The Vice Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party has said there is a more competent northerner to vote for if ever northerners are cajoled by the governing party to vote John Mahama as a northerner.

Speaking to supporters at the Jubilee Park in Tamale, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia said he is also a northerner and more competent than the president.

He was reacting to a campaign message by communicators of the governing party who are asking electorate in the north to retain president John Mahama in office because he is from the north.

He told the supporters that all was not lost for the people in the north because there is a more competent northerner, who together with his flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo will be able to change the living conditions of the people.

He told the supporters at the official campaign launch of the parliamentary candidate for Tamale central Dr. Barhama Ibrahim Anyass Imoro the time has come for president Mahama and his NDC government to exit power and allow a better team to manage the country. 

Dr. Bawumia said “we vote because we want our lives to be better but for a government that will add more burden to your woes, God forbid!”

He announced that the next NPP government will introduce Arabic as an optional subject for students at the Junior High School and Senior High school levels if voted into power.  

Dr. Bawumia said Arabic is a course at the university level but added that if the students do not study it at the lower level how can, they study Arabic as a course at the university. 

The NPP running mate said not only will it offer the student an option to study Arabic  it will also create employment for Islamic clerics who will be teaching the Arabic subject.

He reiterated the NPP’s promise to restore the teacher and nurses trainee allowance in the first NPP budget.

Dr. Bawumia again touted the NPP flagship programme the one district one factory and the one village one dam policies as plans that would help reduce poverty.

Dr Bawumia chided the NDC for what he called their failed promises to develop Ghana.

The National Organiser of the NPP John Boadu who also addressed the rally said the NDC has ruled Ghana for 24 years and the NPP eight years, therefore if the north is not developed then it is the NDC who has to take a larger chunk of the responsibility.

Mr Boadu dismissed assertion by the NDC General Secretary Johnson Aseidu Nketiah that the NPP considers northerners as second class citizens.

 He said the NPP has shown that it uses capable professional and competent northerners for the development of the country.