Dr Randy Abbey, the host of Good Morning Ghana put on display his interviewing skills, grilling the Director Communications of the New Patriotic Party, Richard Ahiagbah for over five minutes on the possible running mate for the flagbearer of the party, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
On the Thursday, December 7, 2023 edition of the morning show, Randy Abbey bombarded Richard Ahiagbah with questions relative to various aspects of the bigger topic of who partners Bawumia for the election of 2024.
Reacting to the meeting by the National Executive Council and National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NPP to discuss potential running mates for their flagbearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Dr Randy Abbey posed a number of questions to Richard Ahiagbah seeking answers on some developments.
Randy Abbey: Ahead of the meeting yesterday, there were a lot of speculations. Some said that a shortlist was going to be done, and some also said that the candidate was going to be announced. Your General Secretary has spoken to the media, take us what happened. What necessitated the request and the granting of the request?
Richard Ahiabah: The article you referred to is 13. The flagbearer based on that meeting requested more time from the national council. It was to allow him additional time for consultation.
Randy: Why did he need additional time? Did he indicate why he needed additional time?
Ahiagbah: He didn’t necessarily request time, he requested more consultations which means he will need more time. I think the party unanimously agreed
Randy: Did it have to do with the closeness of the period that he was chosen?
Ahiagbah: You can say so because he basically needs more time for consultations. If he had been elected earlier, he would have had time to do that earlier.
The grilling lasted over ten minutes with Ahiagbah providing answers on issues such when Bawumia is likely to name his running mate, the gender and competence of the person as well as his preference of a candidate.
Background
At the end of the meeting on Wednesday, December 6, 2023, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) gave its flag bearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, more time to consult broadly to come up with his running mate for the 2024 general election.
It is in line with the NPP’s constitutional requirement, which mandates the selection of a running mate at least 12 months before a major election if the President is not the candidate.
However, the party leadership has chosen to waive this requirement following Dr Bawumia’s relatively recent election as flag bearer.
The party’s National Council, which has the power to make exceptions to the party’s rules, agreed with Dr Bawumia’s request to pick his running mate later.
