President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that his administration has not authorised any functionaries to endorse any of the NPP’s ten contenders for flagbearers in next year’s general elections.
Speaking at a meeting on Tuesday, August 2, 2023, with New Patriotic Party communicators at the Jubilee House, Akufo-Addo declared that no president can impose a candidate on the party.
“History tells us that no president can impose a candidate on the NPP against its wishes,” Akufo-Addo stated.
“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,” he added.
In response to an appeal by the NPP director of communications, Richard Ahiagbah, regarding the party’s conduct in next year’s election, President Akufo-Addo mentioned that the party cannot afford to repeat what happened in 2008.
“We are all witnesses to the derailing of President John Agyekum Kufuor’s achievements chalked up by the successor NDC Government, from 2009 to 2017, in which John Dramani Mahama featured so prominently,” the president said.
“Under eight years of the successor NDC government, we became famous for all the wrong reasons. 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 phase of the NPP’s internal competitions, President Akufo-Addo highlighted that some activities by a few party members are making headlines 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,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo continued, “It is for this reason that, as President of the Republic and de-facto leader of the Party, I want to ensure that certain actions of yesteryear, which contributed to our loss in 2008, are not repeated. We cannot afford an internal campaign based on ethnic or religious considerations.”
“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,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo continued, “It is for this reason that, as President of the Republic and de-facto leader of the Party, I want to ensure that certain actions of yesteryear, which contributed to our loss in 2008, are not repeated. We cannot afford an internal campaign based on ethnic or religious considerations.”
He informed the Party’s Communicators that he could beat his chest and state, without fear of contradiction, that no one in the Party can claim that he, President Akufo-Addo, has instructed him or her to back this or that contender.
“I have not set out to dismiss any MMDCE or political appointee from office for openly campaigning for their preferred presidential aspirant; no Minister or Deputy Minister has lost their job or been threatened for openly campaigning for their preferred presidential aspirant; and no caveat has emanated from Jubilee House to the Party across the country demanding that Candidate A be supported over Candidate B.” “I, more than anyone else in the Party, understand that this is not the way to go,” he said.
According to the President, whoever becomes Presidential Candidate, will be chosen freely and transparently by an Electoral College of some two hundred and fifty thousand (250,000) people, and not by President Akufo-Addo.
In relation to the economy, President Akufo-Addo stated that if not for the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ghana would have experienced an economic boom, following three (3) consecutive years when the country was one of the fastest growing economies in the world, recording an annual GDP growth rate of seven percent (7%), up from three-point four percent (3.4%), the lowest in a generation, which the NPP inherited from the previous Mahama-led NDC Government at a time when there was no global turbulence.
