RETENTION OF HON. FAROUK ALIU MAHAMA AS A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR YENDI CONSTITUENCY

I have observed the dynamics of the New Patriotic Party's political representation to the august House since the inception of the Fourth Republic in 1993 with keen interest. As a political historian, I deem it fit to write this article to illustrate my reason for advocating why Hon. Farouk Aliu Mahama should be retained for 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections on the ticket of the NPP.

The first time the NPP fielded a parliamentary candidate to contest the Yendi seat in parliament was in 1992 with Hon Alhaji Malik Alhassan Yakubu as the parliamentary candidate but this was subsequently shielded because the party boycotted the parliamentary election of that year.

In 1996,Hon.Alhaji Malik Alhassan Yakubu was again selected as the parliamentary candidate of the NPP in constituency which he won and represented the good people of Yendi in parliament for the first time. The party repeated him as the parliamentary candidate for the 2000 and 2004 elections respectively which he won handsomely but in 2008 parliamentary election, he lost the seat narrowly to NDC parliamentary candidate, Hon. Alhaji Sulemana Ibun Iddriss .

In 2012 parliamentary election, the NPP recaptured the seat from NDC this time round with a new parliamentary candidate, Hon. Alhaji Mohammed Habibu Tijani .He won the contest and represented the people of Yendi in parliament.He was again elected as the parliamentary candidate in 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.In the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections,Hon. Alhaji Mohammed Habibu Tijani decided not seek reelection after having won the seat for two consecutive times under the ticket of NPP. Indeed,three stalwarts of the party expressed their intentions to contest the party's primaries for 2020 elections. They were:Hon Alhaji Umar Farouk Aliu Mahama,Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakaria and Alhaji Osman Baba Daney.

Parliamentary primaries was conducted to select a suitable candidate to fill the vacancy amongst the three parliamentary hopefuls. At the end of the contest, Hon. Alhaji Umar Farouk Aliu Mahama won and therefore became the parliamentary candidate of the New Patriotic Party in Yendi Constituency for the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections of that year.

The choice of Hon. Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama as the parliamentary candidate of the New Patriotic Party for Yendi Constituency was a good omen to the Constituency because for the first time in our history as a party,he was able to mobilize abundance of resources for us to execute a very robost and efficient campaign.It is therefore not surprising that both in the Presidential and Parliamentary vote counts,the New Patriotic Party for the first time increased the vote margin to unprecedented levels.For instance, in the presidential elections, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo of the New Patriotic Party obtained 38,822 representing 60.30% whilst John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress obtained 24,942 representing 38.71%.In the parliamentary elections,Hon.Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama of the New Patriotic Party obtained 40,624 representing 62.14% whilst Lawyer Alhassan Fatawu of the National Democratic Congress obtained 24,755 representing 37.86%.From the vote counts as obtained by the individual candidates, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo beats John Dramani Mahama with 13,880 whilst Hon. Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama beats Lawyer Alhassan Fatawu with 15,869.

From the narrations, the emergence of Hon. Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama into the body politic of Yendi Constituency has changed the fortunes' of the New Patriotic Party as clearly illustrated by this article and therefore, he needs to be retained come 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.

By. ABDUL-KARIM NASHIRU

(CONSTITUENCY SECRETARY)