NPP has no viable presidential candidate to present to Ghanaians in 2024

The NPP, for quite some time now, has been touting its mantra of ‘we are having the men’ to rule Ghana. However, this particularly overhyped Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led regime has proven to be a cataclysm in the governance of our country.

By omissions and commissions in the implementation of its policies, this governing NPP party under President Akufo-Addo has not lived up to the heightened expectations of many Ghanaians on the economic, corruption, social, environmental, and governance fronts.

Before the bowing out of former President Kufuor in 2009, 17 NPP members presented themselves as presidential aspirants, leading to the creation of the Special or Super Delegates’ Conference and the National Congress in the NPP constitution to choose their flagbearer.

Despite the reduction in the number of presidential hopefuls in the just-ended 2023 NPP Super Delegates Conference, the ten presidential aspirants in the race were still too much to fathom.

Now, three out of the ten of them, namely Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia,

Kennedy Ohene Agyapong and Francis Addai Nimo will be heading to the NPP National Delegates Congress to be elected as flagbearers if no more last-minute withdrawals are witnessed in the coming days. This is a clear attempt to pave the way for the establishment candidate, Dr. Bawumia to be the NPP Flagbearer for 2024.

The withdrawals of Alan Cash and Boakye Agyarko from the ongoing presidential race with explosive and worrying concerns of violence and intimidation in the recently organized Special Delegates contest is a bad omen for the NPP party going into the 2024 General elections. With Alan Cash out of the race now, the probability of the Vice President, Dr. Bawumia to be the NPP Flagbearer for 2024 is extremely high.

Although Kennedy Agyapong is surprisingly the first runner-up in the race, I already espoused my reasons why he is not presidential material for Ghana in one of my recent publications. In the unlikely event, that Kennedy Agyapong springs a surprise by getting majority votes from the NPP delegates, Ghanaians will flatly reject him in the upcoming general elections. This does not need any prophetic guidance or pronouncement.

Francis Addai-Nimo who had a tie with the withdrawn Boakye Agyarko will fall off the road, as he is not a convincing presidential material for Ghana. Looking at the three presidential candidates standing to lead the NPP Party, it is apparent

that the NPP has no viable presidential candidate to present to Ghanaians in 2024.

In case Dr. Bawumia gets the nod from the NPP National Delegates’ Congress in November, he will not be able to match the much-ready, most likable, and highly experienced NDC flagbearer in the person of former President Mahama in 2024. Here is why.

Firstly, Dr. Bawumia has proven to be the most discredited Economist in Ghana right now owing to his opposed utterances in opposition then and now in government in the areas of borrowing from the domestic and international markets, the exchange rate of the Ghana Cedi, e-levy, etc.

You and I were there to witness Dr. Bawumia's so-called superior economic strategies to ameliorate the economic woes of Ghanaians despite the

well-known rigid Guggisbergian economy.

Secondly, Dr. Bawumia has been the Vice president for almost 8 years. He also headed the Economic Management Team (EMT) and yet the economic status of Ghana now is nothing to write home about. Dr. Bawumia has indeed co-produced the economic mess with his boss, President Akufo-Addo that Ghanaians are experiencing now.

Thirdly, Dr. Bawumia is not the right person to consolidate any gains chalked by this Akufo-Addo-led government because there is no such thing to be consolidated in the first place.

Rhetorically, how will Dr. Bawumia fight the pervasive corruption under the Akufo-Addo-led government, which he has been part of since 2017 and never exhibited any willingness to fight the canker?

The NPP has no convincing presidential candidate for Ghanaians to renew their poorly executed and managed mandate given to them in 2017. The governing NPP Party under President Akufo-Addo’s regime has done a lot of disservice to Ghanaians and should not be renewed by the right-thinking and discerning Ghanaians going into the general elections next year.

Ghana needs a selfless, dedicated, sympathetic, experienced, and visionary leader to redirect and rebuild the Black Star of Africa after the unsatisfactory show of the Akufo- Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led regime and the governing NPP party.