Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu reveals two NPP stalwarts who vouched for Bawumia’s running mate selection

Akufo-Addo selected Bawumia as running mate in 2008

Akufo-Addo-Bawumia ticket wins second term

Bawumia tipped to succeed Akufo-Addo

Member of Parliament for Suame, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has stated that there was scepticism amongst the leadership of the New Patriotic Party when Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo submitted Dr

Read full articlehref='/GhanaHomePage/people/person.php?ID=1188'>Mahamudu Bawumia as his running mate choice for the 2008 election.

According to the majority leader of parliament, it took two stalwarts of the party to convince the leadership of the NPP to support the choice of Dr Bawumia as the party’s running mate.

“When Akufo-Addo brought Dr Bawumia, some of us didn’t know Bawumia in active politics. Do you know what settled that? It was announced at a National Council meeting at Alisa Hotel. Two people convinced us that he was the right person.

“The late Baah Wiredu and Osafo Maafo. They argued that he was a public servant who had worked hard for us. For Osafo Maafo, it was about when he was the finance minister, the work he (Bawumia) did for the country, government and the ministry. Baah Wiredu argued same that he was a smart, intelligent, hardworking and visionary person who has worked very well with both of them as ministers, and everybody then agreed with them,” he told Sompa FM.

His statement was in reaction to suggestions by some members of the NPP that Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu could be the ideal running mate candidate for the party.

Despite appreciating the suggestions, the majority leader noted that the final decision was with the presidential candidate and nobody else.

“What I am trying to say is that nobody forced a vice-presidential candidate on Nana Addo. How is it that today people have started calling names?” he questioned.

According to him, members of the NPP should rather focus on the potential of the flagbearer candidates instead of paying unnecessary attention to who the choice of a running mate will be.

Vice President Bawumia recently noted that he never dreamt of going into politics after studying economics and obtaining a first-class honours degree at Buckingham University in 1988.

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During the Q&A session after a virtual lecture on the topic: “Ghana’s role in shaping Africa’s economic transformation,” Bawumia told students of Buckingham University on Monday (9 May) that, “I was the most a-political; I never thought I will go into politics.”

Bawumia, then a deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, was picked by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) ahead of the 2008 general election as a running mate to then-presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The duo won the 2016 poll after a third attempt.

The duo again won a second term in the 2020 presidential elections.

Meanwhile, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia is tipped as a frontrunner in the race to elect the NPP’s successor to President Akufo-Addo.