Political marketing expert Professor Kobby Mensah has asserted that the New Patriotic Party got it wrong with its decision to choose the Minister for Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, as its vice-presidential candidate for the 2024 presidential elections.

According to him, NAPO does not meet even one of the three critical factors to consider in the selection of running mates; namely, complementarity in terms of attitude and behaviour, voter appeal, and policy credentials.

Prof. Mensah, a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana, who made these remarks in an interview on Neat FM on Friday, July 5, 2024, added that the NPP might have likely chosen NAPO as its running mate, thinking that Ghanaians would forget about his record and his past actions.

"Usually, when selecting a candidate, you look at what we call complementarity in terms of attitude and behaviour, extending voter appeal, and a certain policy credential, like someone with expertise in international relations or foreign policy. For example, when Nana Akufo-Addo was bringing in Bawumia, he said he would fix the economy, which didn’t happen at the end of the day.

"Out of these three things, I don’t see what the current running mate brings on board. When it comes to policy positions, NAPO has been the head of two very prominent ministries, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Energy. I don’t see any impactful programme which I can say gives him policy credentials. The Free SHS came with a lot of issues, including the double-track system. I don’t think that any Ghanaian can say that this is the best the country can have. If you go to the energy ministry too, look at the kind of decisions taken there, moving AMERI here and there and then, of course, dumsor. So, where is his track record in terms of policy?" he explained in the Twi dialect.

He added, "When it comes to voter reach (appeal), apart from the Ashanti Region, I don’t see any constituency where the running mate is very appealing... So, I’m not sure on what research, the NPP was able to take such a bold decision. Perhaps they have taken the Ghanaian for granted, thinking that 'It doesn’t matter; we can bully our way through'. If they were behaving like a modern political party, I don’t think this is what they should do."

The academic also made the point that it would be difficult for the NPP to sell its flagbearer, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and his running mate NAPO.

He said that while many Ghanaians have the perception that Dr. Bawumia is untruthful most of the time, they also have a negative thought of NAPO being arrogant.

"Everything that Bawumia has said, if you go and fact-check, they are not the truth, and you have also brought in a candidate who, in the eyes of the public, has a very challenging temperament and character. How would you actually manage these two?"

Watch his remarks in the video below:



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