A member of the Council of Elders of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Amoako Tuffour has stated that the General Secretary of the party, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie erred in endorsing the candidature of Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia for the 2016 general elections if Nana Akufo-Addo decides not to run.
Mr. Afriyie suggested that Dr. Bawumia should be elected to lead the party in 2016 if Nana Addo declines to contest.
But Mr. Amoako opined that, “why do we bring Bawumia into the picture now when we don’t have any reason to think Nana Akufo-Addo won’t run. If Nana decides he won’t run, then this point could be relevant for discussion. We must get to the river before we cross rather than jumping and jumping into another controversial situation”.
Meanwhile, a political science lecturer at the University of Ghana described Mr. Afriyie’s assertion as an attempt to “test the waters” to determine whether Nana Akufo-Addo would still have the necessary backing to lead the party in 2016.
“The party is adopting some strategies in an attempt to test the waters to see what the rank and file would like before they launch operations.
“Nana Akufo-Addo has been out there on two occasions and he has not been successful, the party has to do some critical analysis and diagnosis on why he lost,” he said.