Hon Samiu Kwadwo Nuamah, former Member of Parliament (MP) for Kwadaso Constituency, has stated that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will not jeopardize its chances of winning the 2024 elections by selecting a Northerner as its presidential candidate.
According to the former lawmaker, during the first term of the NPP government, a survey was conducted that showed the party was going to win more seats, bringing the total number of seats in parliament to 200 or more.
In light of the party’s performance, leadership decided that, for the first time, they should try a Northerner as their flagbearer, and Dr. Bawumia was the right choice.
As a result of this research, the party decided to try someone from the north to lead them in the 2024 elections, as revealed.
“So we decide that, well if we can get 200 seats then we should try a candidate from the north because the risk of losing an election with the such record was very low. But, at this point, there is no room for taking any risks. There is no room for experimentation. It’s your best player right now. You should go with someone who has been tried and true. But if we say we’re going to try something we’ve never done before, then……”
Hon Kwadwo Nuamah told Kwame Tanko on Angel FM in an interview that Playhaus Radio listened to.
According to him, if the party lost many seats in parliament under Akufo-Addo, when they were working hard and implementing policies like Free SHS, 1D 1F, one village one dam, planting for food and jobs creating NABCO, and all that, their seats reduced from 169 to 137, there is a need for a rethink.
“When you compare it to this time where things are not too good, this hardship, then how many are we going to get if you are presenting the same team, the same thing”, he wondered
He described the NPP’s choice of Vice President Dr Bawumia as their presidential candidate as an extremely difficult thing to do if they want to break the eight.
“It is clear that this is extremely difficult at this time. That is if we want to break the eight we need to do something different. We can’t continue like that”, he said emphatically.
He categorically stated that the argument that if the party does not select a Vice President, it will lose in the north does not hold water because an additional 1% from the Ashanti region will cancel the NPP’s over 20% vote share in the north.
“At this point, the inverse is even more dangerous.
“The majority vote is in the south because even if you get 1% more votes in Ashanti Region, it cancels out 20% from the north,” he argued.