Andy Appiah-Kubi, the departing member of parliament for Ashanti Region’s Asante Akim North, has blamed President Nana Akufo-Addo’s leadership choices for the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) significant defeat in the general elections held on December 7, 2024.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the NPP’s presidential candidate, conceded early in the election before the official results were announced, causing the party to lose badly at the polls.
John Mahama, the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), won a landslide victory, becoming the next president and leading the NDC to an absolute majority in Parliament.
According to Appiah-Kubi, who was speaking on JoyNews’ Upfront, the NPP’s problems started when President Akufo-Addo disregarded requests from NPP MPs to fire former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
The MP claims that Dr. Bawumia’s chances of winning the presidency were severely harmed by the President’s refusal to address structural problems.
Since he [President Akufo-Addo] disregarded our advice, the guilt would be transferred by extension. He refused to accept anything of the kind, even after we tried to explain the reality to him and showed him it,” Appiah-Kubi stated.
He also attacked the President’s strategy, calling him “too recalcitrant,” which he said led to the party’s loss.
Since you won’t listen to your own MPs, he [Akufo-Addo] didn’t do enough to assist Dr. Bawumia. There were multiple speakers. More than 96 members of parliament supported our advocacy,” he continued.
Questioning the president’s decision, Appiah-Kubi—who also lost his parliamentary seat to an independent candidate—said that his disregard for the MPs’ collective resolution showed a lack of attention to legitimate issues.
It’s not like one somebody said something inappropriate. We wanted him to hear the resolution we had crafted because we had no other options. But none of us could get him to listen. We can thus hold him accountable for this result,” he continued.
