Boakye Agyarko: NPP Post-Election Thank You Tour Causing More Damage Than Good
In the wake of the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) loss in the 2024 general elections, prominent party personality and ex-Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, has been criticized against the party's post-election "Thank You" tour. In his view, the initiative, while good, is not only misplaced but also works to widen instead of closing existing cracks within the party.
This is not the time for cosmetic public relations moves, according to Agyarko. Instead, he urges the party to pursue serious self-reflection and strategic re-engineering with a perspective to restrengthening the pillars of the NPP. The tour, in his view, is tokenistic but not otherwise meaningful unless accompanied by sincere self-reflection and bold reforms. Agyarko admonishes that the party cannot allow itself to paint over the fault lines behind the defeat in the elections.
Referring to the history of the party, he takes a look at what was accomplished in 2009 after a previous electoral loss. While the steps were taken to democratize the NPP and make it more open, he believes that they ultimately came to be hijacked by one key individual with too much authority. Centralization of power, he asserts, has brought the party far away from its fundamental democratic foundations. Agyarko warns against repeating this mistake, emphasizing the need not to establish another set of circumstances under which one individual can dominate the party organization and decision-making.
His comments on the Thank You tour recognize a broader problem: that the party is more interested in image than substance. Rather than genuine dialogue and listening to the outcry of grassroot members, the tour may be a diversion from the need for reform. He thinks that efforts need to be made to rebuild the party bottom-up, construct an open culture, and give a voice to every member—not just when in opposition, but even when in power.
Agyarko is most scathing of the tendency to rely on a few individuals or clique when the party is in government, excluding the broader base that worked to bring it there. He insists that all members, from the grassroots to the leadership, should feel appreciated and listened to. Only through this process of participation, he believes, can the NPP reclaim a party of principles and not personal loyalties.
He also calls for the elimination of what he terms a "cultic" culture in the party where loyalty to one person is above loyalty to the party's ideals. In his view, the NPP should go back to being a community of people holding similar perspectives who are committed to national development rather than a platform for amassing wealth by some individuals.
Boakye Agyarko's words are articulation of a feeling that is escalating among party rank and file: the NPP needs more than mere gestures of goodwill following defeat. It needs courage to confront brutal truths, make some structural adjustments, and connect with the base in sincerity. His message is simple: for the party to return to power, it needs to return to its roots.
His criticism of the Thank You tour is a warning to political parties in general: that actual reform cannot be substituted with theatrics. For the NPP, the path back to power is not scripted thank-you tours, but hard work rebuilding its image, reconciling the party, and returning to those ideals that motivated millions of Ghanaians to begin with.
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