Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu to be appointed head of Bawumia’s policy and manifesto team

The name of the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has been pencilled in by the New Patriotic Party for appointment as the head of the party’s Election 2024 policy and manifesto team.

Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has served in the ranks of the NPPs parliamentary leadership for 23 years and two months in total. In this period, he was Majority Leader for 15 years and two months, deputy leader for four years and chief whip for four years.

Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu is expected to leave his position as Majority Leader to take up the vital role of leading “Team Bawumia” to fashion out the NPP’s manifesto around the vision of the party’s presidential candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.

This will, in turn, be sold to the people of Ghana in the run-up to the 7 December 2024 general election.

New leader

The role of Majority Leader following the exit of Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu from the role is likely to be filled by Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the current deputy Majority Leader and MP for Effutu in the Centrsl Region.

The choice of Afenyo-Markin as Majority Leader, he being in his early forties and hailing from the Central Region of Ghana, is largely seen by the rank and file of the NPP as strategic.

Political analysts also point out that the NPP vice-presidential running mate is likely to come from the Ashanti Region and that the NDC’s John Mahama is also poised to announce Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, who is from the Central Region, as his running mate.

The importance of Central as a swing region, especially in determining which party holds a majority of parliamentary seats, makes Afenyo-Markin’s elevation one of the most strategic decisions the NPP will make in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Team Bawumia

On Monday (19 February) the NPP released a statement naming the people approved to spearhead the party’s 2024 national campaign ahead of this year’s general election.

In the statement, signed by the NPP’s general secretary, Justin Frimpong Kodua, the party said a national campaign co-ordinating committee (NCCC), which will oversee the work of all other committees, shall be chaired by Mahamudu Bawumia, the NPP’s 2024 presidential candidate.

Notable names who will form the party’s campaign advisory committee include the former president John Agyekum Kufuor, President Akufo-Addo, Freddie Blay, Elizabeth Ohene, Joyce Aryee and Akosua Frema Osei Opare.

Other names on the various campaign committees are Dan Botwe (campaign chairman), Frederick Opare Ansah (campaign manager), Kwabena Agyepong (a senior campaign aide) and Hawa Koomson.

Click on the link below to view the full list of members of Dr Bawumia’s campaign team:

Mahamudu Bawumia’s campaign team

Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra