Former Vice President and NPP Presidential Candidate for the 2024 elections, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has expressed agreement with supporters of the NPP regarding the reasons behind the party’s loss in the 2024 elections.
Addressing party faithful during the ongoing Thank You Tour, which commenced on Saturday, Dr. Bawumia highlighted a number of factors that he believes accounted for the NPP’s defeat in both the Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
Many of the reasons, Dr. Bawumia observed, centered on actions and inactions of the government that angered the people, including the NPP’s own supporters across the country.
“Many people have ascribed reasons why we lost, and some, including our General Secretary, even believe it was spiritual,” Dr. Bawumia said. “But if you look at it carefully, the reasons are many, and some were due to our own decisions and inaction. The cost of living went up, and there was also the issue of arrogance of power.”
Continuing, Dr. Bawumia went into details, highlighting specific issues, including the e-levy and the debt exchange project, factors that party supporters totally agreed with and applauded.
“We faced the issue of high cost of living, arrogance of power, and refusal to listen. The party asked us to do a reshuffle, but we did not listen for eight years. The party and Ghanaians told us they didn’t want the e-levy, but we didn’t listen.”
“Mobile money account users are about 16 million, so if you bring something they don’t like, you’re incurring the wrath of all these people,” Dr. Bawumia said.
“The party told us we should not touch pensioners in the debt restructuring. We had a meeting and decided against it, and the President announced to Ghanaians that there would be no haircut, and everyone was happy. But in the end, there was a haircut, and these bondholders, numbering about 800,000, were affected. These are the middle class, and each of them has dependents.”
Dr. Bawumia also lamented the lack of support for some youth-centered programmes, such as NABCO and youth in afforestation.
“We also refused to pay NABCO workers, who number about 100,000, and virtually cancelled the programme. We also did not pay the youth in afforestation, who were about 75,000.”
Dr. Bawumia further highlighted the poor handling of priority projects in some regions, as well as the controversial national cathedral project.
“The national cathedral was also a very big issue for us because after so much money was pumped in, there was no progress.”
Moving forward, Dr. Bawumia urged all party members to stay united and work hard to correct the challenges faced by the party, as captured by the Prof. Mike Oquaye Committee.
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