Dominic Aduna Bingab Nitiwul, the former Minister of Defence, says the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is not ready to market a new candidate for the 2028 general elections, indicating the party has made its mind on whom to present as its candidate.
He says since Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has already been marketed in the 2024 elections, the party will not take the gamble of presenting a fresh candidate to bear the cost of fielding a new candidate for a general election.
“We have no time to market a new candidate,” he said on JoyNews on Tuesday, January 13, 2026.
Based on experience and precedent, Mr. Nitiwul said the best candidate for the party to put forward for the next national polls will be the former Vice President.
According to him, Dr Bawumia’s public image and record have already been tested and scrutinised by both supporters and opponents.
“He has shown that he’s very competent, not corrupt, and there’s nothing to find about Bawumia anymore. I can tell you, in this election, Bawumia is going to win. All I can say is that [he] has been marketed enough. We don’t have time to market a new candidate,” he said.
“I can tell you for a fact that in this election [NPP presidential primary], Bawumia is going to win…just like Akufo-Addo won for a second time in 2010 and then for a third time in 2014, Bawumia is going to win.”
According to the Bimbilla Member of Parliament, his comments does not suggest the other contenders aren’t capable of leading the party. “That is not to take away anything from another candidate, whether it’s Ken, Bryan, Adutwum or Kwabena Agyepong, it’s not to take anything away from that candidate,” he said.
He argued that there are no issues for their opponents to present against him, since he has gone through that mill already.
“Whatever the NDC wants to say, they have said it already and the assessment Ghanaians have done it already.”
Mr Nitiwul said changing course now would come at a high logistical and political cost. “We don’t have the time to change all the billboards and change every other thing.”
Also, the former Vice President’s vision, he noted, has been widely accepted by a lot of the citizenry, making a change in the party’s candidature come at a cost to their prospects in the next general elections.
Bawumia, he said, “is the one who has given us a clear vision as to what he wants. And the people of Ghana have bought into it.”
He also pointed to Ghana’s electoral history as a decisive factor. “And the rule of thumb is always that Ghanaians have never voted for a first timer,” saying the precedent gives Bawumia a chance ahead of his potential contenders.
“Bawumia is going to be the candidate who is the second timer; all other candidates on the ballot in 2028, especially the major candidates, including the NDC, will be the second timer.
“We cannot risk having our own candidate be a first timer. We can’t as an NPP, when you can get somebody who is the second time, and the person will win you the elections, we cannot risk it,” Nitiwul added.
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