The Vice-Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2012 general elections, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has congratulated Sarkodie for winning the country’s first ever Black Entertainment Television (BET) award. Sarkodie, who was recently crowned the Artiste of the Year at the 2012 Ghana Music Awards, together with the Nigerian artiste Wizkid, were announced joint winners of the Best International Act (Africa) award at this year’s awards which came off at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Sunday night, July 1. The two beat off competition from Iceprince (Nigeria), Camp Mulla (Kenya), Mokobe (Mali) and Lira (South Africa) to win the award which was jointly won by Nigerian artistes, D'banj and 2face Idibia last year. The award made Sarkodie the first Ghanaian to win a BET award after failed attempts by Kojo Antwi in 2010 and D-Black in 2011. Dr. Bawumia who was speaking to journalists at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) Thursday night before his departure to the United States and Canada for a working visit, expressed his delight at the feats chalked by some Ghanaians in recent times citing Sarkodie’s award and Black Stars midfielder, Kwadwo Asamoah’s move to Juventus. The astute and elated politician said, “I want to congratulate our champions… Sarkodie for his BET award, Kwadwo Asamoah just got transferred to Juventus and congrats on that … we wish all of them well.” He was positive that there are many more talented Ghanaians who are also going to conquer on the international stage calling on all to “stand ready to support them, encourage and push them to take Ghana’s name higher on the international stage.”