The Ashanti Region is, arguably, the most important region to the ruling New Patriotic Party because of its strategic importance to the electoral fortunes of the party. As a result of the above, internal elections in the region assume national characteristics as we are seeing now.
Bernard Antwi Boasiako, otherwise known as Chairman Wontumi, is in a pole position to annex the chairmanship slot for the third time. As expected, his opponents have raised issues which, when critically analyzed, defy logic.
First of all, Wontumi is being accused of hijacking road and other contracts in the region to the detriment of the other party members. The ludicrousness of this assertion lies in the fact that Wontumi is a businessman and can bud for contracts just like the other party people.
More importantly, Wontumi didn’t award any contract to himself for him to be responding to his critics. If, for whatever reasons, he is unable to fulfill its side of the bargain, it lies in the hands of the one who awarded him the said contracts to abrogate them.
Another allegation against Wontumi by some of the supporters of his opponents is that he has not built a party office for the NPP in Kumasi but developing his private lands and housing units. Is it the contention of these critics that Wontumi should use his own money to build an office for the region? Is the argument that he owes the party so much so that he should reciprocate the gesture by building an office for the party?
Wontumi is not under any obligation to use his personal funds to erect an office for the NPP. He is not richer than the party or the government. The party can decide to build an office for the region, not Wontumi. In any event, why haven’t his critics built an edifice for the regional branch of the party if they feel so strongly about it?
There are these claims that Wontumi refuses to bequeath auction cars meant for some serial callers of the party in the region for which reason some of them have called for his head. That assertion is a figment of their imaginations. Nobody’s car is given to another person to be delivered to him or her. Cars are not parcels to be delivered in that manner. More importantly, this belief of cars being in their numbers and shared to party faithfuls is a myth, a false sense of hope held by these critics.
It is also jejune, infantile for Wontumi’s opponents to propagate a narrative that seeks to portray him as a ‘wife beater’ and that same should be cogent enough to warrant his exit as regional chairman. While these allegations have no basis and cannot be proven by these political scavengers, it does not also find expression in the NPP as grounds for someone to be voted out.
The allegations against Wontumi are flimsy, wobbly, baseless, otiose and highly impotent. Wontumi has done more for the NPP in the Ashanti Region than any other chairman before him.
Wontumi established the Wontumi Radio and TV in Kumasi and has replicated same in Accra. These media houses have become the headquarters for NPP’s messages and its related activities.
Wontumi TV is the most watched television network in Ahafo, Bono, Bono East and the Ashanti Regions.
Wontumi’s media houses do not charge the party for disseminating the party and government’s information. His love for the NPP is unalloyed, his loyalty to the cause of the party is unflinching and his desire to see the party break the 8 is unparalleled.
Wontumi deserves another tenure in office. The NPP needs Chairman Wontumi more than he needs the party. The 2024 election is a Movement, it is like an Apartheid! Go for Wontumi as he is the best bet for the party winning 2024 elections.
K. M. Obeng, A political analyst.