Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, a flagbearer candidate for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), is counting on farmers to win the party’s presidential primaries.
The majority of NPP delegates who are farmers, according to Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, benefited from the policies and programs he started while serving as the Minister of Food and Agriculture.
Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto claimed in an interview with journalists in Accra that his track record makes him the obvious favorite.
“Most of these farmers I met in Upper East, Upper West, Savannah regions are also delegates and party constituencies executives. The one million farmers are the ones who will bear witness to me. Just go to any farmer and ask about the impact I have had on their lives when I was Minister for Food and Agriculture. And they will confess to you, they will tell you. They will vote for me to win,” Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto said.
Dr. Akoto formally announced his resignation in order to concentrate on his presidential aspirations and steer the New Patriotic Party into the general elections of 2024.
For two terms, he represented the Kwadaso Constituency in Kumasi, Ashanti Region, as a member of parliament.
Prior to his appointment as the Minister for Food and Agriculture in 2017, he served as the Deputy Ranking Member and then the substantive Ranking Member for the Committee on Food, Agriculture, and Cocoa Affairs in Parliament.
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The Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Assin Central MP Kennedy Agyapong, and Francis Addai Nimo have all declared their intent to run for the party’s flagbearership, placing the former Food and Agriculture Minister in a fierce competition.
The others are Joe Ghartey, a former member of parliament for Essikado-Ketan, Kwabena Agyapong, a former general secretary of the NPP, Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, and Boakye Agyarko, a former energy minister.
For its presidential primaries to choose a flagbearer for the general elections in 2024, the NPP has set November 4 as the date.
However, the party will convene a Special Congress on August 26 if more than five candidates submit applications to run in the primaries.
The presidential primary nomination period will run from May 26 through June 24, 2023.
