Aspiring flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, says he wants to be President of Ghana because he wants to serve his party as flagbearer.
According to him, huge cracks have developed within his party that needs fixing in order for the NPP to regain its former glory.
He noted that Ghana’s current hung parliament in particular is testament to how broken the party is.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he said the poor performance of the party in the 2020 elections would have to be remedied, and he is the man for the job.
“I want to be President because I want to be the flagbearer of the NPP which is what is driving me. To give an opportunity for me to make a contribution to the New Patriotic Party. As you saw in 202 elections, the results were not satisfactory, now we have a 137, NDC has a 137. We came from 169, we lost net of 36 constituencies, our presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who beat Mahama by 1.5 million votes, unprecedented in the 4th Republic, votes dropped to only half a million in 2020.
“And the puzzling thing is given the first term of Akufo-Addo where there was no Covid and things were running for this country with the growth of the economy and so on, one would have thought that Ghanaians would actually give us a pat on the back by voting for even higher numbers than 2016, but what happened? We nearly lost parliament.
“And now of course 137-137, the only difference between Majority and Minority is one independent candidate who decided to work with us, who was previously a Member of Parliament for NPP. So you see that we’re not in a good place,” he said.
He noted that the apathy towards the NPP was not caused by the government’s performance, but rather the failure of the party leadership to unite the party and lead the charge.
Describing the party as a machine, he said its engine was broken and needs fixing immediately.
“And the interesting thing is, this sharp drop in our performance in election 2020 wasn’t because of the message or whatever NDC were giving. It was to do with the party. See the party is the machinery, if I called an uber here to take me to my house and the uber comes and the engine is broken, I could sit in that car forever and ever and it won’t move.
“Yes [the party’s engine is broken] because why is that we have good performance in the first term, our opposition didn’t have any message, NDC didn’t have any message for 2020 election and yet we nearly lost parliament and the majority side has been cut down. And it’s all because as I said, given the performance of the government, it’s the party and the affairs of the party which for me that’s where I put my finger,” he said.
Dr. Afriyie Akoto is convinced he is the man for the job due to his in-depth understanding of the party’s ailments and his resolve to ensure that the party is re-energised.
“In human history, no amount of the will of the people to go in one direction succeeds without a leadership which understands the problem. So this is where I’m coming from.
“That I’ll be given the opportunity by the delegates in the course of this year to bear the flag of the NPP and then I will whatever it takes, even if it’s a week, at least the kind of measures that I have in mind to bring into the party would ginger our party to action,” he said.
