President Akufo-Addo applauds Vice-President on flagbearership election, preaches unity

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has applauded the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) flagbearer-elect, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, for emerging victorious in the Party’s presidential primaries.

The Vice-President’s election on Saturday, he said, marked a new dawn in the Party’s development cause, and called for unity of purpose in the quest for victory in the 2024 General Election.

“The Party needs all and sundry on board, including the losing aspirants to ensure sustainable growth, peace and harmony,” he advised, in an address at a handing-over ceremony in Accra.

Alhaji Dr. Bawumia garnered 118, 210 votes in the primaries, representing 61.47 per cent of the total ballots cast.

He was followed by Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, 71,996 votes, representing 37.41 per cent, while Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, placed third with 1,459 votes, representing 0.76 per cent.

Francis Addai-Nimoh polled 731 votes, representing 0.41 per cent, in an election supervised by the Electoral Commission.

More than 200, 000 delegates participated in the polls.

Alhaji Dr Bawumia’s election sets the stage for seemingly tough polls in next year’s General Election – coming up against an ostensibly formidable former President John Dramani Mahama of the largest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The two parties have in the course of Ghana’s democratic journey under the Fourth Republican Constitution, been given the mandate to govern at different times.

However, none has been able to go past eight years since 1992, a jinx the NPP says it is determined to break.

President Nana Akufo-Addo described next year’s election as one which would present its own difficulties and complexes.

Consequently, the ruling Party was not being complacent as it stepped up efforts to achieve its mission.

Alhaji Dr. Bawumia (October 07, 1963), campaigned to be given the nod as the flagbearer, saying with his economic background he could work to fix Ghana’s economic woes.

His election comes at a time when the country is facing a challenging economic and social situation amid an increasingly difficult global environment.

According to the World Bank’s April 2023 Africa Pulse Report, the country’s economy has been struggling with high levels of public debt and elevated inflation, fueled by a sharp weakening of the Cedi.

Alhaji Dr Bawumia contested as running mate to the NPP candidate in the 2008 elections and current President Nana Akufo-Addo.

As an Economist and Banker, Dr Bawumia has had a prestigious career, which includes, serving as the Deputy Governor of Ghana’s Central Bank from 2006 to 2008 and the Resident Representative of the African Development Bank in Zimbabwe in 2011.

He chairs the Government’s Economic Management Team, which is broadly responsible for shaping the government’s policies and guiding their implementation.

He is also at the forefront of a broad and inclusive development strategy in Ghana, involving, among others, the leveraging of digitised government services to transform the delivery of public services and digitalising the economy, with an overall objective of building the country’s digital economy to achieve its objectives.