The flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2024 elections, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has called for the party to remain united if they wish to emerge victorious in the 2028 elections.
Speaking during the commencement of a thank-you tour, Dr Bawumia, who served for eight years as the Vice President to former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, called on his former flagbearer rivals to unite with him to lead the party forward.
He said a united NPP can easily win the next General elections, but if they are divided, they will easily lose.
“We are in a building stage,a rebuilding stage for this party. What is important for all of us is that we have to be united. If we are united, we are going to win 2028. So unity is very important,” he said.
Bawumia said inter-party fighting in the years to come will only damage their mission of attempting to build a party that can wrestle back power from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), adding that it would be senseless to fight to win the NPP’s flagbearership only to lose the general.
“I want unity. And that is why I’ve said that I want to go with the party and also to invite my former as contestants, the aspirants who contested me for the primaries. They should come and we’ll all go…so that we we all show a united front for the party, so that we can build on it going forward,” he said.
“That is what we should be doing. Building a party machinery to win a general election, not to win a primary. If you win a primary and you cannot win a general election, then it is a useless victory. It is a useless victory. It is a pyrrhic victory,” Bawumia added.
The NPP flagbearer also stoked controversy after dismissing claims he lost the election due to being a Muslim. According to him, he performed far better than many Christian NPP parliamentary candidates in their constituencies, including the Assin South Member of Parliament, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour.
Despite Bawumia’s calls for unity, the battle lines for the party’s next flagbearer contest have already been drawn, with former Assin Central MP and wealthy businessman Kennedy Agyapong already commencing his campaign to unseat Bawumia as the flagbearer after losing their previous battle.
Agyapong, after returning to Ghana following a short hiatus abroad, commenced his campaign, sounding bullish in a speech that all but confirmed he was starting a 2028 campaign. Noted party figures have also already started speaking about who the party needs to nominate in 2028, indicating where their loyalties lie. Former Dome Kwabenya MP Sarah Adwoa Safo has indicated she is a follower of Dr Bawumia, while former Ghana Gas communicator Ernest Owusu Bempah, has thrown his weight behind Kennedy Agyapong, describing Bawumia as the wrong candidate for the 2024 elections.
