In politics, our nation started off with majority of the political parties being formed along ethnic and religious lines. The first leader of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, thought it wise to break this up when he had a law, Avoidance of Discrimination Act, passed to proscribe all parties founded on ethnic and religious lines.
Because of this law, six opposition parties, namely the Anlo Youth Association (Ewe), Ga Shifimokpee (Ga), Muslim Association Party (Islamic), National Liberation Movement (Akan), Northern People’s Party (Northern Tribes) and Togoland Congress (Ewe) were to be banned by December 31, 1957. They however came together and on October 13, 1957, they formed the United Party.
Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party (CPP) was in power until February 24, 1966. Before its fall, the CPP successfully disabled the UP in parliament and put across a One-Party state.
People might say that the Victor Owusu’s inward-looking description of the Ewe ethnic group led to the Ewes moving out of the union.
This cannot be the case, because the 1969 General Elections gave strong indications that the Gas and the Ewes, for some reasons, had packed bag and baggage and left the UP Tradition to pitch their tents in other traditions.
The 1969 results showed the Progress Party of the UP Tradition conquering all Akan based regions, winning all twenty-two seats in Ashanti, all thirteen seats in Brong-Ahafo and all fifteen seats in the Central region.
The PP took 82% of Eastern with eighteen seats out of the maximum twenty-two. Yilo-Osudoku, Manya, Krobo and Dangbe-Shai all of the Dangbe-speaking ethnic groups gave it to the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL) one of the off-shoots of the CPP.The PP took 77% of the Western region, with ten seats out of the maximum thirteen.
The PP held 92% of all Akan dominated regions. The North, made up of the Northern and Upper regions, showed up to be counted as members of the UP Tradition.
While the Northern region gave the PP nine seats out of the fourteen (64%), Upper region, from where Dombo hailed from, gave the PP, thirteen out of sixteen seats (81%), making the PP take control of 73% of all of the North making up twenty-two seats out of the thirty seats.
Two traditional UP regions, the Greater Accra and the Volta, however fell out. PP took four out of nine seats in Greater Accra and two out of fourteen seats in the Volta region. And here, it must be noted that all the two seats won were in today’s Oti region, the Krachi and Nkwanta constituencies.
No seat was secured in Anlo where the Anlo Youth Association was formed and no seat in Wedome where the Togoland Congress was also form. What made the Gas and the Ewes desert the UP Tradition as far back as 1969?
However, the worst was yet to come, when the UP Tradition lost the North as showed in the 1979 General Elections. The PFP of the UP Tradition did not win a single seat in the Volta region, it won only one seat each in Greater Accra (10%) and Upper regions (6%) and four seats in Northern region (29%).
Since then, apart from Greater Accra which has become a swing-region, the UP Tradition has been clouded out from all the Northern regions and the Volta region, adding Oti to the list.
In this day and age, ethnocentrism that has entered into Ghana politics can be blamed on Jerry John Rawlings who made majority of the Ewes and Dangbes to accept that the NPP is an Akan party and not their own.
He went on to use the inward-looking description of Ewes by Victor Owusu to buttress his point that Akans, especially Asantes do not like Ewes and Dangbes, even though he had an Asante wife.
All through this Fourth Republic, Rawlings National Democratic Congress (NDC) and some of the Nkrumaists have labelled the New Patriotic Party as an anti-Ewe, anti-North and anti-Muslim party. In reality, this is not case.
From the onset of this republic, apart from the 1996 elections, the NPP has persistently, put up a Northerner on its presidential ticket as running mate, and four times, made it possible for a Muslim to become a vice president.
In 1996, when an alliance was formed with some Nkrumaists’ parties, the NPP was compelled to pick an Akan, Mr Arkaah, who was an Nkrumaist, as running mate.
The NPP looks up to the North and finds everyone there are worthy to be treated equally. But not the NDC, as things always reveal.
In 1992, Rawlings was compelled under the Progressive Alliance rules of the game to pick a running mate from one of the other partners and the lot fell on Arkaah. After he fell out with Rawlings, he could no longer be a running mate.
The opportunity came for Rawlings to pick a true blooded member from the PNDC Tradition. The NDC had a chance to acknowledged the great works the Muslims in the party had been doing and put up a South-North presidential ticket, picking from among others, the likes of Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu who was a loyalist to the course.
Rawlings however went and picked a hitherto unknown person in politics, John Evans Atta Mills (JEAM), a Southerner. In 2000, when Rawlings had mandatorily completed two maximum terms as president, JEAM picked a Northerner Christian, Martin Amidu, as his running mate. The only time a Muslim appeared as running-mate for the NDC was in 2004, when Alhaji Mumuni was named.
In 2008, the NDC went for a Northerner Christian in the person of John Mahama and won the elections. With the demise of JEAM in 2012, JDM picked his vice, a Southerner Christian, Amissah-Arthur as running-mate and won elections. The two went again in 2016 but lost to the NPP. Amissah-Arthur died in 2018 and John Mahama and the NDC chose Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman, a Southerner Christian as running-mate for the 2020 Elections.
With the NPP’s persistent convention of going for a Northerner Muslim apart from 1992 when the party had a Northerner Christian as running mate, it is evident that Muslims and Northerners are very much acknowledged in the UP Tradition. This begun when Victor Owusu of the PFP, after defeating Chairman Tolon Na, Alhaji Yakubu Tali in the presidential primaries, decided to pick him as his running mate to have a Christian-Muslim ticket.
Many a times, the NDC taunt the NPP for not putting up a Northerner Muslim as presidential candidate, while they never put a Muslim into the presidency, something which the NPP has done, four times, in 2001, 2005, 2017 and 2021. The NDC records are clear 1993, 1997, 2009 and 2013, it had Southerner Christians as vice presidents.
The hard work of Muslims in the NDC could be seen by works of Haruna Iddrisu, Muntaka Mohammed and many others. It is rather sad, that this single religious group which has thrown its weight and all behind the NDC, right from the PNDC days is never rewarded befittingly.
The NDC tradition is the PNDC and this was brought forth by mostly soldiers of the Northern extraction. Well known ones include, Sgt. Daniel Aloga Akata Pore, Sgt. Abdul Malik, Lance Corporal Carlos Halidu Giwa, Corporal Lawal and Corporal Matthew Adabuga, among others. Civilians from the North whose sweat and toils greatly helped in entrenching the PNDC include Chris Atim and Zaya Yeebo.
However, after the PNDC got entrenched and all counter-coups were culled, these Northerners were dropped out on trumped-out charges of dissenting against the government. Some were executed for attempting to overthrow the regime.
That notwithstanding, the Muslims and the Northerners always rallied behind the PNDC and then the NDC, showing unconditional love and support, to this day. But the same is not reciprocated by the body NDC.
Today, hardworking Northerners and Muslims have been removed from elite positions in that party. If the big ones can be eliminated like blowing out a candle, then the little Muslims and Northerners in the NDC can be blown away like dry leaves in a windstorm and no one will notice.
In all this has the NDC got any moral right to tell the NPP what to do for Muslims and Northerners in the party? Of the political parties in Ghana today, the NPP stands out tops when it comes to being broadly acceptable to all ethnic groups and religions and treating all fairly. This is truly a national party and it must renew the UP Tradition by finding out what made majority of Ewes, Gas and Muslims to desert the union and bring them back home.
Hon. Daniel Dugan
