Over the period since the NPP formally opened its leadership window for interested and qualified party persons to apply for the flagbearer-ship roles towards the 2028 general elections, I have monitored, interacted, visited, discussed, expressed, and exchanged ideas about the five gentlemen that stood up to be counted in the race for 2028.

Fine as they all are, I am convinced and can conclude that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is on the heart of many as the “crème de la crème” among the rest. In my interactions with some delegates, I have come to realise that majority (in my estimation 68%) are of the view that in political development, to gain the confidence and support of the greater electoral masses for economic growth and wealth creation, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. They believe in consistency of championing the hopes and aspirations through thick and thin until the realization of the dreams. More so when the consistency comes along with capacity and expertise to champion ideas for the greater good of Ghanaians.

To many of the delegates, the principle of consistency is key (as shown by both
NPP and NDC) in their choices over the years, hence retaining Bawumia is the first pole towards 2028 victory. To them, maintaining consistency with Bawumia will serve the party and Ghanaians better as it affords the opportunity to build on the existing invented wheels for the NPP vehicle which is represented by Bawumia rather than reinventing a new wheel for the 2028 political discourse for the party.

They believe, this way, political innovations and re-engineering, resource mobilization and candidate marketing would be fast-tracked and seamless providing opportunities for the party to become more acceptable and attractive to the public.

Some aspirants and their supporters have questioned the party membership credibility and loyalty of Bawumia from 1992. The irony is that all those questioning his party loyalty were not seen in all the prior-Kufuor administration era, i.e. from 1992 to 2001.

For instance, the 29 August 1992 congress in Legon where 1,980 delegates of the
NPP elected Prof. Adu Boahen with some 57% votes; the 20 April 1996 that elected
JA Kufour with 51.1% of the 1,996 votes also at Legon; and the 23 October 1998 early Sunyani Congress that elected Kufuor again with 64.6% of the 1,993 votes;
technically, apart from Ing. Kwabena Agyapong who was involved in all these three congresses, NONE of the remaining four in this 31st January 2026 contest was seen anywhere near the processes of NPP formation and growth. So, for anyone
to say that Bawumia is a none NPP member or new does not only smack disingenuity but also betrays his or her own credibility.

Some of us (including me) have had the liberty to walk through all these congresses in the past from our tender ages and have come to know those who command genuine loyalty despite the time they joined the party. There is no doubt about the membership and loyalty of Bawumia in his persona and through the legacy of his parents in mobilizing support for Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition.

Since he became a politically exposed frontline leader as vice presidential candidate on August 8, 2008 at Alisa, we have seen him as a true loyal, dedicated, brave and hardworking member of the NPP who continues to use his resources (cash and kind) to bring the party out of storm especially during the 2013 electoral petition when the key “rich men” shirked off their responsibility to rise and fight for the party. His astute work and community engagement on public discourse led to the massive reform of the party that built a huge confidence in the public, hence the massive victory three years later in
2016. This does not exclude his technical competencies as economist, researcher,
and a banker to support the Governor of the Bank of Ghana during JA Kufuor’s era
that enabled the government to achieve remarkable results even in HIPC conditions.

Many of the delegates see in the foresight of his character and demeanour as the
“architect of tomorrow" and the "compass of NPP political survival" in an uncertain political environment in Ghana. His ability to conceptualise and bring ideas to bear and guide its navigation through the storm to achieve the desired positive impacts stand out. He is more profound on public strategic deliveries that have the ultimate results of building social cohesion and bring equity in the distribution of public goods and services. He is not a tribal bigot (tribalistic) and believes in the resource diversity of ideas across the land to build a better and sustained economic growth.

Unfortunately, some of us accuse him that he should show one single investment or industry he has done to prove his capacity of building industries across the country to warrant his determination to drive industrialization for national economic growth and development in Ghana. We forget that a country that is weak in effective public policy innovation and strategies to drive better private businesses and enterprises to generate quality jobs, incomes and create the desired wealth for the people continues to have cyclical enterprises and “wolfy” entrepreneurs and businessmen and women, taking advantage of state procurement and unduly gaining to the detriment of the larger society. Their wealthy upper cut to the State without appropriate checks and balances by state institutions has led them to boast disrespectfully, despicably, and arrogantly simply because in their mind, the ship will wreck if they are not the captains of the public ship. This is one of the banes of Ghana where individual wealth is prioritised over public wealth, making the greater number of the masses poor to sing sycophantic and bootlicking slogans to hype such ‘wealthy’ people so that they can get the cramps from their tables to sort out their hardships and turmoil in life.

