Nana Akomea, Vice Chairman of the 2024 New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer campaign team, has debunked suggestions that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is shifting blame for the party’s 2024 election defeat.
The former Vice President, during the party’s post-election thank-you tour in the Western Region on Saturday, April 26, cited both internal and external factors that contributed to the party’s loss.
He explained that multiple challenges, including economic hardships, poor internal management, unpopular government decisions, and arrogance of power, created widespread dissatisfaction among Ghanaians.
He particularly pointed to the impact of the high cost of living, the refusal to reshuffle government officials, the controversial E-Levy, and the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) under the IMF debt restructuring plan.
However, reacting to this in an article, Dr. Palgrave Boakye-Danquah, a former government spokesperson on the economy, slammed Dr. Bawumia for not speaking up earlier and only doing so now to suit his political ambitions.
He accused the party’s former flagbearer of trying to insulate himself from blame, noting that his claim of opposing policies like the E-Levy contradicts his earlier stance.
“As Vice President, he had a platform to voice dissent or influence policy but chose not to, only to later claim opposition when it suited his political ambitions.
“Bawumia’s failure to publicly address or mitigate the DDEP’s impact, while now implying he was not fully responsible, reeks of opportunism and undermines the administration’s collective accountability,” Palgrave wrote.
In a rebuttal, Nana Akomea stated that Dr. Bawumia only disclosed the reasons cited by the party’s Election Review Committee, chaired by Professor Mike Ocquaye and did not shift blame to anyone.
“Dr. Bawumia, after acknowledging these difficulties as reported by the same party people to the Ocquaye Committee, proceeded to apologise to party people for these shortcomings. Indeed, the same theme of acknowledging the wrongs as reported to the Ocquaye Committee and apologising was repeated by the party’s General Secretary, Justin Kodua, and Kennedy Agyapong in their address to supporters.
“Dr. Bawumia said, ‘These are what you, party people, have said about us. We acknowledge them and apologise for them.’ How does that amount to shifting blame? And to whom did he shift the blame?” Nana Akomea asked.
Read Nana Akomea’s full statement below:
PALGRAVE BOAKYE DANQUAH, Dr BAWUMIA HAS NOT SHIFTED BLAME
I read with surprise Palgrave Boakye Danquah’s open letter, purporting to admonish Dr Bawumia not to shift blame for the NPP’s loss in the 2024 elections. My surprise is borne by the fact that Dr. Bawumia did no such thing in his interactions with party folks in the ongoing Thank You Tour.
Dr Bawumia, at his meeting in Takoradi Saturday 26 April, spoke to the Professor Mike Ocquaye’s committee’s report.
He mentioned that the report, as presented to the NPP’s National Council, and elaborated on by the NPP’s General Secretary Justin Kodua, did not find the religious factor as a key reason for the NPP’s loss.
There have been speculations that the loss was attributable to Dr Bawumia’s Moslem religion, not finding favour with Christian voters. The reasons given by party supporters for staying away from the 2024 polls, as reported by the Ocquaye committee, did not include the Moslem factor in any considerable degree.
Indeed the reasons given by supporters for staying away included governance issues such as the the economic situation, perceived arrogance on the part of government appointees, the Electronic Levy, the high cost of living, the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, Non reshuffle of appointees, the National cathedral, increment in fuel prices days to the elections, Inadequacies in the NPP’s electoral processes etc.
Dr Bawumia, after acknowledging these difficulties as reported by the same party people to the Ocquaye committee, proceeds to apologise to party people for these given shortcomings. Indeed, the same theme of acknowledgement of the wrongs as reported to the Ocquaye commitee , and apology, was repeated by the Party’s General secretary Justin Kodua and Kennedy Agyapong in their address to the party supporters.
Dr Bawumia said these are what you party people have said about us. We acknowledge them and apologise for them. How does that amount to shifting blame? And to whom did he shift the blame?
Indeed, the acknowledgement and apology have been met with loud applause from the party people. Same as when Justin Kodua general secretary and Kennedy Agyapong made the same acknowledgement and apology.
Let’s continue to mend our ties with our party people with truth and sincerity.
NANA AKOMEA
