Saturday will prove the NDC right or bury their lie forever

For 34 years, the NDC has told one story about the NPP. A simple, ugly, powerful story. They didn't need billboards. They whispered it in Zongos, shouted it in the North, printed it on the soul of every “outsider”:
“They are not for you.
They are Akan lords. They hate your faith.
They despise your blood. You are a tool to them. You will always be a tool.”

This story won the NDC elections. Not once. But many and counting

The NPP’s answer was never words. It was faces. Aliu Mahama’s face. A northern, Muslim face next to Kufuor. It was a good face. A gentle face. But the NDC laughed. “A token,” they said. “A mask.”

Then came Bawumia.

Not a mask. A brain. A northern, Muslim brain sharper than any weapon in their arsenal. For 16 years, he wasn’t just on the ticket - he was on the frontline. He took their economic lies and shattered them on national television. He was the reason they went into opposition in 2016. He was the NPP’s atomic bomb, and he was built from everything they said the NPP hated.

The NDC’s story started to crack. So they changed it. “He is their clever slave,” they hissed. “Watch. They will use him and throw him away. They will never let him lead.”

They planted the seed. And now, in this 2026 primaries campaign, a section of the NPP is desperate to water it.

Listen to the campaign. Not the one about policies - there isn’t even one. Listen to the real one. The one in the background, in the insults, in the coded language, in the rage.

“He is a Northerner.”
“He is a Muslim.”
“He lost once - he is finished.”
“He was brought to serve, not to lead.”

Hear that sound? That is not Kennedy Agyapong’s voice. That is the ghost of the NDC’s 1992 propaganda, speaking through him. It is the original lie, resurrected inside our own house. A tragedy? No, it is a choice.

They are using the NDC’s script to attack their own party’s best product.

But here is the truly damning truth. Should the NPP drop Bawumia by close of poll on Saturday, the NDC will not just be repeating a lie. They will present a moral case written in the history of the Fourth Republic itself. A case that will be unanswerable.

Look at their record:

· 1992 - 2000: Jerry John Rawlings. An Ewe. Founder. Led for eight years.

· 2009 - 2012: John Evans Atta Mills. An Akan. He did not just join them; he succeeded from Vice-President to President. The party’s covenant was honoured.

· 2013 - 2016: John Dramani Mahama. A Northerner. He, too, succeeded from Vice-President to President. The mantle passed without a tribal veto.

The NDC’s succession is a living rebuke to the fear they accuse the NPP of. They moved power - from Founder (Ewe) to an Akan, from an Akan to a Northerner - by merit and order, not by bloodline.

Now place the NPP’s potential action beside it:
A Northern, Muslim Vice-President serves for 16 years. He becomes the party’s sharpest weapon. He wins its primary. Then, after one loss - a loss greased by the very ethnic whispers now raging - the party denies him the flag.

The NDC will not need to shout. They will lay the two histories side-by-side and ask Ghana: “Which party truly belongs to all? Inclusive. We passed power across regions within our family. The New Patriotic Party rejected their own best son for where he prays and where he comes from.”

It will not be propaganda. It will be a verdict delivered by history. The NPP would have signed the evidence.

Think about the madness.

Kufuor lost in 1996. The party gave him another chance. Akufo-Addo lost 2008, lost 2012. The party gave him a third chance. Both Akans. Merit. Patience. Second chances for the “core.”

Bawumia lost the 2024 general election - a defeat fertilised by the very ethnic whispers now raging in this primary - and the cry is “Never again!” He is not Akan. He is not from the “core.” He is from a minority.
The rule changes immediately. The patience vanishes. The message is clear: For some, the road can be long. For others, the door slams after one knock.

This is what Saturday is about. It is not a primary. It is a verdict.

If Bawumia wins, you smash the 34-year-old story into dust. You tell the NDC, the North, the Zongos, and the world: “Your lie ends here. Our party is bigger than your bigotry. Our merit is stronger than your prejudice.” You become a national party in fact, not just in slogan.

If Bawumia loses - especially to the clamour of tribe and faith - you do not just pick a different flagbearer. You prove the NDC right. You become a living exhibit in their museum of hatred. You hand them a victory so complete, so final, they will not need to campaign in 2028. They will just play your speeches. They will just point at your result. They will say, “We told you. Even when he was your best, you rejected him for what he is. We didn’t make it up. You showed it.”

You will have signed your own political death certificate with your own hands.

The delegates on Saturday are not just voting. They are historical judges. They are choosing between burying a generational slander or baptising it as truth.

One path leads to a united future. The other leads to a grave dug with the NDC’s oldest shovel, but with the NPP’s name on the tombstone.

Choose. You have the power.

J. A. Sarbah