Fellow members of the New Patriotic Party,
“I speak to you today not as a bystander to our recent contest, but as one who stood in it. Like
Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, I offered myself to our delegates in the January primary, and like him,
I did not emerge the winner. I therefore understand, perhaps better than most, the weight of
disappointment that follows a hard-fought campaign and the depth of emotion invested by
candidates and supporters alike. It is precisely from that place of shared experience that I make this appeal.
Our party suffered a painful defeat in 2024. The single most important task before us between
now and 2028 is to rebuild, to reunite, and to return to power. Nothing! no grievance, no
provocation, no personal quarrel can be allowed to stand above that mission.
Every day we spend fighting one another is a day we hand freely to our opponents.
I have followed with concern the recent remarks by Hon. Kennedy Agyapong and his threat of
action against the party and against certain individuals. Ken is a son of this party.
A man whose energy, resources and loyalty over decades cannot be questioned, and whose voice carries weight across our grassroots. It is for that very reason that I urge him, respectfully but firmly, to
lower the temperature and to lend his considerable influence to the work of healing rather than
division.
Let me be candid about the source of his hurt, because it is real. During and after the contest, a
few voices around the flagbearer and even my own campaign directed disrespect and sometimes insults at Hon. Agyapong that were unworthy of our tradition. Many of us wished those individuals had been restrained and wished our elders had moved more swiftly to call them to order. That wish was legitimate.
But we must also be fair and truthful. There is no evidence that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
commissioned, directed or endorsed those attacks. The individuals responsible carry their own
DR. BRYAN ACHEAMPONG
long-standing grievances with Hon. Agyapong, quarrels that are personal to them and that they
have pursued on their own account. It would be a grave error to allow the misconduct of a few
to be charged to the account of our flagbearer, or worse, to our entire party.
And let us be honest with ourselves on all sides. In the heat of a contest, none of us speaks with
perfect restraint, and harsh words passed in more than one direction — Hon. Agyapong’s own
among them. I say this not to apportion blame, for I believe such words were spoken in the
passion of the moment rather than from the heart. My hope is simply that all of us, those who
wounded Ken, and Ken himself might find the grace to make peace, without anyone waiting for
the other to move first. That is what true reconciliation asks of us.
Because here is the truth that must anchor us: this is about Dr. Bawumia and the NPP and not
about the handful of individuals with their own scores to settle. Dr. Bawumia is now the
candidate of all of us. He carries the mandate not only of those who voted for him, but of every
member who voted for Ken, for me, and for the others who contested.
To rally around him is not to take a side in anyone’s personal feud; it is to defend the party that is bigger than all of us.
So, I appeal to Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, to his supporters, and to mine: let us lay down the
weapons of internal warfare. Action the verb UNITY. And let us close ranks behind our flagbearer
so that in 2028 we restore the New Patriotic Party to the service of the people of Ghana.
Unity is not weakness. Unity is how we win.
Dr. Bryan Acheampong, MP.
Former Minister of Food and Agriculture, and Former Presidential Aspirant.