A flagbearer hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwabena Agyepong, has cautioned executives in the party not to attempt to force their preferred presidential candidate on the party.

According to him, flagbearer hopefuls must be given a fair chance to campaign and be elected by the NPP delegates on their merit.

Reacting to suggestions by some NPP members that Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, should be given the nod to replace President Akufo-Addo for the 2024 elections, the former Press Secretary to former President John Kufuor iterated that nobody deserves preferential treatment in the flagbearership race.

“Nobody is denying him [Dr Bawumia] his chance to contest, just that we in the NPP, we have a way of doing things. He just has to go around and talk to the party people and hope that he wins. But to try and force a coronation on us, that won’t happen. There would be no coronation in the NPP.”
Kwabena Agyepong

Mr Agyepong further rejected claims that the NPP only uses people from the Northern Region for votes but fails to give them a shot at the presidency. To this, he explained that the NPP had to bypass their rules and constitution to make Dr Bawumia the running mate of then candidate, Akufo-Addo.

“The party has a constitution, rules and regulations. You can’t even get on the ticket if you have not demonstrated membership for five years, but the party took a decision for Ohene Ntow to waive that [for Dr. Bawumia], create a card [for him] and on that day become a number two.
“It has never happened anywhere but [we did that] because of the respect that we had for candidate Akufo-Addo. So, if you have been done such a big waiver, and you have served as Vice President and you consider that as using and dumping, whoever says that should stop that kind of talk. I don’t want to hear that”.
Kwabena Agyepong

Meanwhile, the flagbearer aspirant of the ruling New Patriotic Party has urged the media not to fall for the propaganda going on in the party which suggests that the presidential race for the party is between the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and a former Trade and Industry Minister, Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen.

NPP presidential race gets heated

Mr Agyepong stated that anybody who reasons along the lines that Dr Bawumia and Alan Kyerematen are the lead candidates in the NPP’s presidential race, is detached from reality.

He noted that his own tours and engagements with the party members revealed that the two candidates are not the preferred ones.

Additionally, Mr Agyepong highlighted that Ghanaians are yearning for someone who could change the political narrative of the country and ensure development, and he is more than capable to step into that role.

In light of this, he indicated that he stands a better chance of winning the election than the two candidates being projected by the media, Dr Bawumia and Alan Kyerematen.

Commenting on the cost of running government in the country, Mr Agyapong stated that it is cost intensive. For him, his government will not have more than nineteen ministers, emphasizing that it is pointless having more than two deputy ministers in one ministry.

The NPP presidential hopeful further opined that there was the need to consolidate some of the ministries to save the country from the huge cost of running the government.

Currently, more than five people in the party, including Dr Bawumia, Alan Kyeremanteng; former Agric Minister, Dr Afriyie Akoto; former Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko; and a former Member of Parliament for Asante Mampong, Francis Addai-Nimoh, have declared their intentions to contest the flagbearer race.