Minority Leader Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin has urged delegates of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to leave Kumasi united, telling them the wound of the 2024 defeat can heal. He spoke on Saturday, October 3, 2026, at the party’s National Executive Elections at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium.
The Effutu MP said no candidate should read a personal loss in the contest as a loss for the party, and he asked delegates to rally behind Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the NPP’s 2028 presidential candidate. His appeal came before the declaration of results, as the party closed the final phase of its reorganisation.
Afenyo-Markin Says the 2024 Wound Can Heal
Hon Afenyo-Markin opened with a note of defiance, telling delegates that “come 2028, we shall prevail.” He then named the damage the defeat has done to the party’s mood.
Some members carried the loss home and fought it in markets, churches and mosques, he said. Others stopped wearing the party colours, and some stopped believing the NPP could return to power.
He did not play down the loss. “I came to tell you it can heal and I came to tell you we will heal it,” he said. The recovery, he added, would depend on every member and not on the leadership alone. He described Kumasi as the “undisputed pulsating political heartbeat” of the party and chose the city as the place to answer that despair.
He also acknowledged the verdict voters passed in 2024. In opposition, he said, the party has drawn encouragement from the things it did right and has recognised where it must do significantly better. He urged members to keep making the NPP more attractive to voters.
Delegates Elect as the Party Moves On
The conference has two jobs, according to the Minority Leader. Delegates have just completed constitutional amendments, and they are now finishing the last phase of the party’s reorganisation by choosing national officers.
A Global InfoAnalytics poll released on September 30 had John Boadu leading the chairmanship race and put Justin Kodua Frimpong far ahead in the General Secretary contest, but the results were still to come.
Hon Afenyo-Markin praised the aspirants who put their names forward and accepted that some would lose. He told them that “nobody must leave this venue believing that personal defeat today is a defeat for either themselves or the NPP.”
He added that after the elections, the NPP would be the only major party in Ghana to have chosen its leaders from the polling station to the national level.
One Candidate and One Purpose
The Minority Leader told delegates that the party settled its 2028 presidential candidate earlier this year and that the whole party stands behind him. Dr Bawumia led the NPP into the 2024 general election, which the party lost to the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the party picked him again as its flagbearer.
The Effutu Member of Parliament called the former Vice President “a doer, an ultimate problem solver,” and said he is far ahead of many others in finding solutions to the country’s problems.
He asked delegates to carry one message out of the stadium to the public: that “we are indeed one party with one purpose.” That purpose, he said, is to win back the trust and mandate of the people and to build with them one inclusive Ghana of opportunity and prosperity for every citizen. He put the point plainly: “we shall not leave Kumasi divided, we shall live as one.”
Work Ahead of December 2028
Hon Afenyo-Markin tied unity to the tasks ahead. He said the new executives must support the presidential candidate and the National Council to ensure the election of parliamentary candidates in every constituency, so the party enters the December 2028 election with a full complement.
The task is large, since the NDC secured a commanding majority in Parliament in 2024. He also called on the party to defend democracy, hold the government accountable and present a more credible vision and programmes to the country.
He invoked Winston Churchill’s wartime speech of 1940 to describe the mood he wants. “I offer no soft road and no shortcut,” he said, promising work instead of comfort. For the NPP, he argued, victory is not about jobs for party members. It is about the survival of a country where citizens can speak without fear.
The delegates’ votes will show who leads the party through that work, and how the losing candidates respond will show whether his call for unity holds.
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