Former Chief Executive Officer of InterCity State Transport Corporation, Nana Akomea has clarified recent comments by former Vice President of Ghana, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, in his ongoing “Thank You Tour”.
The former vice president, who is currently in the Western Region to thank the New Patriotic Party members and supporters as well as the entire nation for their support and votes for him during last year’s elections, has been calling for unity within the party as they march forward into the 2028 elections.
Speaking to the party faithful, Dr Bawumia discounted the argument that his religious affiliation as a Muslim played a role in the New Patriotic Party‘s defeat in the 2024 general elections.
Addressing NPP faithful at the party’s headquarters on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, Dr Bawumia dispelled the religious claims as baseless, stating “some people said that they didn’t vote for us because our presidential candidate was Muslim. Have you not heard that? When I heard that, I said this doesn’t make sense. This is not the Ghana that I know”.
He continued; “Because if you look at it, we went for primaries; we were 10 contestants. I was 1 Muslim and 9 Christians but the NPP voted for the 1 Muslim for the presidential candidate.”
“So that could not be the case and I decided to do some data analysis to test this hypothesis and when you look at the data, it is very clear. In many constituencies across the country, the NPP presidential candidate performed better than the Christian parliamentary candidate. So, it couldn’t be the case. If they were voting on religion, I shouldn’t be performing better than many of the party’s Christian parliamentary candidates”, he further said but his comments have attracted a caustic response from particularly a government spokesperson under the erstwhile Akufo-Addo administration, Dr Palgrave Boakye-Danquah.
To Dr Palgrave Boakye-Danquah, the former vice president and NPP flagbearer is trying to shift blame from himself as, to him, Dr Bawumia contributed to the party’s defeat.
“Dr. Bawumia’s ‘justification tour’ is a calculated attempt to rewrite his legacy by scapegoating President Akufo-Addo and the NPP for failures he actively contributed to.
“His inconsistencies, championing policies in power but disowning them in defeat and his disloyalty to the President and the party that elevated him discredit his credibility as a leader,” he wrote.
Nana Akomea, in response, has clarified that Dr Bawumia’s remarks during his tour have nothing to do with what Dr Palgrave Boakye-Danquah is insinuating but rather they are borne out of the Mike Oquaye’s committee report which has been presented to the NPP National Executive Council (NEC).
In a statement to the critics of the former vice president, Nana Akomea noted that Dr Bawumia’s speeches are premised on the report, hence, wondered how any person could take a shot at the former NPP presidential candidate when he is not making his comments in a vacuum.
“Dr Bawumia, at his meeting in Takoradi Saturday 26 April, spoke to the Professor Mike Ocquaye’s committee’s report. He mentioned that the report, as presented to the NPP’s National Council, and elaborated on by the Npp’s General Secretary Justin Kodua, did not find the religious factor as a key reason for the Npp’s loss.
“There have been speculations that the loss was attributable to Dr Bawumia’s Moslem religion, not finding favour with Christian voters. The reasons given by party supporters for staying away from the 2024 polls, as reported by the Ocquaye committee, did not include the Moslem factor in any considerable degree,” he wrote.
He added; “Dr Bawumia, after acknowledging these difficulties as reported by the same party people to the Ocquaye committee, proceeds to apologise to party people for these given shortcomings. Indeed, the same theme of acknowledgement of the wrongs as reported to the Ocquaye commitee , and apology, was repeated by the Party’s General secretary Justin Kodua and Kennedy Adjepon in their address to the party supporters.”
Read full statement below:
NANA AKOMEA WRITES:
PALGRAVE BOAKYE DANQUAH, Dr BAWUMIA HAS NOT SHIFTED BLAME
I read with surprise Palgrave Boakye Danquah’s open letter, purporting to admonish Dr. Bawumia not to shift blame for the Npp’s loss in the 2024 elections. My surprise is borne by the fact that Dr. Bawumia did no such thing in his interactions with party folks in the ongoing Thank You tour.
Dr Bawumia, at his meeting in Takoradi Saturday 26 April, spoke to the Professor Mike Ocquaye’s committee’s report. He mentioned that the report, as presented to the NPP’s National Council, and elaborated on by the Npp’s General Secretary Justin Kodua, did not find the religious factor as a key reason for the Npp’s loss.
There have been speculations that the loss was attributable to Dr Bawumia’s Moslem religion, not finding favour with Christian voters. The reasons given by party supporters for staying away from the 2024 polls, as reported by the Ocquaye committee, did not include the Moslem factor in any considerable degree.
Indeed the reasons given by supporters for staying away included governance issues such as the the economic situation, perceived arrogance on the part of government appointees, the Electronic Levy, the high cost of living, the Domestic Devt Exchange Programme, Non reshuffle of appointees, the National cathedral, increment in fuel prices days to the elections, Inadequacies in thd Npp’s electoral processes etc, etc.
Dr Bawumia, after acknowledging these difficulties as reported by the same party people to the Ocquaye committee, proceeds to apologise to party people for these given shortcomings. Indeed, the same theme of acknowledgement of the wrongs as reported to the Ocquaye commitee, and apology, was repeated by the Party’s General secretary Justin Kodua and Kennedy Adjepon in their address to the party supporters.
Dr. Bawumia said these are what you party people have said about us. We acknowledge them and apologise for them. How does that amount to shifting blame? And to whom did he shift the blame?
Indeed, the acknowledgement and apology have been met with loud applause from the party people. Same as when Justin Kodua general secretary and Kennedy Adjepon made the same acknowledgement and apology.
Let’s continue to mend our ties with our party people with truth and sincerity.
NANA AKOMEA
on the tour bus
