Aspiring New Patriotic Party flagbearer Dr Bryan Acheampong says the party’s 2024 presidential performance under Dr Mahamudu Bawumia delivered a clear verdict.
The former Abetifi MP says the numbers show that the product failed in the market.
Speaking on PM Express, Dr Acheampong dismissed claims that Dr Bawumia’s long exposure should count in his favour. He said the facts point in the opposite direction.
“Everything that you have ends at 41%,” he said. He described Dr Bawumia as “the most marketed” NPP candidate, noting that he had spent eight years as Vice President and eight years as running mate.
“Sixteen years that we marketed him, he had 41%,” he said.
The former Agric Minister contrasted that with former boss and President Nana Akufo-Addo’s first outing.
“We marketed Akufo-Addo for eight months; he had 49.7%,” he said. He said that the comparison weakens, not strengthens, Dr Bawumia’s case. “So everything that you are saying, you are making his situation worse.”
Dr Acheampong pointed to the party’s electoral map in 2024. He said the results were unprecedented. “He couldn’t get seven regions of this country.”
He said the NPP failed to win a single presidential constituency in those regions. “Volta, Oti, Upper East and Upper West, Savannah, Bono East.” He repeated, “We could not win one constituency in these regions.”
He said expectations going into the race were different.
“When we were supporting him in 2023, one of the beliefs was that if we presented him, he would hold the votes from the northern part of Ghana for us.”
Dr Acheampong said that the belief collapsed at the polls. “Five of the regions that we did not win a single constituency, seven, five of them are from the northern half of Ghana.”
He then listed the party’s losses elsewhere. “We could not win one Western Region, 17 constituencies, we won one presidential.”
The former MP said in the Central Region, “23 constituencies, we won two presidential,” stressing that in the Greater Accra, it was no better. “34 constituencies in Greater Accra, presidential, we got two.”
He said these outcomes are what matter now. “Those attributes and the results of the elections are the ones that the delegates are passing a verdict on.”
Dr Bryan Acheampong returned to his product analogy. “If we market you for 16 years, and you come out with 41% and we market Akufo-Addo for eight months, and he gets 49.7% then there’s a difference.”
He said the conclusion is unavoidable. “The difference is that the marketing did not yield the sales results, and people are going to change their product.”
When it was pointed out that political history shows that parties often retain losing candidates, he rejected the comparison.
“You’re mixing logic with politics and performance,” he said. He said logic alone would suggest repeated attempts.
“It is only logic which will suggest that Adu Boahen went once, Busia went once and won; Kufuor went twice and won; Akufo-Addo went three times and won and logically, it means that Dr Bawumia will go four times.”
Dr Acheampong insisted that the NPP’s past decisions were driven by performance, not habit. “We’re talking about political performance,” he said, citing 1996.
“Kufuor did better than Adu Boahen, so we returned him. It was on performance.” He said Kufuor’s growth justified his return. “In 2000, he won; in 2004, Kufuor did better than himself.”
He made the same argument about Nana Akufo-Addo. “Akufo-Addo did better than Kufuor’s 2004.” He said that improvement led to another chance.
“We returned Akufo-Addo in 2012.” He said the numbers kept rising. “What he got in 2012, he did better than what he himself got in 2008.”
Dr Bryan Acheampong said the pattern continued. “We returned him in 2016 and won.” He added, “Akufo-Addo did much better in 2020 than his own results in 2016.”
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