Who will be appointed campaign manager for the 2024 Bawumia presidential bid?

The ruling New Patriotic Party completed all its internal elections on Saturday (27 January 2024), carrying out parliamentary primaries in constituencies where the party has a sitting MP. Following on from the election of Mahamudu Bawumia as the NPP’s presidential candidate in November last year, the Saturday primaries have, in effect, set the stage for the 7 December general election.

With these primaries and almost all other internal party exercises out of the way, Dr Bawumia is expected to name key individuals who will partner with him to crisscross the 16 regions of the country to ask the Ghanaian people to entrust the presidency into his hands.

Apart from naming his running mate, Dr Bawumia must appoint one of the party faithful as his campaign manager. The role of campaign manager typically goes only to a True Blue, and will entail leading the candidate’s overall campaign meritoriously, birthing a strategy that will propel Bawumia to victory in the 7 December presidential and parliamentary elections.

Runners and riders

As expected, names have sprung up for the position of campaign manager of the NPP’s quest to retain power in the 2024 election after the party’s two most recent consecutive terms in office – the enormous mission that the NPP has named “Breaking the 8”.

Asaase News can affirm confidently that five names are making the rounds among the rank and file of the NPP and also in the party’s top hierarchy. The five people are: first, Sammi Awuku, a former national organiser of the party and current parliamentary candidate of the NPP for Akuapem North in the Eastern Region, as well as the serving director general of the National Lottery Authority (NLA).

Second is Dan Botwe, a former NPP general secretary and the outgoing MP for Okere in the Eastern Region who is also the serving Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGRD).

Peter Mac Manu, a former national chairman of the NPP and two-term campaign manager for President Akufo-Addo in the successful 2016 and 2020 campaigns, is the third name making the rounds as a possible candidate for the role of campaign manager for the party’s 2024 campaign.

The remaining names under consideration are John Boadu, the immediate past NPP general secretary who is now the serving director general of the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), and Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, also a former general secretary of the NPP, who served as presidential spokesman under John Agyekum Kufuor.

Awuku is well known in the New Patriotic Party, having served first as the NPP’s national youth organiser and then national organiser. However, some party faithful have raised concerns about where he would be on D-day: he is the NPP parliamentary candidate for Akuapem North and would be required to be in his constituency on 7 December 2024.

Moreover, those who are not in favour of the presidential candidate appointing Awuku argue that his attention would be divided between the campaign and his corporate duties as director general of the National Lottery Authority.

In addition, some party stalwarts point out that in the UP/NPP tradition, the party has never had a campaign manager who was also standing for Parliament, much less occupying a position in any state or private institution, alongside meeting the challenging responsibility of serving as campaign manager.

In the case of Dan Botwe, also one of those whose names may be put forward for the role of campaign manager, having served as the NPP general secretary and a campaign strategist to the party during the 2016 and 2020 Akufo-Addo runs for presidency, he has a wealth of experience that will support Team Bawumia.

Those not in favour of Botwe as campaign manager argue that he may have had an influence on the party rank and file in the past but lacks the level of influence required to whip up the party base to “break the 8”. However, they still argue that Botwe ought to play a vital role in the Bawumia campaign, just not necessarily as the campaign manager.

Experience, energy, wits, command … and powers of persuasion

Another likely candidate for the role of campaign manager is Peter Mac Manu. After serving as the NPP national chairman, Mac Manu took up the role of campaign manager to President Akufo-Addo in December 2016 and December 2020, winning both of those elections for the party. Those who support his appointment as campaign manager say that he is a safe pair of hands with a fine track record to whom to entrust the campaign.

On the flipside, others suggest that he may have had great success in the past but may not be a good fit for the campaign role today, given the present challenges and the level of energy required to prosecute this crucial campaign facing the NPP.

Proponents of this school of thought believe it is time to appoint a new person as campaign manager, instead of sticking to previously successful holders of the title. They go on to recommend that Mac Manu, just like Botwe, should be given another prominent role to play in the Bawumia 2024 campaign.

Since exiting the role of “chief scribe” of the NPP, John Boadu has kept out of public view while supporting the NPP’s efforts with his vast experience, after serving in three major roles for the party: national youth organiser, national organiser and general secretary.

Those who have put his name forward as the possible campaign manager for Bawumia’s presidential bid argue that he understands the current state of the NPP and will be able to use that understanding to energise the party base to turn out and vote for the NPP candidate on 7 December.

The counterargument against appointing Boadu as Dr Bawumia’s campaign manager is that, Boadu having lost against the current general secretary of the NPP, Justin Kodua Frimpong, in a bitter fight during the last national officers’ election, puting him at the helm for the 2024 campaign may create a conflict between him and the new general secretary.

The last person whose name has come up for the role of campaign manager to Vice-President Bawumia as presidential candidate of the NPP is Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, who once served as campaign manager for the then candidate Akufo-Addo when he first ran for the NPP presidential nomination in 1996.

Despite a history of internal challenges in the NPP which resulted in his suspension in 2015 together with the then national chairman and second vice-chairman, Agyepong has remained faithful and loyal to the New Patriotic Party.

Agyepong, a leading sports commentator in a previous life, is very well known for his eloquence and his command of both English and a number of local Ghanaian languages. Even though he was a member of Nana Akufo-Addo’s campaigns in 2012 and 2020, he has never served in any official role during Akufo-Addo’s presidency. In 2010 and 2023, he stood in the NPP presidential primaries but failed to win.

Some well-meaning NPP supporters believe that he has been punished enough for the crisis of 2015 and that it is time to leverage on his strengths and capabilities to promote the Bawumia candidacy as well as to tackle apathy in the NPP.

There is a clear and present danger ahead of the ruling NPP in the party’s quest to win a third successive term in office, a feat no political party has yet realised under the Fourth Republican constitution. To achieve this, the NPP ought to have a clear vision and plan to mobilise and energise the party base to turn up in their numbers to vote.

The party also needs a campaign manager who can appeal to supporters whose enthusiasm for the party has waned, persuading them to overlook all the difficulties and challenges that have bedevilled the party while in office in the past seven years, and step out to vote for the NPP so that it retains power.

Thus, the campaign manager must be someone who can command respect at all levels of the party, who can quickly master the job of putting the NPP’s presidential candidate above all others who may be contesting the 7 December election and get the job done. Your guess who gets to be campaign manager for the Bawumia 2024 campaign is as good as mine.

Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra

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