In the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) presidential primaries, President Akufo-Addo of Ghana declared on Wednesday that he had no favourite candidate. He emphasised that the party’s delegates would choose its leader for the general election the following year.
However, he said that he would support a candidate “who, in my opinion, can best unite the party and, above all, who can win the presidential election of December 7, 2024, and inflict a third consecutive defeat on the perennial NDC Presidential Candidate, John Dramani Mahama.”
The President made the observation during a meeting with party communicators at Jubilee House in Accra that some NPP members’ actions close to the final round of the internal election are making headlines for incorrect 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.
“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 said.
President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that the claim that government machinery was being used to prop up a certain candidate in the election was a “false narrative.”
“The assertions being made by a few in our party who, because of internal party politicking, are accusing my government of allegedly intimidating and coercing party faithful to throw their support behind one of the presidential aspirants, that is the Vice President. It is a false and malicious narrative.
“I want to say in very clear terms to you and to the world, it is a false, malicious narrative. There is not a single truth to it,” he said.
The President told the communicators that “I can beat my chest and say, without any fear of contradiction, that there is no one in the party; there is not a single person in the NPP who can say that I have asked him or her to support this or that aspirant.”
“I have not set out to dismiss any MMDCE or political appointee from office for supporting any particular aspirant; no Minister or Deputy Minister has lost their job or been threatened for openly campaigning for their preferred presidential aspirant; neither has any caveat emanated from Jubilee House to the Party across the length and breadth of the country demanding that Candidate A be supported over Candidate B. I, better than anyone in the Party, know that this is not the way to go,” he stated.
In a clear statement, President Akufo-Addo said that the winner of the election “will be chosen freely and transparently by an Electoral College of about 250,000 people, and not by President Akufo-Addo.”
“I have just one vote, the same as any polling station executive anywhere in the country. I will, however, cast that vote for an aspirant who, I believe, can best unite the Party, and who can win the presidential election of 7th December 2024, and inflict a third successive defeat on the perennial NDC Presidential Candidate, John Dramani Mahama,” he stressed.
The President asked all party members to work towards the same objective as he did in telling the communicators that he was working to ensure the party’s victory in the 2024 election and that he was looking forward to handing over to an NPP Presidential Candidate who had been chosen as President by the Ghanaian people.
“I assume that we all want our party to win the 2024 elections handily, our parliamentary candidates to once again win the majority of seats in Parliament, and our flagbearer to be elected President of the Republic. On how we carry out this agenda, I anticipate and welcome arguments. However, I do not anticipate or accept that party members would take any action to jeopardise the objective we have set for ourselves—winning the 2024 elections—and I will cooperate with everyone who seeks this goal, he continued.