New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for the Subin Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Eugene Boakye Antwi, has asserted that the NPP needs to not bother much about winning votes from areas with high Muslim or “Northern” populations but rather concentrate its energies on predominantly Akan or Christian areas since these areas have always given the NPP the votes and will help it win the 2024 General Elections (break the eight) if it focuses on these areas.
Speaking on Oyerepa FM’s Morning show, Oyerepa Breakfast Time, Friday, April 28, 2023, Mr Antwi argued that the NPP has always won power through the votes Akans and Christians give them and not those of Muslims, stressing that there is verifiable evidence to this effect.
Mr Antwi, therefore, enjoined NPP delegates to vote for an Akan who is a Christian like they did for former Presidents John Kufuor and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
“The empirical evidence is that we [NPP] derive our political power, support, authority, and existence from Akan-dominated or Christian-dominated areas of this country and that’s a fact,” he stated matter-of-factly, adding that notwithstanding criticisms about his engagement in tribal politics, tribalism cannot be completed divorced from Ghana’s politics.
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, a frontrunner in the NPP flagbearership race, is a northerner and Muslim while his closest contender, Alan Kyeremanten is an Akan and a Christian. Mr Antwi’s comments have been interpreted to mean an endorsement of his preferred Alan Kyeremanten and a dig at Dr Bawumia.
Political pundits however reveal that the attempts by loyalists of Alan Kyeremanten to play the religious and tribal card will ruin the chances of the NPP flagbearer who is already said to be struggling.
The NPP has been accused of being an Akan party that will never allow northerners to lead it. It has often fought back. But Mr. Antwi’s comments seem to give credence to the belief.
Dr Bawumia’s quest to lead NPP
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s quest to lead the NPP into the 2024 General Elections has received overwhelming support from the rank and file of the party. He is seen as being neck to neck with Alan Kyeremanten who had contested in the past for the position in terms of support from the party.
