Fellow members of the New Patriotic Party,

I speak to you today not as a bystander to our recent contest, but as one who stood in it. Like Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, I offered myself to our delegates in the January primary, and like him, I did not emerge the winner. I therefore understand, perhaps better than most, the weight of disappointment that follows a hard-fought campaign and the depth of emotion invested by candidates and supporters alike.

It is precisely from that place of shared experience that I make this appeal.

Our party suffered a painful defeat in 2024. The single most important task before us between now and 2028 is to rebuild, to reunite, and to return to power. Nothing! no grievance, no provocation, no personal quarrel can be allowed to stand above that mission. Every day we spend fighting one another is a day we hand freely to our opponents.

I have followed with concern the recent remarks by Hon. Kennedy Agyapong and his threat of action against the party and against certain individuals. Ken is a son of this party. A man whose energy, resources and loyalty over decades cannot be questioned, and whose voice carries weight across our grassroots. It is for that very reason that I urge him, respectfully but firmly, to lower the temperature and to lend his considerable influence to the work of healing rather than division.

Let me be candid about the source of his hurt, because it is real. During and after the contest, a few voices around the flagbearers and even my own campaign directed disrespect and sometimes insults at Hon. Agyapong that were unworthy of our tradition. Many of us wished those individuals had been restrained and wished our elders had moved more swiftly to call them to order. That wish was legitimate.

But we must also be fair and truthful. There is no evidence that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia commissioned, directed or endorsed those attacks. The individuals responsible carry their own long-standing grievances with Hon. Agyapong, quarrels that are personal to them and that they have pursued on their own account. It would be a grave error to allow the misconduct of a few to be charged to the account of our flagbearer, or worse, to our entire party.

And let us be honest with ourselves on all sides. In the heat of a contest, none of us speaks with perfect restraint, and harsh words passed in more than one direction — Hon. Agyapong’s own among them. I say this not to apportion blame, for I believe such words were spoken in the passion of the moment rather than from the heart. My hope is simply that all of us, those who wounded Ken, and Ken himself might find the grace to make peace, without anyone waiting for the other to move first. That is what true reconciliation asks of us.

Because here is the truth that must anchor us: this is about Dr. Bawumia and the NPP and not about the handful of individuals with their own scores to settle. Dr. Bawumia is now the candidate of all of us. He carries the mandate not only of those who voted for him, but of every member who voted for Ken, for me, and for the others who contested. To rally around him is not to take a side in anyone’s personal feud; it is to defend the party that is bigger than all of us.

So, I appeal to Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, to his supporters, and to mine: let us lay down the weapons of internal warfare. Action the verb UNITY. And let us close ranks behind our flagbearer so that in 2028 we restore the New Patriotic Party to the service of the people of Ghana.

Unity is not weakness. Unity is how we win.

Dr. Bryan Acheampong, MP.
Former Minister of Food and Agriculture. Aspirant-NPP 2026 Primaries.