Former Energy Minister and New Patriotic Party (NPP) National Chairman hopeful, Boakye Agyarko, has denied suggestions that a proverb he used some time ago was directed at the flagbearerof the party, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
Mr Agyarko said the proverb was rather in response to a question about the growing influence of money in the NPP’s internal elections and was intended as a warning against the party repeatedly embracing practices that had produced undesirable outcomes.
He explained that his statement was not directed at any individual, but was a broader caution to the party against turning its internal electoral processes into contests determined primarily by financial resources.
The proverb, delivered in Twi stated “Wansena pobre, wadi funu akyi akɔtɔ amena mu. Yɛdee funu foforo retwam a, watu adiakyi bio.”
Mr Agyarko explained the proverb as referring to a blue bottle fly that follows a corpse into a grave, survives the consequences and then repeats the same behaviour when another corpse comes along.
According to him, the underlying lesson was that experience should teach individuals and institutions to avoid repeating practices that had already proved harmful or futile.
“The message was never against Dr. Bawumia. It was against turning the NPP into an auction,” he said in a statement seeking to clarify the meaning of his remarks.
Mr Agyarko argued that the increasing cost of political competition provided evidence of the problem he was addressing.
He cited a 2018 study by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), which found that the cost of contesting parliamentary elections increased by 59 per cent between 2012 and 2016, with candidates spending an average of GH¢389,803.
He further referenced CDD-Ghana’s 2020 follow-up, which placed the average cost closer to GH¢4 million when the expenditure involved in nurturing and maintaining a constituency over time was taken into account.
Mr Agyarko also cited research by political economist, Dr Ouborr Kutando on the 2024 NPP parliamentary primaries.
According to him, Dr Kutando monitored 50 constituencies where sitting Members of Parliament were seeking to retain their positions and found that 45 candidates, who spent as much as, or more than the eventual winners nevertheless lost their contests.
The constituencies, he said, had electoral colleges averaging about 600 delegates. Mr Agyarko, therefore, argued that financial resources could facilitate a candidate’s entry into an election, but could not necessarily secure the confidence and loyalty of delegates.
“Money buys entry into the race. It does not buy trust, loyalty or votes and it cannot replace year-round welfare and properly resourced party structures,” he said.
He maintained that nothing in the proverb specifically mentioned, referred to or targeted Dr Bawumia.
Rather, he said, the statement was directed at what he described as a destructive political practice within the party.
Mr Agyarko consequently accused those interpreting the proverb as a personal attack on Dr Bawumia of deliberately distorting both the question he was asked and the answer he provided.
He said the focus of his intervention was the need for the NPP to learn from its experiences and reconsider the increasing role of money in its internal democratic processes.
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