A fresh storm has erupted within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as flagbearer hopeful Dr. Bryan Acheampong openly challenged former Vice President Dr.
A fresh storm has erupted within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as flagbearer hopeful Dr. Bryan Acheampong openly challenged former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s new campaign mantra, “Aka 9% Pɛ”, describing it as misleading and politically dangerous
Dr. Bawumia, who lost the 2024 general elections to President John Mahama, recently launched his 2028 flagbearer campaign with the slogan, after filling his nomination forms at the NPP Headquarters suggesting that the NPP only needs an additional 9% to cross the 50%+1 threshold to reclaim power.
The message, printed boldly on T-shirts were worn by his campaign team members at the event and widely has it images circulated on social media, was intended to rally the party base with optimism ahead of the 2028 polls.
But Acheampong, who claimed to be a financier of Dr Mahamadu Bawumia in the 2024 campaign, has dismissed the slogan as a distortion of political reality.
Speaking to NPP delegates at his Rock City Hotel in Kwahu over the weekend, the Abetifi MP argued that elections cannot be won by building on percentages from previous defeats.
“Every election starts from zero. In 2016, President Akufo-Addo had secured 49% but we did not enter the next election with 49%. We started from the ground and expanded our seats to 169. Likewise, if you lose with 41%, you don’t start the next election from 41%. We must bring a candidate who can feed into the NPP’s winning formula and take us back to victory,” Bryan Acheampong told delegates.
Bryan Acheampong’s Growing Criticism Of Bawumia
This is not the first time Acheampong has publicly questioned Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s electability.
Earlier in August 2025, he attributed the NPP’s 2024 defeat to “tribal dynamics” surrounding Dr Bawumia’s candidacy, arguing that the party underperformed in northern strongholds where Dr Bawumia was expected to deliver overwhelming support.
He went further to highlight Bawumia’s poor showing in the Zongo communities despite years of targeted promises, as well as his inability to secure significant numbers in seven regions.
He insisted that the former Vice President’s appeal was overstated and his candidacy could not guarantee victory in 2028.
Facing backlash for what many described as tribal undertones, Acheampong’s campaign later issued a clarification, saying he viewed Bawumia as a “victim of circumstance” rather than the cause of divisions.
They stressed that Bryan Acheampong respected Bawumia but believed the NPP needed a fresh face to rebuild unity and expand support.
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