A founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Boakye Kyerematen Agyarko, has pledged to rebuild the party through internal democracy, financial transparency and reconciliation, and also work hard to ensure the election of Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as the next president of Ghana.
Speaking at the NPP’s national headquarters in Accra on Wednesday, August 26, 2026 after filing his nomination to contest the party’s National Chairmanship, Mr Agyarko said the party needed a “builder for its restoration” after significant electoral setbacks.
He said more than 50 constituency chairpersons had picked up his nomination forms, paid for them from their own resources and presented them to him, describing their action as an instruction for him to serve.
Mr Agyarko acknowledged the scale of the NPP’s decline, noting that its parliamentary representation fell from 169 seats in 2016 to 137 in 2020 and 88 in 2024.
He also said the party recorded more than 1.8 million fewer presidential votes in 2024 than it had four years earlier.
According to him, the figures represented more than electoral statistics, arguing that traders, teachers, farmers, drivers and young graduates who had supported the NPP had become disconnected from the party.
“They did not walk away because they stopped loving Ghana; they walked away because they no longer felt this party belonged to them,” he said.
Mr Agyarko, who said he had travelled across all 16 regions under Operation One Touch for NPP flagbearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, said his experience had exposed him to the condition of the party’s grassroots structures.
Drawing on the biblical account of Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls, he said the NPP’s task required more than speeches. “That is the work in front of us. Not a speech. A rebuilding,” he said.
Mr Agyarko cited 22 years at the Bank of New York, where he rose to Vice President and worked with complex institutions and international investments, as part of his qualification for the chairmanship.
He said he was not seeking the position as a step towards another political office, but as a specific assignment to rebuild the party.
“I am asking you to hire me for a job,” he said, adding that he had “no higher office in view” and could, therefore, serve as a fair chairman.
A major part of his platform is what he called a “clean album” ahead of future internal elections.
Mr Agyarko said the Supreme Court’s July ruling on the delegate system and the one-year period given to political parties to move towards one member, one vote meant the NPP needed to urgently establish a credible membership register.
He pledged to ensure members were properly registered, carded, recorded and verifiable constituency by constituency.
He also promised to restore party dues and complete the process within the period allowed by the court.
“The register is no longer a filing cabinet. The register is now the ballot,” he said.
His other pledges include presenting audited party accounts to the National Council annually, ensuring resources reach grassroots structures and pursuing reconciliation as a formal programme.
He said he would personally seek out former members who had left the party wounded, stressing that restoring one party member was more important than winning an argument.
Mr Agyarko also addressed the situation involving former Ashanti Regional Chairman Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, while stressing that he would not comment on matters before the courts.
He said Mr Boasiako remained part of the NPP family and was entitled to the protection of the law, including his right to appeal.
Mr Agyarko called for unity among the party’s various groups, saying the NPP must remain broad enough to accommodate members across generations, regions and religious backgrounds.
He pledged not to campaign by attacking rivals and promised to publicly disown any attacks made in his name.
Turning to the 2028 elections, Mr Agyarko pledged his “total loyalty” to Dr Bawumia, saying the National Chairman should act as a referee rather than a player in internal contests.
He said his objective under “Operation One Touch” was to help Dr Bawumia win the presidency while restoring the NPP’s parliamentary majority.“A President without a Majority is a driver without a road,” he said.
Mr Agyarko urged delegates to scrutinise his record and ask difficult questions before the October 3 national election.
He said the rebuilding of the NPP should ultimately serve Ghanaians. He said this was the ultimate test of whether the party had learned anything.
“Our rebuilding is not for our own comfort. It is so that we may be worthy of governing them again,” he said.
He concluded by urging members to bring back those who had become disappointed with the NPP, arguing that every returning member would matter under the proposed one-member, one-vote system
