Bawumia Acknowledges Sentiments Of Supporters On Why NPP Lost 2024 Elections
Former Vice President and NPP Presidential Candidate for the 2024 Elections, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has expressed agreement with supporters of the NPP, over reasons why the NPP lost the 2024 elections.
Addressing party faithful during ongoing Thank You Tour, which commenced on Saturday, Dr. Bawumia echoed a number of factors, which he said, accounted for the NPP’s defeat in both the Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
Many of the reasons, Dr. Bawumia observed, centred on actions and inactions of government which angered the people, including the NPP’s own supporters across the country.
“Many people have ascribed reasons why we lost, and some, including our General Secretary, even believes it was spiritual,” Dr. Bawumia said.
“But if you look at it carefully, the reasons are many and some were because of our own decisions and inaction. Cost of living went up and there was also the issue of arrogance of power.”
Continuing, Dr. Bawumia went into details, highlighting specific issues, including e-levy and the debt exchange project, factors the party supporters totally agreed with and applauded.
“We faced the issue of high cost of living, arrogance of power and refusing to listen. The party asked us to do reshuffle but we did not listen for eight years. The party and Ghanaians told us they didn’t want e-levy but we didn’t listen.”
“Mobile money account users are about 16m so if you bring something they don’t like, you’re incurring the wrath of all these people,” Dr. Bawumia said.
“The party told us we should not touch pensioners in the debt restructuring. We had a meeting and decided against it and the President announced to Ghanaians that there would be no haircut and everyone was happy, but in the end, there was a haircut and these bond holders, numbering about 800,000 were affected. These are the middle class and each of them has dependents.”
Dr. Bawumia also lamented the lack of support for some youth-centred programmes, NABCO and youth in afforestation.
“We also refused to pay NABCO workers who number about 100,000, and virtually cancelled the programme. We also did not pay the youth in afforestation who were about 75,000.”
Dr. Bawumia also highlighted the poor handling of priority projects in some regions, as well as the controversial national cathedral project.
“The national cathedral was also a very big issue for us because after so much money was pumped in, there was no progress.”
Moving forward, Dr. Bawumia urged all party members to stay together and work very hard to correct challenges of the party, as captured by the Prof. Mike Oquaye Committee.
Credit: myjoyonline.com
