Dr John Osae-Kwapong, Political Scientist, CDD-Ghana Fellow and Director of the Democracy Project, has called on the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to keep its messaging consistent across its three main arms as it heads toward the 2028 election. He made the appeal in an exclusive interview with The Vaultz News after the party’s National Delegates Conference in Kumasi.
He argued that the flagbearer’s office, the party executives and the Minority caucus must speak alike on strategy, communication and the party’s vision. He also believes the new structure that makes the flagbearer the party leader can help deliver that consistency.
“I just hope that whether it is messaging, whether it is strategizing, and whether it is also communicating the party’s position on different issues and selling the party’s vision come the 2028 election, there’ll be a very coordinated effort so that there’s always consistency in how these three different parts of the party machine speak.”
Dr John Osae-Kwapong, Political Scientist, CDD-Ghana Fellow and Director of the Democracy Project
Three Arms of the NPP Machine
The Vaultz News asked Dr Osae-Kwapong how the party should divide responsibility among its three groups: the party executives, the flagbearer and the Minority caucus led by Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin.
It also pointed to recent signs of closeness. The caucus has met the flagbearer, the executives travelled with him to a Thanksgiving service in the Bono Region, and a manifesto committee is about to be set up.
Dr Osae-Kwapong first mapped the machine. It includes the flagbearer, his office, and his team. It also includes the executives, who run the party from the national level to the polling station, and the party in Parliament, which is the Minority caucus.
In his earlier opinion piece, he named working in step with the flagbearer among the executives’ three major tasks.
Why Consistency Matters Before 2028
Dr Osae-Kwapong’s concern is a party that sends out conflicting signals. He described the scenario he wants to avoid.
“So you don’t want a case where, let’s say the minority caucus takes a particular position which is at odds with what the flagbearer and his team is saying, which is at odds with what the national executives are also saying.”
Dr John Osae-Kwapong, Political Scientist, CDD-Ghana Fellow and Director of the Democracy Project
His remedy is discipline. He stated that making sure the party is “always in sync on messaging, on strategy, on communication” would be the key thing he would point to. That covers how the party takes positions on public issues, how it plans its campaign and how it sells its vision to voters.
The warning has practical weight at this stage. A manifesto committee is about to begin work, and the party is moving from internal contests to the contest with the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC). Three groups with separate platforms and audiences can easily drift apart without a plan.
Leader Role Gives the Party a Coordinator
Dr Osae-Kwapong sees help in the party’s own rules. “I know that they’ve made that structural change where the flag bearer now is also the leader of the party,” he stated. The change is part of the 14 amendments the conference approved to reshape the party’s leadership structure.
He argued that the change “helps in sort of coordinating flagbearer, political party type of activities and approach to party organization and the 2028 election.” He added that it “can help ensure that coordination and consistency across these three different parts of the party machinery.”
In practice, a flagbearer who also leads the party can set the line that executives and parliamentarians follow. Dr Mahamudu Bawumia holds both roles, so one office now sits at the centre of the campaign and the organisation.
Reconciliation Comes First
Before the discussion on coordination, Dr Osae-Kwapong addressed the closeness of the Kumasi contests. John Boadu won the chairmanship by 480 votes, and only 31 votes separated the third and fourth vice chairmanship candidates. Dr Bawumia responded by asking the party to dissolve its camps and work together.
Dr Osae-Kwapong backed him. “It’s a very good call,” he stated, and he argued that winners and losers alike should keep their focus on the party’s shared goal.
He placed a duty on the victors. “It is also how winners treat the losers,” he stated. Dignity and grace from winners help healing, in his view, while rubbing in the result lets grievances drag on to the party’s cost.
What the Executives Must Deliver
The new officers took office with the party’s message already set from the top. They were sworn in after the vote, and Boadu has declared that there must be no winners or losers as the party vows renewal before 2028. Minority leader Hon Afenyo-Markin urged delegates to leave Kumasi united.
Dr Osae-Kwapong’s test goes beyond those pledges. The executives, the flagbearer’s team and the caucus must now turn unity into a single, steady message, and the public will judge them on whether the three arms of the party deliver it.
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