New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwart and former Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Ken Ohene Agyapong, has launched a scathing critique of the party’s decision to forge ahead with the election of a new presidential candidate without first resolving what he termed the “deep-rooted internal problems” that led to the party’s electoral defeat.
Speaking forcefully at the 2025 NPP Constituency Chairmen Caucus Conference in Kumasi, Agyapong warned that unless the NPP takes a hard look at itself and prioritises internal reform, its prospects in the 2028 general elections would remain bleak—regardless of who leads the ticket.
“If we don’t solve those problems, you can bring Jesus Christ as your presidential candidate — we will still not make it,” he declared. “Because all of us here that are going to campaign, what message are we going to give? We don’t know the causes of our defeat.”
“Monsters” in the party blamed for 2024 loss
Agyapong attributed the NPP’s poor performance in the last elections to internal dysfunction and unchecked influence by certain powerful individuals whom he described as “monsters.”
“There is nothing wrong with the system that we have — from the bottom: polling station, electoral area, constituency, regional, national and presidential,” he stressed.
“Why we find something wrong with it is because we created more monsters in the party and allowed them to take decisions anyhow. That affected us.”
According to him, these power dynamics weakened the party’s grassroots mobilisation, disillusioned supporters, and ultimately cost the NPP at the polls.
Caution against rush to elect flagbearer
With the NPP’s National Council setting January 31, 2026, as the date to elect a flagbearer, Agyapong expressed deep dissatisfaction with what he described as a premature and ill-advised move.
He argued that the party has not taken sufficient time to reflect on or investigate the real reasons behind its electoral decline.
“We’ve not answered what caused our loss. Then why do you jump to go and conduct elections to elect a presidential candidate?” he asked.
He pointed specifically to the work of the Mike Oquaye-led fact-finding committee, whose findings, he said, had failed to offer any clarity to party members about the true causes of their defeat.
“We formed Mike Oquaye’s committee to do fact-finding, but as we sit here, those who matter in the party and need to know the causes of our defeat do not. All that we know is that Mike Oquaye came to brief us and said ‘expansion’; so is it because of expansion that we lost miserably?” he questioned.
$7m pledge for bottom-up elections
Reaffirming his commitment to the party’s founding democratic processes, Agyapong pledged a massive $7 million personal contribution to fund the next internal elections—if and only if the NPP sticks to its traditional bottom-up structure.
“For the sake of the party, let’s do the right thing,” he urged. “If they do the right thing, I can raise the money and organise this. At least if nothing at all, the polling station election should be done.”
He stressed that the NPP’s credibility depends on preserving its unique election process that empowers grassroots delegates — from polling stations through to the national level.
“The bottom-up structure is the best. It’s how the party has grown, and it’s how we must move forward if we want to win the trust of the people again.”
Flagbearer aspirations amid internal jostling
Though Kennedy Agyapong himself is widely rumoured to be eyeing the party’s flagbearership, he made no direct reference to his own intentions in his speech.
However, his remarks clearly signalled his desire for a reformed, introspective NPP—one that re-centres its values and listens to its base before choosing its next leader.
His comments come as several prominent figures within the NPP position themselves for the 2026 contest to lead the party in reclaiming power from the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2028.
“We need unity, we need answers, and we need truth,” Agyapong concluded. “Anything less, and we’ll just be repeating history.”
