Several bigwigs of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) have declared their support for the party’s General Secretary, John Boadu, who is seeking another term in office.

What was meant to be a media campaign launch on Tuesday, 31 May 2022, turned out to be long speeches by NPP stalwarts endorsing Mr. Boadu.

Prominent personalities at the programme were; the former Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, former CEO of the Bui Power Authority, Fred Oware, who is also spearheading Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia’s flagbearership campaign, and the National Chairman of the NPP, Freddie Blay.

Professor Oquaye, who offered overwhelming support, recounted how Mr. Boadu rescued the party when they were in “crisis” ahead of the 2016 elections due to the suspension of the then national chairman and the general secretary.

After the first vice-chairman was appointed to act, it was a tough decision to find a general secretary due to the imminent elections, “but John Boadu was up to the task”, he stressed.

According to him, Mr. Boadu assured him that they shall prevail.

“He said, ‘Chief, we shall do it’. I call him my main man from that day until today.”

“The man has been tried, tested and proven,” he continued. “He worked hard and showed cooperation. He was energetic, obedient, and did his best for the party’s success”.

The former legislator said most of the old guards who were executives would not be part of the new team, and “if we don’t have this tried and proven general secretary with us, then we want to experiment with our fortunes, and we are not going to do that.”

“I am convinced. In the time of emergency, this man stood very tall. We are facing another challenge of breaking the eight. I trust we will do it, with John Boadu as our General Secretary.”

For his part, Mr Blay was of the view that Mr Boadu “has been the party’s nerve centre. Everything revolves around him, and he made the work easier for some of us, including me as Chairman”.

Mr Blay is convinced the General Secretary has the party at heart, and “even in his (Mr Boadu’s) grave, he will be talking about the party.”

He pointed out that: “2024 will be more critical than 2016, and just as others have said, we need somebody that even in his sleep you can wake him up and talk about what is happening in the party”.

Mr Oware had few words but had resolved that the party need not replace Mr Boadu.

“We require people who know the party, people who have worked with the party structures, constitution and understand the processes…If we don’t do that and we go for people who are new, they will work with the party alright but will take a much longer time, and we will not have enough time to campaign for 2024,” he cautioned.

“If we understand that what we need to do is win an election, then for 2024, we need people who have experience, and on that, I stand with you to agree that the person who has done it twice is more than qualified to that for the third time”.

The endorsements continued with the newly retained NPP Chairman for the Ashanti Region, Mr Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Chairman Wuntumi); former Minister for Railways and NPP flagbearer-aspirant, Joe Ghartey; former MP for Ledzokuku and newly appointed CEO of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Bernard Okoe Boye and the Director of Operations at the Office of the President, Lord Commey; taking turns to pour out speeches in favour of Mr Boadu.

Other stalwarts who were at the launch include Media Advisor to the President, Oboshie Sai-Coffie; recently-retained Greater Accra Regional Chairman, Divine Otoo Agorhom; the Northern Regional Chairman, Mohammed Samba; and National Women’s Organiser, Kate Gyamfuah.

The rest were CEO of State Transport Company Limited, Nana Akomea; MP for Amasaman Constituency, Afrifa Mensah; MP for Old Tafo, Vincent Essifuah; CEO of GNPC Foundation, Dominic Aduah; MP for Yendi, Farouk Aliu Mahama; and Deputy Majority Chief Whip, Habib Iddrissu; among others.