Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has made a strong appeal for decorum and intellectual engagement as the New Patriotic Party (NPP) prepares for its internal presidential primaries.
Speaking in what many see as a subtle response to the repeated verbal attacks from former MP Kennedy Agyapong, Bawumia called for an issue-based campaign.
“In our internal election, let us make it a contest of ideas,” he said. “It’s not a contest of insults or denigration of the poor.”
Dr. Bawumia’s statement, delivered in calm but deliberate tones, appears to address a rising tide of inflammatory rhetoric within the party—particularly from Kennedy Agyapong, who has repeatedly taken aim at Bawumia’s economic record and political style.
In the lead-up to the NPP’s flagbearer race, Agyapong launched several public salvos at Bawumia, accusing him of lacking the courage to speak truth to power and blaming him for Ghana’s economic challenges.
He once referred to Bawumia as a “smooth-talking economist” whose theories have failed to improve the lives of ordinary Ghanaians.
At campaign events and media engagements, Agyapong has not held back. He accused the Vice President of abandoning party foot soldiers, overlooking loyalists, and surrounding himself with technocrats disconnected from grassroots realities.
Despite these jabs, Bawumia has largely stayed on message, focusing on policy proposals and his vision for the future of Ghana. His latest comment is seen as a reaffirmation of his commitment to civility and ideas-driven leadership.
“We are one family,” Bawumia has said in previous speeches. “When we tear each other down, we only weaken our chances of winning together.”
With tensions simmering in the NPP following its 2024 electoral defeat, calls for unity and respectful competition have become more crucial.
Party insiders believe Bawumia’s measured tone could set the tone for a more disciplined primary contest, even as pressure mounts from firebrands like Agyapong.
The NPP is expected to choose its flagbearer for the 2028 elections in the coming year, and with both men likely to contest, the party faces a defining test of its internal democracy—and its maturity.
