The 2024 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has denounced the use of tribal and religious sentiments against him during the party’s flagbearer race.
Speaking to party members on Sunday, August 24, 2025, he criticized some aspirants for resorting to propaganda instead of focusing on the substantive issues that led to the NPP’s loss in the 2024 general elections.
“As we prepare to go into the primaries, I am very, very concerned and troubled that some of our presidential aspirants have embarked on a religious and tribal bigotry and propaganda against me in a desperate attempt to win votes. They totally ignore all the data and findings about why we lost the 2024 elections and want to mislead the delegates and the party with sad propaganda,” he stated.
The former Vice President warned that such tribal and religious comments could cost the NPP support in Kusasi-dominated areas.
“Since 1965, there have been 11 elections in Ghana, and if you look at the performance of our tradition in the six Bawku Zone seats, the results show that our challenges there long predate my candidacy,” he explained.
He listed election years from 1965 through to 2024, showing that the NPP’s record in the area has consistently fluctuated between zero and two seats, long before he entered frontline politics.
His comments come after Dr Bryan Acheampong, a former Minister of Agriculture, stated that the NPP’s defeat in 2024 was partly due to the choice of Dr Bawumia as flagbearer.
Speaking recently to party members on Saturday, August 23, Dr Acheampong argued that while former Presidents John Agyekum Kufuor and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo were able to secure votes in northern constituencies, Dr Bawumia’s candidacy was undermined by deep-rooted tribal rivalries.
“President Kufuor won all NPP votes in Kusasi and President Akufo-Addo also did the same thing, but because the fight is between two tribes, Mamprusis and Kusasis, and we elected a flagbearer from one of them, we lost from Oti Region, Upper East, Upper West and the Northern Region,” he said.
Dr Acheampong clarified that the defeat was not necessarily a reflection of Dr Bawumia’s competence or leadership but rather a matter of timing and circumstance.
“We lost all our seats because of the candidate we presented, and he could be a victim of circumstance and not his fault, but the timing didn’t favour him,” he added.
Meanwhile, the party has scheduled its presidential primaries for January 31, 2026.
