Report by Nana POKU with additional files from the Editorial Team
The immediate past flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia seems to be heaping the blame on the party’s woeful losses at the polls in December last year largely on the head of his former boss, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Bawumia seems to have broken the line set by the party’s executive for leadership to stop assigning blame for the humiliating and unprecedent electoral loss in December, 2024. He has cracked the party’s dam to let out some water from it to make the ground ‘slippery’.
In the party’s ‘thank you’ tour in the Western Region, which some people are now dubbing the ‘Blame Tour’, the former Vice President let out some incidents that he believed worked against the party in the 2024 general elections culminating in their humiliating defeat
According to him, many situations militated against the party, and his chances in the run up to the contest need to be addressed.
He indicated that some of these challenges were arrogance of power, high cost of living, DDEP policy, and the haircut policy the government introduced.
Worse still, the E-Levy and the Cathedral issue were also part of the issues.
He argued that the most debilitating indicator was high cost of living that kept on soaring on a daily basis.
Dr Bawumia said the government became stubborn and impervious to simple advice.
“The party and Ghanaians pleaded with the government to do a reshuffle, but for eight long years, we refused to listen.
“Ghanaians kicked against the E-Levy tax and demanded its abolition, but the government would not listen to anyone. We had 16 million Ghanaians on the E-Levy, so you can imagine the sheer numbers,” he stated.
The former vice president told the party faithfuls in the Western Region that the haircut affected about 800,000 pensioners and their families by extension of about 2.4 million families.
According to him, the party lost the elections by 2.2 million votes as a result of apathy and anger in party members.
“I was surprised to hear petroleum price upsurge three days to elections.
“At first, l felt it was not true, and I was worried that just three days to elections, petroleum prices have been increased
“So, I asked myself whether we wanted to lose or win the elections
“Come to think of the abortive Cathedral project that the government spent a whopping 58 million dollars but nothing to show.
“These and many mistakes culminated in our shocking defeat,” he stated.
Dr Bawumia advised party contestants to mind their language during the internal elections because the NDC used the audio and videos of the NPP against the party three weeks to elections.
