In a scathing post-mortem of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) 2024 electoral collapse, Abetifi MP and flagbearer hopeful Dr. Bryan Acheampong has issued a stark warning: repeating Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as the party’s standard-bearer in 2028 is a recipe for a second consecutive defeat.
Speaking with the bluntness of a strategist who has seen the numbers, Acheampong argued that the 2024 results were not just a rejection of the government’s record, but a specific “candidate challenge,” that saw the Vice President consistently underperform his own parliamentary candidates.
“If you go into the 2024 election results – you cannot repeat a candidate. Not much will change. Ghanaians will forgive our party for a lot of the wrongs it did in the past, because they forgave the NDC. They will forgive the NPP, but we have a candidate challenge that we may not be able to surmount”
Dr. Bryan Acheampong, Abetifi MP and Flagbearer Hopeful
Dr. Acheampong’s critique centered on the unprecedented gap of presidential and parliamentary fortunes.
While voters in various constituencies remained loyal to their local NPP candidates, they significantly “punished” the top of the ticket, leading to a massive 350,000-vote deficit between the party’s aggregate parliamentary performance and Bawumia’s presidential tally.
For Dr. Acheampong, the NPP’s core base is intact, but the leadership at the top failed to “inspire hope.” He pointed to a systemic breakdown in the 2024 campaign where the presidential candidate became a liability rather than an asset to the party’s legislative frontrunners.
In constituencies like Okaikwei South, the gap was glaring: while the parliamentary candidate, Dakoa Newman, lost by 5,000 votes, Dr. Bawumia lost the same constituency by a wider margin of 11,000.
This trend, according to Dr. Acheampong, suggests that the “Bawumia Brand” failed to galvanize the electorate in the same way Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo did in 2016. He argued that leadership must provide a direction that voters want to follow – a feat the 2024 ticket failed to achieve, resulting in a dismal 41% of the national vote.
Governance vs. Candidature
Dr. Acheampong identified two distinct pillars of the NPP’s defeat: a “governance challenge” and a “candidate challenge.” While the governance challenge was broad – reflecting public dissatisfaction with the economy and service delivery – the candidate challenge was personal.
He noted that even in his own stronghold of Abetifi, his personal performance outstripped that of the Vice President.
By highlighting this disparity, Dr. Acheampong positioned himself as the candidate of the “grassroots performers,” arguing that once a candidate steps up to lead, they assume full responsibility for the party’s momentum.
In his view, the 2024 loss exposed a leader who could not provide the necessary motivation to cross the finish line, despite the platform of the Vice Presidency.
Drawing a parallel to global politics, Dr. Acheampong cited the ability of leaders like Donald Trump to inspire a base against all odds – suggesting that the NPP needs a radical shift in leadership style to regain power in 2028.
For Dr. Acheampong, the “forgiveness” of the Ghanaian voter is attainable, but only if the party presents a face that represents a clean break from the 2024 disappointment.
The warning to the NPP National Executive Committee is clear: the data suggests that the electorate has already made its judgment on the current leadership. Doubling down on the same candidate would ignore the most significant electoral data point in the party’s history.
The Abetifi MP’s conclusion is as much a challenge as it is an observation – that the party’s future depends on a candidate who can translate parliamentary loyalty into a national mandate.
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