‘I want to be President because I want to be NPP flagbearer’ – Agric Minister, Dr. Afriyie Akoto Reveals In New Video
Because of the power it possesses, the presidency is probably one of the most coveted posts in the nation. Those seeking power have varying viewpoints on why they are doing it.
Several names have emerged in this respect ahead of the 2024 elections from the two biggest political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), offering messages of optimism and an improvement in Ghanaians’ living conditions if given the nod.
Former Agricultural Minister Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto is one among the candidates campaigning for the position of NPP flagbearer.
Dr. Akoto, on the other hand, believes his desire to contribute to the NPP underlines this dedication.
On Monday, he indicated this while speaking with Evans Mensah on JoyNews’ PM Express.
“Why do you want to be President?” Evans Mensah had questioned. “I want to be president because I want to be the NPP’s flagbearer,” he said.
Dr. Akoto, one of nine persons vying for the NPP’s flagbearership, said that the amount of votes the party receives during a general election is decreasing.
As a result, he wishes to “contribute to the New Patriotic Party” by becoming President and unifying the party.
With referring to the 2020 election results, he said, “Today we have 137, NDC has 137. We started with 169 and lost a net of 36 seats. [In 2016], our presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, defeated Mahama by 1.5 million votes, a record-breaking margin in the Fourth Republic. But, in 2020, just half a million people voted.
“And the puzzling thing is given the first term of Akufo-Addo, where there was no Covid and things were running for this country’s rate of growth of the economy and so on one would have thought that Ghanaians will actually give us a pat on the back by voting for even higher numbers than 2016. But what happened? We nearly lost Parliament, and now, of course, 137,137. The only difference between the majority is one independent candidate who decided to work with us,” he said.
The former Agricultural Minister emphasized that following the 2020 elections, he realized there was a lot of work to be done inside the party.
He stressed that “so you see that we are not in a good place. And the interesting thing is this sharp drop in our performance election in 2020. It wasn’t because of the message or whatever promises NDC was giving, it was to do with the party.”
The NPP veteran, comparing the party to a vehicle, said that the engine was damaged.
“See the party is the machinery. If I called an Uber here to take me to my house, and the Uber comes in and the engine is broken. I could sit in that car forever and ever it won’t move.
“And this is reflected because why is it that we have good performance in the first term. Our opposition, NDC, did not have any message for the 2020 election and we nearly lost Parliament and [the numbers] of Majority has been cut down.”
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