President Akufo-Addo has revealed that no President can foist a candidate on the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Speaking during a meeting with communicators of the New Patriotic Party, and in a response to an appeal by the NPP Director of Communications, Mr. Richard Ahiagbah, in relation to the party’s conduct in next year’s election, President Akufo-Addo stated that the party cannot afford to allow what happened to it in 2008 to reoccur in 2024.

He explained that all are witnesses to the “derailing of the achievements chalked by President John Agyekum Kufuor by the successor NDC Government, from 2009 to 2017, in which John Dramani Mahama featured so prominently”.

“The history of the NPP tells us that no President can foist a candidate on the Party against its wishes. The NPP is not that kind of Party. We have never subscribed to a cult of personality. Indeed, our highly-respected former President, the 1st NPP President, His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor, in the aftermath of my election as NPP Presidential Candidate, by the 2007 National Congress, told the Congress that ‘the Party has its spirit’, a spirit that cannot be ignored.”
President Akufo-Addo

President Akufo-Addo stated that under 8 years of the successor of the NDC Government, Ghana became famous for all the wrong reasons. He noted that “four successive years of dumsor, the mismanagement of the economy, wrong and dangerous energy contracts, and wanton corruption” dissipated any hope the Ghanaian had for sustained economic development.

“Never again should we allow this to happen. With the start of the final leg of internal contests of the NPP, President Akufo-Addo noted that some actions by a few members of the party are making the front pages for the wrong reasons.
“We are expending some of our energies hurling invectives at each other, instead of at our opponents, and, in the process, taking digs at our own Government. It has been an anxious time for all who love our party, and who see us as the party that can bring progress and prosperity to our nation.”
President Akufo-Addo

In light of this, President Akufo-Addo indicated that it is for this reason that, as President of the Republic and de-facto leader of the party, he wants to ensure that certain actions of yesteryear, which contributed to the NPP’s loss in 2008, are not repeated. He stated that the party cannot afford an internal campaign based on ethnic or religious considerations.

Supporting aspirants within the NPP

Describing the NPP as “the Party of Ghana’s unity”, the President rejected forcefully the assertions “being made by a few in our party who, because of internal party politicking, are accusing my government of allegedly intimidating” and coercing” party faithful to throw their support behind one of the presidential aspirants, that is the Vice President”. This, he disregarded as a false and malicious narrative.

To this end, President Akufo-Addo told Communicators of the party that he speaks without any fear of contradiction, that there is no one in the Party who can say that he has asked him or her to support any aspirant.

“I have not set out to dismiss any MMDCE or political appointee from office for supporting any particular aspirant; no Minister or Deputy Minister has lost their job or been threatened for openly campaigning for their preferred presidential aspirant; neither has any caveat emanated from Jubilee House to the party across the length and breadth of the country demanding that Candidate A be supported over Candidate B. I, better than anyone in the party, know that this is not the way to go”.
President Akufo-Addo

Moreover, President Akufo-Addo highlighted that whoever becomes Presidential Candidate will be chosen freely and transparently by an Electoral College of some 250,000 people, and not by him. He emphasized that he has “just one vote, the same as any polling station executive anywhere in the country”.

Subsequently, he however revealed that he would cast that vote for an aspirant who he believes can best, unite the Party, and, above all, who can win the presidential election of 7th December 2024, and inflict a third successive defeat on the perennial NDC Presidential Candidate, John Dramani Mahama.

President Akufo-Addo reassured the gathering that victory for the NPP in election 2024, and handing over to an NPP Presidential Candidate so elected as President by the Ghanaian people, are what he is working for, and he expects all members of the NPP to share the same goals.