Former Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Adomako Baafi, has blamed the appointment of Eugene Arhin, former Communications Director at the Jubilee House, as a major reason behind the party’s weakening relationship with the media ahead of the 2024 general elections.
According to Adomako Baafi, the party’s downfall can also be attributed to Eugene Arhin, whom he claims mismanaged communication during the presidency of former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s administration.
Speaking in an interview on Movement TV, he cautioned the party to learn from its mistakes and take corrective measures in future endeavours.
“One of the biggest problems the NPP faced was the appointment of Eugene Arhin as the spokesperson for the government at the Jubilee House. I am telling you.
“Nana could travel, and nobody would have any idea. The party lost touch with the media because of him. For certain reasons, I don’t like Felix Kwakye, but he is better than Eugene Arhin.
“And after our loss, I haven’t heard of him coming to defend us again. We had capable people who could have done the job, but just look at what happened,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to the flagbearer of the NPP in the 2024 general elections, the party’s defeat can be traced to low turnout and other factors, including key media houses not aligning with the party.
He asserted that over 2.1 million supporters of the party refused to vote.
Speaking to party communicators during a courtesy call on him on December 18, 2024, he assured them that the challenge has been identified and the leadership aims to address the issue in the forthcoming elections.
“It was a big disappointment; there was no doubt about it when the results came because all the work we had done pointed to the fact that we were winning this election. I mean, there was clear evidence on the ground as to all the 270 constituencies.
“It was clear that we were going to do well, but on the day of the election, something was amiss. The turnout was so low. Everybody was wondering what was happening, why, and where are our people. And that was from Axim all the way to Zebilla, and everybody was wondering, where are our people? What was going on?” he questioned.
Bawumia, who doubles as the Vice President of the country, continued, “It turned out that everybody decided to stay, that they wouldn’t vote. And it was almost as if they had a meeting and decided on the message. The same message, no matter which constituency you went to, they would tell you they are not voting.
“So, at least you know where the problem is. And to solve the problem, you have to know what it is, so our people didn’t vote. That was the problem.”
He added, “The question now is why they didn’t vote, and that is a research question we are going to answer now. I must say we worked very hard, and I am very proud of the communication team. We were working against their ownership of, or support from, key media houses. Isn’t it so? Put that as a disadvantage in many ways in terms of communication. We had a lot of these key media houses who were not on our side.”
The Electoral Commission Chairperson, Jean Mensa, on Monday, December 9, declared John Mahama the winner in the 2024 presidential elections with a total of 6,328,397 votes.
Dr. Bawumia received 4,657,304 votes.
Mahama’s party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), achieved historic success by gaining a huge majority in Parliament.
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