It's nearly impossible for NPP to ‘break the 8’ with Bawumia as flagbearer – Prof Kobby Mensah

A senior lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof Kobby Mensah, has stated that it would be difficult for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to win power for a 3rd successive term - ‘break the 8’, - come December 2024 with Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as its flagbearer.

Speaking in an interview on Class FM, on September 7, 2023, Prof. Mensah, a political marketing expert, explained that Dr Bawumia is not likely to keep the NPP in government because he lacks credibility and his image has been dented.

He said that only hard-core NPP members would vote for a candidate Bawumia; adding that the party would find it difficult to canvass for the vote of neutrals with him on their ticket.

“If they are going with Bawumia then it means that the presidential candidate's image is actually battered. I don’t see how he could really use that particular profile in attracting people unless, of course, the original backers of the NPP”.

“Secondly, if you talk about police credibility. I don’t think that the floating voters and others who are independent would really take Bawumia seriously if he becomes the flagbearer…Why because evidently, he has displayed absolute incompetency, none of those things which he said he would do has materialised. He actually paraded a certain economic platform, none of which he’s actually speaking [about], now he’s talking about digitalization. So, from a policy credibility perspective, he has lost,” he said.

The academic added that Ghanaians currently have no trust in the NPP which by itself would make it difficult for them to win the 2024 polls.

“I don’t think that a lot more people have faith in the NPP as we speak. So, if you look at all the key factors that could actually sort of engineer a certain victory, completely damaged. So, I don’t think that the NPP can Break the 8 as they have actually wished for.”

Watch the interview below:

????????Political marketing strategist, Prof Kobby Mensah says the NPP can't 'Break the 8' with Bawumia as flagbearer

Video credit: Class FM pic.twitter.com/oeOKT0DI67

— Kenneth Awotwe Darko (@TheKennethDarko) September 7, 2023