Upper West’s Alhaji Short gunning for NPP chairmanship

Well ahead of the New Patriotic Party (NPP’s) next delegates’ congress in 2018, the Upper West Region is gunning for the national chairmanship slot after helping to return the party to power.

The Upper West NPP Regional Chairman, Alhaji Abdul-Rahman Abubakar, has become a favourite for the top post after presiding over one of the best electoral performances of the party in the region.

Wa, the regional capital, bears various campaign banners which promote the ambition of Alhaji Abubakar, popularly called Alhaji Short, for the national chairmanship slot.

His posters in soft form are also commonplace on social media, particularly Facebook.

The Communications Director of the NPP in the Upper West Region, Umar Nuhu, told the Daily Graphic that Alhaji Short’s tenure in the regional hot seat was enough justification for his latest political ambition.

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Difficult territory

Despite presiding over affairs in a largely difficult territory for the party, Alhaji Short and his team captured five of the 11 constituencies for the NPP, surpassing their previous best of three parliamentary seats in the region.

This achievement came on the back of a campaign target touted over time before the last general election in 2016.

His confidence is boosted by the party’s apparent preference for a ‘Northern’ chairman following the acrimonious exit of the last substantive National Chairman, Mr Paul Afoko, himself a Northerner, too.

Indeed, the party had favoured a chairman from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions to improve its support base and electoral fortunes in its traditionally difficult areas.

After delivering one of their best performances on regional basis at the last polls, Alhaji Short – known to be a close friend of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo – seems to have positioned himself for a virtual promotion to the party’s national office.

Current acting Chairman, Mr Freddy Blay, and multiple-time aspirant, Mr Stephen Ntim, are currently the only names being rumoured to be nursing the national chairmanship ambition as well.