History never repeats word for word - it repeats in rhythm.

And in Ghana, that rhythm keeps circling back to one enduring tension: the struggle between custodians of privilege and agents of renewal.

In 2008, Nana Akufo-Addo didn’t pick Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia from a lorry station or a Zongo alley.

He chose him from the Bank of Ghana - a Deputy Governor, a world-class economist, a technocrat with the stature to anchor a modern economy.

So what exactly was the old guard’s calculus?

That Bawumia was a northern credential, a disposable symbol to balance a ticket?

If so, that arithmetic wasn’t merely arrogant - it was historically blind.

Because Ghana has seen this drama before.

And each time, the gatekeepers who invite change end up fearing its power.

Act I.  The Ghost in the Machine

In 1947, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) invited a brilliant, relentless Kwame Nkrumah to revive a fading nationalist dream.

J. B. Danquah, Obetsebi-Lamptey, and their circle admired his intellect - until they realised his intellect came with a conscience and momentum.

Nkrumah didn’t just organise rallies; he organised relevance.

He spoke the raw language of those excluded by the elite grammar of gradualism.

He moved politics from parlour rooms to the pavements - into the hearts of the ordinary.

The UGCC aristocracy wanted a secretary.

What they got was a storm.

And when they could no longer contain that energy, the movement split.

From that rupture emerged two legacies:

Nkrumah’s CPP, born of mass urgency;

The UP tradition, forged from principle and caution - a noble belief that liberty must be ordered, freedom-guided, and not rushed.

 Ironically, the very tradition that would later give birth to the NPP was conceived not in division but in a struggle to defend its ideals - even as it feared being eclipsed by the energy of change.

Act II. The Reckoning

Seven decades later, the rhythm returns.

Dr. Bawumia entered the NPP as a technocrat - bringing data discipline, global credibility, northern reach.

The establishment saw a symbol.

The people saw a substance.

Like Nkrumah, he redrew the political map.

He spoke to market women in Kumasi, Zongo youth in Accra, students from Tamale to Tarkwa.

He translated macroeconomics into the language of everyday struggle - as former President Kufour put it: “Dr. Bawumia has made complex economic issues so simple to the ordinary Ghanaian.”

And that’s when the old discomfort began.

The party’s aristocracy - those who see the NPP as ancestral property - started whispering:

 “He just arrived.”

“He hasn’t suffered for the party.”

But those lines echo straight from the UGCC’s past - the same condescension that once tried to tame a revolution, and failed.

Act III.  The Inheritance Crisis

Alan Kyerematen lit the fuse.

When he broke away in 2024 to form the Movement for Change - now reborn as the United Party (UP) - he revived an old reflex in our politics: when privilege feels threatened, it walks out.

Not long after, Kennedy Agyapong and Bryan Acheampong joined the chorus - questioning Bawumia’s roots, mocking his journey, recycling that tired elitist grammar of “he just arrived.”

But this is not about ideology - it’s about entitlement.

Their unease is not political - it’s psychological.

They cannot reconcile how a northern economist, once invited to “assist,” now commands the stage by merit, not mercy.

The irony writes itself:

the so-called outsider stayed to build the house;

the self-styled heirs walked away from their inheritance.

Once again, those who claim to guard the tradition are the first to abandon it when merit challenges monopoly.

Act IV. Renewal, Not Rebellion

Bawumia’s rise doesn’t betray the Danquah–Busia–Dombo heritage - it completes it.

He embodies Dombo’s inclusiveness, Danquah’s intellect, and Busia’s moral depth - refined for a Ghana that prizes competence over caste.

He didn’t fracture the house; he renovated it.

He didn’t dismantle the tradition; he dignified it with inclusion.

Now the NPP faces its moral examination:

Is it a family club - or a national movement?

That question tests more than loyalty; it tests vision.

If entitlement yields to foresight, the party will reap a historic dividend - not just political, but moral:

 the courage to make a Northerner and a Muslim - representing less than 30% of Ghana’s population - President.

That single act would vindicate the NPP’s creed not in slogans but in substance.

It would declare before the nation that opportunity - not origin - defines belonging.

It would signal that Ghana’s democracy has matured beyond identity arithmetic into the realm of national fairness.

Act V.  The Light Before Dawn

Every living tradition faces a reckoning: protect privilege or embrace progress.

When guardians mistake inheritance for mandate, they invite irrelevance.

In 1957, the clash between control and conscience crystallised into the UP.

In 2024, it has birthed another rupture.

The parallels are haunting - but the outcomes need not be.

For here lies the difference:

Nkrumah walked out to create a new base;

Bawumia stayed to broaden an old one.

He did not flee elitism - he is outgrowing it into a bi-ethnic, bi-sectarian, and inclusive national party.

He did not betray the tradition - he completed its circle.

If the NPP can rise above its insecurities and anoint competence over caste, it will do more than win an election; it will win history’s respect.

The struggle has changed colour, but not character.

Every generation invites its reformer, then resists him.

But history is merciless in its verdict:

The light they fear is always the light that leads.

J. A. Sarbah

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