyerematen’s public durbar in the Greater Accra Region on Friday, July 7.
“Aduru Wo So is a very potent process in our party in the sense that the party delegates look at long service to the party and political maturity gained from that service. It is a very big part of the decision that they take.
“Now if you say that somebody says Aduru Me So and you refuse to agree that when it mattered most you were there to save the party. When it mattered most was when the party was created; when it mattered most was when we were coming out of military rule and we had to confront a military and authoritarian regime under President Rawlings, then Chairman Rawlings.”
He added that Dr Bawumia did not contribute even a pesewa to the party when he joined “and I challenge him to show a receipt saying that he contributed anything to this party before he was brought in”.
The campaign for the NPP Presidential Primaries is heating up with the results of the vetting expected to be released on Friday, July 21.
If more than five out of the 10 aspirants vetted make it onto the vetting list, there will be a special congress on Saturday, August 26.