Richard Ahiagbah, the Communication Director of the New Patriotic Party, made this statement on May 3, 2025 on Asempa FM. “Our demonstration is going to shake Ghana. If not, we won’t back down until Ghanaians realize that they made a mistake with their votes in the 2024 elections.” I find this statement to be an insult to Ghanaians. Anyway, this is not the first time Ghanaians have heard such statements being made by members of both the NPP and NDC, whenever their party goes into opposition.
Ghanaians in general look at conditions in the country and their state, before going to cast their votes. Yes, indeed there are some people who would vote for their party no matter how low it might be performing. Those are the people who would say, “put up a goat in our party colours on the ballot paper and weshall surely vote for it.” But generally, Ghanaians would look at certain fundamentals and decide who to cast their votes for or whether to vote at all.
Now, whenever a new government is in charge, and it slips, one is sure to hear the losing party’s members mocking Ghanaians for allowing themselves to be deceived into voting the other way.
Such, a statement means that Ghanaians cannot think for themselves and will always get lured into making wrong choices. Unfortunately, this is an insult.
I do not expect Richard Ahiagbah or any NPP member to make such statements, for Ghanaians had reasons, very good reasons for removing NPP. It did not mean NDC was a better alternative, it only meant NPP could no longer be trusted. Yes, and it clearly showed with almost a third of NPP support base refusing to go out to vote which denied the party a one-touch victory.
A dye-in-the-wool NPP family, spoke angrily to me before the elections and told me they were never going to waste their time voting. The NDC could not be trusted and neither could their own party, the NPP. They came out with a litany of faults committed by their beloved NPP which were all public knowledge.
Such people did not make any mistake, for they would have, if they voted NPP back to power and it performed worse than it did.
NPP was deliberately denied the nod, so that hopefully when in opposition, it will correct all mistakes and come back a new transformed party.
Richard is a member of the leadership of the NPP and does he think that what went on, from the election of polling station members through to handling of the presidential primaries, did not display that there were deep problems in the NPP?
At that high office he occupies, Richard should have had feedbacks from Ghanaians, through the communicators about how they feel about the NPP government.
H.E. Nana Addo, campaigned on embarking on full economic recovery, promising Ghanaians that Dr. Bawumia an economic whiz kid was going to take full control of that project. What happened? It came through the grapevine that H.E. Bawumia’s very good recommendations at the Economic Management Team meetings were cast away, as it they were immaterial. Bawumia, we were told, strongly objected to taxing money transfers, but E-Levy made headlines in the next budget presentation. This killed off the average Ghanaian’s enthusiasm to vote the NPP.
Maybe Richard was on a higher level to hear the cries of the downtrodden. But, I guess, he surely saw what his deputy, Ernest Owusu Bempah saw in IGP Dr. Dampare and advised President Akufo-Addo to get rid of such a fine police chief, but the president would not listen to good advice. Richard also, saw what his deputy saw in Dr. Bawumia that he was the wrong choice.
I stated the above because Ernest Owusu Bempah first came to praise President Mahama for doing what Nana Addo should have done years ago, by sacking Dampare and he later came out to say that they knew all along that Bawumia was a wrong choice. And that ‘they,’ may surely include Richard Ahiagbah.
This means that the party executive officers, especially those in the national and regional offices, knew that NPP was losing but feared to notify Nana Addo and force him to do the right things.
If this was the case, then how should Richard Ahiagbah say Ghanaians made a mistake in voting out the NPP?
The management of the party made it unattractive even to most NPP members and supporters. Look at how everything was cooked up for a Bawumia victory at the primaries. Seriously manipulating party executive officers’ elections at the polling stations, which for the first time recorded clashes between party members at the grassroots, is one example. What about punishment meted out to party officers who openly endorsed aspirants apart from Dr. Bawumia?
What about the strong allegations that at least 80% of constituencies in Greater Accra region, had their albums at the Party Head Office, highly compromised, which meant that those suspected not to be for Bawumia were replaced.
Richard Ahiagbah should be aware of the nauseating pride and arrogance put up by some party officers and government appointees, that put off Ghanaians. While on a television talk-show, an MP, Hon. Sylvester Tetteh could insult Dr. Frimpong Boateng after his confidential report on galamsey got leaked out. And the national officers could not caution Hon. Tetteh and ask him to go and apologise?
Richard was surely aware of how Nana B, the NPP National Organiser, could disrespect Alan Kyerematen in public by snatching a mic from his hand, when he was about to speak at a rally.
All these were seen by Ghanaians and they just kept their decisions on how to vote for, in their minds. The party was becoming so unattractive especially during the Super Delegates Congress, when an agent for Alan Kyerematen was almost lynched and the wrong things that were being done to make Kennedy Agyapong launch a warning to Bawumia, with his now famous “Show down” threat.
And at the time Richard Ahiagbah was making those statements, an alleged supporter of the NPP was stabbed by another NPP member during the Thank You Tour at Bantama. Richard never made mention of the incident, if he did then it was not captured in the video.
Seriously, even in opposition, instead of uniting and rebranding the party to become attractive again to Ghanaians, this was what the NPP is showcasing? And Richard Ahiagbah is saying that Ghanaians made a mistake in voting the party out of power?
Now what happened in Bantama with the firing of gun-shots and stabbing of an innocent NPP member, is only a rehearsal of things to come and unless the party addresses these issues and come out to punish wrong doers, to rebrand the party, then borrowing Richard’s words, Ghanaians will keep making mistakes.
Because seriously, it will become very mandatory for aspirants to armed their supporters to the teeth when campaigning for internal elections. This will breed violence and people will distance themselves from the party.
The party seems not bothered to find out where those thugs were from and this is painting the party with bad colours.
Unity within the party has broken down. For example, today, in Accra, an NPP MCE of the pervious regime, has issued a quit notice to a tenant, a physical challenged NPP man, giving him about three months to vacate the room. With barely two months to go, the former MCE packs tonnes of things in front of this physically challenged man’s door, making it difficult for him to access his room.
How will this poor man vote on election day? Would he vote for his NPP so that this wicked former MCE would be made a government appointee?
Nothing stops the NPP from embarking on demonstrations against the current NDC government. By all means it can go on demonstrations, but no one should insult Ghanaians that they made a mistake in voting out the NPP. Richard as a national officer, should respect the views of the people.
When the 2012 Presidential Petition in the Supreme Court was badly ruled in favour of the then NDC flag bearer, John Mahama, nowhere did Nana Addo cry out that the justices of the Supreme Court made a mistake. Rather, he first congratulated John Mahama on being elected the fourth president of the Fourth Republic and stated that even though he disagreed with the ruling, he still accepted it.
Richard Ahiagbah must take a cue from what Nana Addo said after that ruling and learn to respect Ghanaians by never saying they did not think it through before electing the NDC into power. He should be mindful of the fact that about a third of NPP’s support base decided not to vote on December 7, 2024 because they knew the party was not ready to form government in 2025. Something Richard Ahiagbah also knew.
Hon. Daniel Dugan
