Source: tntnewspapergh.com

Full statement reproduced below;

Why NPP needs a different presidential candidate for 2028 elections- A press statement by Concerned NPP traders of Kumasi

LADIES AND Gentlemen of the press, thank you very much for your attendance in this all-important press conference.
Though, at a short notice, you made it to this significant meeting, for which we are grateful again.
Honorable members of the inky fraternity, we have called you here as members of concerned NPP traders of Kumasi this morning, to help us send a simple message to the rank and file of our dear party, the NPP.

Ofori Benjamin, Coordinator for the group speaking at the press conference
The simple message we are delivering with strong emphasis to our dear party is that we need a different presidential candidate for the 2028 elections other than Dr Alhaji Mahmud Bawumia, the immediate past vice president, should the party think of recapturing power in the next polls.

The humiliating defeat of the party in the just ended presidential and parliamentary polls have underscored why the NPP requires not only a different candidate but a winnable one for the upcoming elections.

Apart from unpopular government decisions that angered the populace, leading to the embarrassing and unprecedented electoral defeat, the election results have revealed that the NPP had a wrong candidate in the person of Dr Mahmud Bawumia.

This is because, the consideration that Dr Mahmud Bawumia was going to bring the northern regions and Islamic votes did not materialize, rather the party lost significant votes in the aforementioned areas.
The party did not only lose significant votes in the presidential elections but the parliamentary also as compared to the 2020 election across the country.
Losing 4 out 5 northern regions under the candidature of a northerner was embarrassing to say the least.
Even in Dr Bawumia’s home region, the margin of victory over President John Dramani Mahama was minimal as compared to the 2020 results.
Whereas, in the home region of President Mahama, the margin of victory over Dr Bawumia was astronomical.
Recording zeros in some constituencies was equally humiliating as splitting the parliamentary seats to 3:3 in the home region of Dr Bawumia, whose compelling factor of selection was wooing the northern regions votes.
Shamefully, the party currently has no MP in the Upper East and West regions under the candidature of a northerner and a Muslim.
Dr Bawumia has eroded all the gains made by the party since 1992 in the northern regions, predicting a further decline under his future candidacy.
Being a Zongo person, it was expected of Dr Bawumia to bring those votes, but regrettably, the party lost significantly in the aforementioned areas.
It has also become evidently clear that most NPP Christians for one reason or the other did not vote at all, a development which greatly affected the fortunes of the party in the polls.
Whilst, the party under the leadership of Dr Mahmud Bawumia, lost about 2.1 million votes Nationwide as compared to the 2020 polls, the party lost 58 seats, recording the heaviest electoral defeat in the history of the party.
The situation was such embarrassing that even in the Ashanti Region, which is the stronghold of the party, over 400,000 votes were lost, representing a 24% decline with the 2020 results.
With these discouraging numbers, it is obvious that Dr Mahmud Bawumia’s candidature was not what Ghanaians wanted the NPP to put forward for the 2024 elections.

The argument that former president Akufo Addo contested three times to record victory, therefore, Dr Bawumia deserves another chance falls flat on the face.

This is because ex-President Akufo recorded 49.7% in 2008 in a heated elections which even went into a third round, whilst recording 47.7% in the disputed 2012 elections, which are far better than the 38.40% achieved by Dr Bawumia in 2024.
It is clear that Ghanaians wanted a candidate who did not have trust issues and was not neck deep in the unwarranted things the government did to anger the people.

Ghanaians have told the NPP with the outcome of the elections that they did not want a candidate who could not talk about the economy after promising to arrest the dollar and strengthen the economic fundamentals.
Indeed Ghanaians told the NPP through the elections that they want a candidate who is a living testimony of his good works that have contributed to shaping the economy.

Therefore, we find as ridiculous and treacherous to the fortunes of the party, elements who have started pushing the second coming agenda of Dr Mahmud Bawumia and therefore cautions the party against falling for such moves.
We are stressing that if the party envisages to stage a comeback to power in 2028, then the candidature of Dr Mahmud Bawumia should be changed, else the party will be only be fielding a candidate and not a president and that the party can stay in opposition for 12 years.

We entreat all well meaning party members to dispassionately analyze the 2024 election results and come to the realization that the party made a grievous mistake in the choice of it’s flagbearer and that the necessary corrections would have to be made to give the party a chance in the next polls.

Most importantly, we want to call all those who have the wellbeing of the NPP at heart like us to resist any attempt to skew the process with the view of imposing Dr Mahmud Bawumia on the party for the upcoming polls.
Long live NPP, long live Ghana.
Thanks.
Ofori Benjamin