Prof. Ransford Gyampo of the University of Ghana has discarded “the NPP cliché of asking people to bide their time” saying “it no longer works”, following the outcome of the NPP presidential primary in perspective.
According to him, “you need to strike when the iron is hot.”
He says the Vice President who emerged winner in the party’s presidential primary “never pandered to the idea of biding your time.”
He says there are people in the NPP who would have come before Dr. Bawumia, if it was about people biding their time.
He roped in Kennedy Ohene Agyapong in the assertion he has disbanded, saying he also didn’t bid his time.
Speaking with Alfred Ocansey on TV3 Saturday, November 4, 2023, during the coverage of the NPP presidential primary, the University of Ghana Professor of Political Science said things may turn the wrong way if people decide to wait till their time before climbing the political ladder.
Meanwhile, he lauded Ken Agyapong’s performance saying that has given Dr. Bawumia’s victory some “taste of defeat.”
He says prior to the election, the Vice President was tipped to get percentages higher than what he got.
However, due to the yeoman’s performance put up by his contender, the Assin Central MP, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, the Vice President couldn’t realise those percentages.
He, has, therefore, equally described Ken Agyapong’s performance as “a defeat with a taste of victory.”
He says the performance of the Assin Central lawmaker, even though he lost, deserves to be applauded.
He said that a lot of people “touted and predicted 80 per cent-plus of the votes that was supposed to be garnered by Dr. Bawumia is going to be anything of the reality.”
To him, “nobody right from the beginning gave Ken Agyapong that dog’s chance” and how far he has been able to perform at the election, “then it’s a certain defeat for the Vice President even though he has won.”
He explains further that Ken Agyapong’s ability to “beat the establishment candidate in several areas and the kind of show he has been able to put up” despite joining the contest late is commendable.
According to him, the lawmaker’s idea of contesting in the poll was an afterthought and not something he thought through from the beginning, which would have made him a serious force to reckon with.
Prof. Gyampo asserted further that the Assin Central MP would have done better if he had entered the race earlier, applauding his performance that “he did not embarrass himself.”
The race for the NPP flag bearer slot started with 10 candidates who were trimmed to 5 according to the party’s constitution which allows them to reduce the number to five before the main primary takes place if more than five persons are contesting.
After a super delegates’ conference on August 26, five candidates qualified for the race with two of them having a tie at the fifth position.
Boakye Kyeremateng Agyarko pulled out of the tie break contest for his discontentment with the modalities which the party leadership adopted, leaving Francis Addai-Nimoh to join the top four.
However, the candidate who placed third, Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, pulled out of the contest over what he described as lack of level playing field for the actors and subsequently resigned from the NPP.
He is now campaigning under a butterfly movement he formed after his resignation to contest as an independent candidate.
