Copyright thebftonline
On October 16, 2025, a group of former members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by Mr. Allan Kyerematen metamorphosed their failed “Movement for Change” into a so-called political party which they surreptitiously named “United Party.” Obviously, the choice of name could have been a strategy to deepen the cracks the members of the new political party created before quitting the NPP. Many political analysts, have argued that the agenda of the “United Party” could be to frustrate every attempt by Dr Bawumia to become the presidential candidate of the NPP, let alone winning the 2028. I believe that the “United Party” cannot make any impact in 2026 and beyond. Just as the Movement for Change failed to fly, United Party cannot even raise its wings, let alone fly. Perhaps, their only achievement could be to ensure that a Bawumia candidacy will not win the 2026 presidential elections. Religious bigotry It was the same Allan Kyeremateng who first used the platform of the Church of Pentecost to declare a hateful speech that no Christian should vote for a Moslem to become the president of Ghana. In that infamous speech Mr. Kyeremateng stated that Christians had a majority population in Ghana and should therefore not allow a Moslem to become a president. In my opinion that was the highest level of religious bigotry from a man who has the burning desire to become the president of Ghana, a country which comprises different religious groups. In an earlier article I wrote on his unfortunate diatribes, I questioned whether Mr. Kyeremateng had any Moslem friends and relatives, and whether he would be confident to go to Moslem communities to solicit for their votes in any election. Mr. Kyeremateng’s divisive religious comments were reechoed by Mr. Kennedy Agyapong, another politician who strongly detests the idea of a northerner leading the NPP as president of Ghana. During the 2023 presidential primaries, Mr. Agyapong wondered why two northerners would be leading the two dominant political parties as presidential candidates. With candidate John Mahama already elected by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Agyapong indirectly appealed to NPP delegates to elect him, rather than Dr. Bawumia, another northerner as presidential candidate, perhaps to balance the southern-northern equation. Fortunately, NPP delegates dismissed his divisive, tribalistic and religious politics by voting massively for Dr. Bawumia. Similar scenario In 1998 a similar scenario occurred when Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor surprisingly defeated Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to become NPP’s presidential candidate. Although Akufo-Addo and his camp were peeved, he did not resign from the party. Instead, he rallied behind Kufuor to disprove the politicians who were fueling the so-called Akyem-Ashanti political rivalry. It is on record that when NPP was financially distressed at a point, it was Akufo-Addo who picked up all the bills of party expenditure. He is reported to have sold or leased some of his landed property at Graphic Road and other places in Accra to keep NPP afloat, against a more well-resourced and incumbent NDC. Yet, Akufo-Addo never went on radio and television to bluff that he was the sole financier of the NPP. Even when Kufour won the candidacy in 2000, Akufo-Addo never relented, he continually provided unflinching financial and moral support to Kufuor and NPP. Thus, he sacrificed his personal ambition to be come president for the long-term interest and survival of his party. The 2007 primaries and beyond During the 2007 primaries, it was obvious that the outgoing president, John Agyemum Kufuor preferred Allan Kyeremateng to replace him as president. At that point he allegedly dismissed all ministers, deputies, DCEs and MCEs who supported Akufo-Addo from his government. Yet, that did not sway the delegates, who rewarded Akufo-Addo for his loyalty and unmatched financial support. After the vote, Akufo-Addo defeated Mr. Kyeremateng by a wide margin, which compelled him to quit the party for the first time. Perhaps, if Mr. Kyeremateng had restrained his emotions and became selfless like Akufo-Addo, he would have been the obvious replacement. However, from 2007 his actions and inactions might have convinced NPP delegates that he lacks the leadership qualities to become the party’s presidential candidate and ultimately the president of Ghana. Fast forward in 2023, once more, NPP’s delegates rewarded a committed and selfless candidate-Dr. Bawumia over a candidate who thinks he has the “divine right” to become the president of Ghana. Subsequently, ex-president Kufuor, who once supported Mr. Kyeremateng described Dr. Bawumia as “a man of destiny”, which prompted incisive and frontal attacks by Allan Kyeremateng and the “Movement for Change.” Perhaps, what influenced Kufuor’s preference of Bawumia over Kyeremateng was the former’s humility, selflessness, intellectual wisdom, pragmatism and innovative solutions for Ghana’s economic transformation. These were the qualities that influenced NPP delegates to vote for Bawumia in 2023 and perhaps, the delegates will be voting for the same qualities in 2026. Stranger in the NPP Another ammunition Bawumia’s enemies are using against him is that he is a “stranger in the NPP.” Perhaps, the bitterness of these disgruntled politicians against Dr. Bawumia has beclouded their senses of reasoning and judgement. Have they so soon forgotten that during the election petition in 2012 it was this same “stranger” , Bawumia who stood in the witness box for one year and withstood cross examinations by three adversarial lawyers-Tsatsu Tsikata of the NDC, Tony Lithur of John Mahama and Adumoah Bossman of the Electoral Commission. His brilliance, eloquent, explicit