Seen as the traditional seat and stronghold of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Northern Region, Yendi, capital of Dagbon Kingdom, is expected to witness a fiercely contested parliamentary primaries of the governing New Patriotic Party.
The contestants are Alhaj Farouk Aliu Mahama, son of late former Vice-President Alhaji Aliu Mahama; Hajia Abibata Mahama Shanni Zakariah, Deputy MASLOC CEO; and Baba Osman Daney, a business mogul.
Records from previous elections show that the Yendi seat has always been won by the NPP, with the exception of the 1992 parliamentary election, which was boycotted by the party.
The incumbent Member of Parliament for the area, Alhaji Habib Tijani, will not be partaking in the contest this time around, after representing the constituency for two terms.
Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama
Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama is a Certified International Supply Chain Professional and has risen through the ranks at Ghana Cocoa Board to become Deputy Procurement Manager.
As a philanthropist, Alhaji Farouk has made several donations to the NPP and also sponsored many party activities within the constituency and nationwide.
Born in April 27, 1981, to a prominent political family, the son of the late Aliu Mahama started his basic education at Presby Experimental School in Tamale and later gained admission to Achimota School.
He proceeded to Prempeh College in Kumasi to undertake his secondary education and later to Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) where he earned his Bachelors of Science degree in Marketing.
Farouk Aliu Mahama holds a Master’s degree in Supply Chain Management from the Coventry University in England, the United Kingdom, and a Certified International Supply Chain Professional from International Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Institute, USA.
His father was Ghana’s first Muslim Vice-President and the first and only ethnic Dagomba to have risen to that political height. His paternal grandfather, Zongo Naa Mahama, was the Zongo Chief of Yendi, the traditional capital of Dagbon. Farouk Aliu Mahama’s maternal grandfather was Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister in the First Republic (1960-1961) and later Trade and Industry Minister.
Baba Osman Daney
Baba Osman Daney, a Chartered Accountant, Chartered Forensic Auditor and a Public Financial Management expert, has worked with the Controller and Accountant General’s Department for 19 years.
Mr Daney was the Regional Accountant of the Northern Regional Coordinating Council until he resigned, after deciding to contest for the NPP parliamentary slot for Yendi.
Mr Daney was born February 2, 1976, in Yendi, to Alhaji Sumani Daney and Hajia Damata Sumani, both peasant farmers.
Born into a family with strong ties to the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition, he grew up in NPP and participated in every political activities of the party in the Yendi constituency. He is popularly known as “Homeboy”.
He has contributed immensely towards the development of the party at the local level with logistical and financial support. He was a polling station secretary in Zohe West Electoral area and served as polling agent at St Kizito JSS polling station from 1996 to 2004.
In 2008, he led a team to collate the results of NPP at the party’s collation centre in the constituency.
He provided party paraphernalia and other materials, such as roofing sheets, footballs, jerseys, and also used his personal Hard Body Nissan Pick-Up vehicle for the 2016 electioneering activities.
He has also supported party work in other constituencies, including Gushegu, Zabzugu, Mion, Savelugu and Nanton.
Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah
Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah, a banker, is a Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC).
Mrs Mahama Zakariah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Ghana and a Master of Public Policy and Administration degree with emphasis on Economic and Political Development from the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, City of New York.
Some of her core interest areas are project management, business development, strategy, public management and institutional analysis, government budgeting, operations management, economic empowerment of women, international capital markets, business analysis, monitoring and evaluation, among others.
She has applied these skills through continued work with the public service, private sector and international organisations where she acquired a wide-range of knowledge in the formulation and implementation of projects and policies.
She has extensive work experience from the following organisations: Agricultural Development Bank (Accra, Ghana); the Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI), working in collaboration with Earth Institute of Columbia University (Accra, Ghana); Consultancy for The Capacity Development Group (UNDP, New York); Merchant Bank Ghana Limited (Accra, Ghana) and Jospong Group of Companies (Accra, Ghana).
She interned with the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA-Accra, Ghana), the Regional Bureau for Africa, working in collaboration with the Earth Institute of Columbia University (UNDP, New York); and did her national service at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR-Accra, Ghana).
She is a highly motivated individual, a team player, a results-oriented person, dynamic, analytical and highly competent. She is married with four children.
The Deputy MASLOC CEO is the second woman to have shown interest in contesting an NPP parliamentary primaries in Yendi but will become the first woman to represent the NPP in the Yendi constituency, if voted by delegates.
The first woman to have contested the NPP primaries in the constituency was her mother, Hajia Samata Mahama, the current Ghana Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
Source: Daily Statesman
