The 2024 Presidential Candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Alhaji Mahammudu Bawumia, has said he would not have sought another opportunity to lead the opposition party if Prof Mike Ocquaye report had linked the party’s defeat to his tribe or religion.
According to the former Vice President, he told the former president, Nana Akufo-Addo, that he was ready to sit back in order not to affect the future political fortunes of the NPP.
Speaking to delegates at Abuakwa on Saturday, September 13, 2025, Dr. Bawumia stressed that he would not allow his political ambition to override the party’s interest.
He noted that he was willing to step away from leading the party in the 2028 polls had the Ocquaye’s report cited his tribe or religion as part of reasons for NPP’s 2024 election defeat.
“Before Ocquaye report came out, I had a meeting with Akufo-Addo and others. We were having a discussion about reasons on why we lost the 2024 election.
“I told Akufo-Addo that if the findings of the Ocquaye report indicate that because I’m a Muslim or I’m a Mamprusi-Kusasi, we lost the election, I will step down and not contest anymore. This is what I told Akufo-Addo. Because I will not choose my interest over the party’s interest. The party’s interest must always be ahead of me.
“I told Akufo-Addo that because of the party, I will sacrifice any ambition including the fact that if I contest, we will lose. But when the Ocquaye report, Ashanti report and Konrad Adenauer Foundation report came out, all of them pointed to the same conclusion – religion, tribe was not a factor in the 2024 election,” Dr. Bawumia stated.
In 2025, Professor Mike Oquaye was commissioned by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to chair a 12-member committee to investigate the reasons for the party’s defeat in the 2024 general election.
The committee was tasked with compiling a detailed report on the party’s performance in the 2024 elections to help it reorganize and reposition itself for the 2028 polls.
The resulting document is a post-election report that the party has declared confidential for internal use only to inform its reform agenda.
The NPP officially announced in April 2025 that the findings would not be made public.
