NPP Flagbearer Race: Ken raises the Bar, Bawumia sounds Illogical, Bryan appears Ironical

By Bala Ali
As the presidential primaries of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) draws nearer, Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong has raised the bar in his messaging, causing his two main contenders to keep sounding self-contradictory, illogical and ironical.

The business mogul and experienced politician has indeed shocked everyone with his campaign. Many thought Ken would have gone about bragging about how much he has been spending to keep the NPP running since its days of wants and plentiness. And indeed, that wouldn't have been a bad message because he has actually given his best to the party.

Proving that he has built himself to lead Ghana to the promised land of prosperity where every citizen -- both poor and rich will be sorted out, Ken has been running an issue-based campaign, explaining how he would transform Ghana with a jet-propelled industrialisation.

This has caused fear and panic in the camps of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and Dr. Bryan Acheampong, his main contenders. Consequently, the two trailing contenders of Ken have allowed their fear of losing the primaries to the former Assin Central lawmaker to engage in unhealthy campaign.

Dr. Bawumia for instance, has resorted to using his shameless supporters to attack the personality of Ken, a job Mr. Kwame Baffoe and Lawyer Samuel Atta Kyea have assumed. In the course of executing this ignoble assignment, Mr. Baffoe also known as Abronye DC has been sounding illogical and self-contradictory, thereby shooting Dr. Bawumia in the foot often.

He does this by accusing Ken and his key team members of what Dr. Bawumia is more guilty of. For instance, he recently alleged that Irene Naa Torshie-Addo joined Ken's campaign because the National Democratic Congress (NDC) agreed with her to do so. According to the failed Bono Regional Chairman of the NPP, the NDC agreed with Hon. Naa Torshie-Addo to join Ken's campaign so that the ruling party would prevail over the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to withdraw the charges they hold against her.

In his typical fashion, he tried to paint Hon. Naa Torshie-Addo black for appearing before EOCO a number of times. This is where the problem lies. If merely appearing before EOCO makes one appears dirty and corrupt, then Abronye DC is equally saying Mr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh and Dr. Bawumia are corrupt and morally dirty because both have been allegedly appearing before EOCO since NPP lost power.

Then comes Dr. Bryan and his team. They actually sound illogical and ironical. Bryan's camp is going about campaigning that the Abetifi Member of Parliament is the best person to unite the party after the presidential primaries, arguing that he has good relationship with both Ken and Dr. Bawumia.

Interestingly, however, the person who claims he has good relationship with Ken for what reason he can convince him to join the main campaign after the primaries, has allowed his team members to be slandering the former Assin Central lawmaker with impunity. Dr. Acheampong's core team members are going about lying that he paid Ken to join the 2024 campaign. How can you say this about your senior and turn round to say you have good relationship with him? That is what I call irony of a unifier.

The conduct of Bryan and Dr. Bawumia is exactly what some defenders do to strikers in a football match -- forcing the latter to play nonsense. Ken is forcing his contenders to play nonsense.

The author is an independent political observer, a columnist with Modern Ghana, an esteemed online news portal, and a regular contributor to News Commentary, a current affairs programme by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC)