Politics

NPP lost trust of Ghanaians by not listening – NAPO

Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh (NAPO), the New Patriotic Party’s 2024 Vice Presidential Candidate, has admitted that the party’s failure to engage and listen to citizens was the main reason for its crushing defeat in last year’s general elections.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, the former Energy and Education Minister reflected on months of post-election analysis. “One thing I’ve concluded in the last 10 months is that there was a broken trust between citizens and government. The trust that was broken hurt so much that we saw the results so broken,” he said.

When pressed on the root cause of the rupture, Dr Opoku Prempeh was candid: “We didn’t listen enough; we assumed a lot of things we shouldn’t have assumed.”

He stressed that while global economic and health crises, including skyrocketing shipping costs and the COVID-19 pandemic, worsened the situation, the NPP’s biggest mistake was internal: ignoring the voices of Ghanaians.

“People had died in their droves that had never been seen before, without a military crisis or World War,” he noted, adding that governments worldwide faced similar anti-incumbency waves, with only autocratic regimes largely unaffected.

Despite these unprecedented external pressures, Dr Opoku Prempeh maintained that the NPP’s inability to respond to citizen concerns directly led to the erosion of trust that cost them the election.

He called for the party to rebuild credibility, adding it would require more attentive structures and consistent engagement with the public to avoid repeating the mistakes that contributed to their downfall last year.

Dr. Prempeh, who is a former Member of Parliament for Manhyia South has thrown his support his former running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in the 2026 NPP Primaries in January. He believes Bawumia is the best bet of the party in recapturing power from the ruling National Democratic Congress.

The other aspirants are former MP for Assin North, Kennedy Agyapong; MP for Abetiifi, Dr. Bryan Acheamong; MP for Bosomtwe, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum and former General Secretary of the party, Kwabena Agyepong.