Aspiring National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Stephen Asamoah Boateng, popularly known as ‘Asabeee’ has disclosed that his decision to contest for the flagbearership position in 2014 was to explore the possibility of becoming president.

Speaking in a yet-to-be aired interview on Personality Profile, on Thursday, the former Local Government Minister explained that although he was aware of his ‘seniors’ high possibility to win at that time, he contested for the flagbearership position to learn from them.

He noted that prior to his declaration to contest, he contacted President Akufo-Addo to inform him of his decision to compete for the flagbearership position.

According to him, his decision to contest for the party’s flagbearership position in 2014 was worthwhile.

“It was something that I tested the waters. I also was very much aware that my seniors were up before me and one of them was Nana Akufo-Addo. Indeed, before I entered the race, I went to him and we talked and I said you will hear my name on the airwaves associated with yours, but don’t worry, I know you will get the nod, but I am coming to learn from you, I am going to hold your back and when you get tired, you hand over to me.

“I was pretty sure I had lost but it was good to rub shoulders with them and also to learn and go round the country, I met wonderful people and met the family of Constituency Chairmen one on one and my message sunk,” he said.

He stated that “most of the things I said have been implemented by Nana Akufo-Addo. One of them was Chairmen would become MCE’s because they know the grounds and they can handle it properly and he has implemented it.”

When asked about why he is not contesting for the party’s flagbearership position, especially when President Akufo-Addo is serving his eighth term and cannot contest again, Asabeee explained that his focus is rather on becoming the party’s national chairman to re-organise the structure of the party to enable it to be formidable.

He believes that currently, all is not rosy with the New Patriotic Party, stressing that the members of the party are not happy with the leadership.

“Right now, the situation we are in, its not flagbearer matter for me. It is the party’s structure. There is an organization that we have to put together to be able to stand as a team and work together and as I sit here now, I can tell you that all is not rosy, our people are not happy with us.

“They believe that we have not reached them the way they wanted it, we tried to explain that yes, we have done fantastic work but we had Covid which really knocked us off a bit and so the speed in which we were going has slowed down but of course, when people are angry, they do not care whether Covid or not,” he noted.