and erudite responses to all the “bullet” laden questions compelled the Presiding Judge, Justice William Atuguba to name him “Dr. Pink Sheet.” In fact, it was Dr. Bawumia’s brilliance and commitment which revealed the extent of rigging in 2012. During the election petition, Dr. Bawumia was not a “stranger”, during his three-years as the running mate of Akufo-Addo he was not a “stranger”; and during his eight years as the most competent and innovative vice president in the history of Ghana’s democracy, he was not a “stranger.” Suddenly because of some politicians’ inordinate ambition or their “divine right” to become presidential candidates, Dr. Bawumia is now a “stranger” in a party he dedicated his professional and political carrier to build. The politicians in the NPP who are always tagging others as “strangers” should stop the pettiness and backward politics. Tagging people as strangers is a major cause of NPP’s inability to attract floating voters across the country. That is why the NDC easily brands the NPP as an elitist party, which treats ordinary people with contempt and disdain. It is this discriminatory attitude that its opponents have used to tag it as “an Akan party”, a stigma NPP has been unable to dispel. NDC and ordinary people On the contrary, the NDC is always appealing to ordinary people and floating voters, though it often offers little interventions for the ordinary people who support it. Practically, anyone who toils or sacrifices for the NDC to win power is always recongised and rewarded. Thus, when Malik Basintale accosted and embarrassed armed military men during the election, he did that with the assurance that he would be rewarded by his party. In fact, NDC is better at identifying and rewarding its supporters who create chaos and insecurity during and after elections. On the other hand, the NPP only recognizes and rewards people when they can verify that their grandparents or parents played key roles in forming the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) in 1947 or NPP in 1992. NPP would rather go abroad and look for people with certificates from prestigious western universities to occupy ministerial positions or CEOs of key state agencies and departments, rather than rewarding party loyalists from the grassroots. This explains why people who defect from NPP to NDC easily rise. For instance, Okudzeto Ablakwa, Foreign Minister, Sam George, Communications Minister and the late Dr. Omane Boamah, former Defence Minister, all defected from the NPP to NDC and have never regrated their decisions. They rose from party communicators or propagandists to their current significant roles without anyone calling them strangers in NDC. Whereas NDC was formed in the 1990s and thus, a new general party that appeals to ordinary people, especially the youth, NPP continues to dwell in its historical antecedents. This type of branding is not appealing to current generation, whose grandparents or parents may not have played any role in the formation of UGCC and NPP, or are not related to Danquah, Busia and Dombo. This posture equally underlines the failure of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) to rise from its ashes since 1966 when it was overthrown by the military. Negative campaign During the 2024 elections Mr. Agyapong was alleged to have launched negative and destructive criticisms against his own government, which directly or indirectly affected the fortunes of Dr. Bawumia and the NPP. Small wonder that the party recorded its worse defeat since 1992, from 137 seats in 2020 to the current 87. Many analysts have suggested that Kennedy Agyapong’s tirades against his own party and government became potent weapons and slogans NDC used against NPP. After the primaries, which he lost, Mr. Agyapong allegedly launched a “No, Kennedy, no vote” agenda perhaps, to undermine some NPP MPs who voted against him. It is believed that 23 MPs in the Central, Western and Western-North lost their seats as a result. It was not surprising that some of the critics of Dr. Bawumia held night vigils of celebrations after the election. They also deliberately misrepresented the presidential election margins and percentages to prove that he is not a marketable candidate. There are indications that Kenney Agyapong could launch his own political party, as Kyeremateng did with the sole aim of stopping Dr. Bawumia from becoming the president of Ghana. Some people have humourously suggested that Agyapong plans to name his party the “Abro party”, which means (sabotage or spoiler) in other words, “If I don’t get it, you will not get it.” Perhaps, “United Party” and “Abro Party” could consider forming an alliance to prevent their sworn enemy -Dr. Bawumia, a Moslem from becoming the President of Ghana. The saying that when two elephants are fighting, it is grass and trees that suffer is unfolding in the NPP. Ironically, it is leading members of the elephant party who are fighting. Their destructive in-fighting could only make NDC stronger and unbeatable in subsequent elections. Return of Allan More recently, Mr. Agyapong was quoted in the media as suggesting that Mr. Kyeremateng should be recalled to the NPP. His advocacy for the readmission of Mr. Kyeremateng was rather somehow weird because no one sacked Mr. Kyeremateng from the NPP, if I am not mistaken. If fact, his resignation from the NPP in 2023 was the third or fourth time he had resigned from the party. The resignations often came shortly after he had lost presidential primaries. For this reason, Agyapong’s advocacy for re-admitting Mr. Kyeremateng to NPP, suggests that he upholds the same agenda against Dr. Bawumia. Mr. Kyeremateng appears to be holding a notion of his “divine right” to become the president of Ghana; yet, he often fails to abide by the rules of democratic elections.