The Bawumia I have come to know since my first encounter with him on August 9,
2008, when I had the greatest opportunity to be part of his 2008 Campaign Team
throughout the 2008 elections believes in bringing the economic powers of the state to the nook and cronies of every part of the Ghanaian society where youthful energies are supported to innovate their gifts and talents to be masters of their destinies and not to pick cramps from others’ table. As a staunch believer of private enterprise for personal wealth and investment creation with significant captains of industries well positioned to partner government for enhanced economic growth, he is convinced that free market becomes more relevant when public private partnership for economic development is not muscled by individuals to their advantage to the detriment of the state.

If we remember President Kufuor’s statement of his first encounter with Dr. Bawumia in London during an international financial conference in London 2003, organized by the Financial Times, at Landmark Hotel, near the Regent Park, in which he described him [Bawumia] as very intelligent, composed, and humble; three key characters needed for public policy leadership, management, oversight and drive in honesty and value for money, then we are not far from the call that Bawumia has public policy intellect and capacity to create the economic space for sustained business development and enterprise innovation deliveries.
He is a “humble lion” with the character of confidentiality, tactfulness, hard work, patriotism, deep thoughts, and pregnant with bold and innovative solutions
needed to still economic storms in difficult situations. He has a stronger emotional intelligence to navigate through difficult situations and will never waste resources to simply buy gossip-driven information and use the social media platforms to spew unsubstantiated and unprintable words against all strides of our society except himself. He will never profess to be the ‘Pontius Plato’ for personal gains. This is not the leader Ghana want when we are confronted with economic challenges.

For the NPP party to be stronger at the local levels, Bawumia’s decision to have 10 persons per Constituency for national assignment and positions is a game changer to set the tone for ensuring basic equity and fairness in political appointments in the history of Ghana. Excess appointments become bonus in line with other dynamics and political considerations. With this the constituency executives have considerable control over their appointments into national public offices and can therefore cause for their reshuffle should such recommended persons fail to deliver in line with the collective aspirations and hopes of the respective constituencies.

To have a system whereby both rural and urban constituencies are equal before
political appointments from the scratch will deepen social and political gains, empower the base of the party, and fairly distribute political gains at the constituency levels. This will break the back of situations where some constituencies have it all in political appointments and yet do not use that advantage to ensure the collective interest of the larger society whilst many constituencies with no godfather syndrome get nothing except MMDCE.

Bawumia is an epitome of impactful public policy that challenges the status-quo
to leapfrog development in perpetuity. He was one of the brains behind key reforms at the Bank of Ghana that transformed the financial system of Ghana to make the country attractive and commercially viable for international transactions. You cannot take him away from such policy frameworks like the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002 (Act 612), Introduction of the Prime Rate (2002), Introduction of Universal Banking (2003), Payment System Improvements (2003), Strengthening Supervisory Framework: Financial Sector Strategic Plan (FINSSP) (2003) and Petroleum Sector Restructuring (2003), etc to scale-up the financial sector in his roles as a Technical expert and Researcher during those periods.

The benefits of these legal and regulatory policy frameworks continue to yield the appropriate beneficial responses for our dear country. His deepened calls for efficient and deliberate efforts towards deploying competitive digital transformation and leadership in businesses has today helped to reduce the average cost of doing business in Ghana. He further believes in the spirit and letter of efficient capital market integration on sound prudential principles and practices to protect investors, improve the efficiency of markets, and protect businesses from systemic risk. This is how best to maximize the value of investments, create jobs for the youth and drive sustained investment in infrastructure and social assets. This is what Bawumia embodies in
public discourse!

On these small ideas surrounding the man Bawumia, the political maverick in
modern Ghana, I make this special call to the 211,849 delegates to once again
support him to win at least 68% to give the party the confidence to march forward and match the NDC competitively towards 2028 elections.