Aspiring New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Dr Bryan Acheampong, says the NPP must abandon sentiment and tradition and instead judge its future presidential candidate strictly on performance.

Speaking on PM Express, he said the party’s 2024 results show that long years of visibility and branding do not automatically translate into electoral success.

The former Abetifi MP dismissed suggestions that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s long presence in national politics guarantees him another chance.

Responding to claims that Dr Bawumia remains the party’s strongest candidate, he said, “Everything that you have ends at 41%; the most marketed, eight years as Vice President, eight years as running mate. Sixteen years that we marketed him, he had 41%.”

The former Agric Minister contrasted that with Nana Akufo-Addo’s first run. “We marketed Akufo-Addo for eight months; he had 49.7%.”

Dr Acheampong said the electoral map tells a painful story. He said, “he couldn’t get seven regions of this country.”

He stressed that “we could not win a single constituency in the presidential election in 2024” in the Volta, Oti, Upper East, Upper West, Savannah, and Bono East regions. He said the party also failed badly in other strongholds.

“We could not win one western region, 17 constituencies, we won one presidential.” He said in the Central Region, with 23 constituencies, “we won two presidential.” He added that in Greater Accra, with 34 constituencies, “presidential, we got two.”

Dr Acheampong said the northern strategy also failed. He said one belief in 2023 was that presenting Dr Bawumia would secure northern votes.

But he said, “Five of the regions that we did not win a single constituency, seven, five of them are from the northern half of Ghana.”

He said delegates are judging based on outcomes. “Those attributes and the results of the elections are the ones that the delegates are passing a verdict on.”

Dr Acheampong said the comparison is unavoidable. “If we market you for 16 years, and you come out with 41%, and we market Akufo-Addo for eight months, and he gets 49.7% then there’s a difference.” He said the lesson is simple. “The difference is that the marketing did not yield the sales results, but people are going to change their product.”

When reminded that political history shows parties often stick with losing candidates, he rejected that argument.

“You’re mixing logic with politics and performance,” he said. He explained that tradition alone does not win elections.

“It is only logic which will suggest” a straight-line progression of repeated candidacies, he said, referencing past leaders.

He said the NPP’s own history proves his point. “In 1996, Kufuor did better than Adu Boahen, so we returned him. It was on performance.”

Dr Acheampong said Kufuor won in 2000 and improved again in 2004. He said constitutional limits, not poor performance, ended that run.

He made the same case for Nana Akufo-Addo, stating “Akufo-Addo did better than Kufuor’s 2004" so the party returned him in 2012 because his performance improved over 2008.

He said, “We returned him in 2016 and won.” He added that “Akufo-Addo did much better in 2020 than his own results in 2016.”

Dr Acheampong said the pattern is clear. Performance drives decisions. Not sympathy. Not tradition.