Ntim chairs NPP …after 20 years of campaign

After a twenty-year campaign that has endured four successive defeats, Stephen Ayesu Ntim, at long last, has been elected  the National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on his fifth attempt at age 64.

Mr. Ntim, in  a land slide victory polled 4,114 votes  which represented 72 percent of valid votes cast at the Saturday July 16 NPP National Delegates Conference  held at the Accra Sports Stadium.

His closest contender, Stephen Asamoah Boateng, polled 1,110 votes, while the other aspirants  had votes not worth writing home about: George Kwabena Abankwah-Yeboah  had  294 votes, Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi  had 101 votes, Gifty Asantewa Ayeh (Daavi Ama)  had 44 votes, Sammy Crabbe  had 32 votes, and Akwesi Osei Adjei had 20 votes.

Mr. Ntim, in his victory speech promised to work with the new leadership of the party to win power in the 2024 general elections.

“The new National Executives will work assiduously for the party to win Election 2024 in conjunction with our Members of Parliament and our members in the Diaspora. I’m grateful to my supporters and the party for giving me a memorable 64th birthday present,” he noted.

Mr. Ntim said he would never take the new position for granted: “Finally, it’s been 20 long years of wandering in the wilderness before clinching this position as national chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and I assure you that I’m going to cherish the chairmanship position, I will value the chairmanship position.”

All through his campaign, Mr. Ntim had insisted that he wants to become National Chairman so as to ensure the NPP wins the next general elections: “Let me reiterate this point, with Ntim as National Chairman, I will only ask you to give me a presidential candidate and I will give you a President,” he had repeated as a mantra.

Mr. Ntim  take over the NPP National Chairman position from Freddie Blay, who has served in such a position since 2015 and under his leadership, the party won two Presidential elections.

JFK Vs JB

A major attraction at the Conference was the race for the General Secretary position had been largely tipped to be maintained by the then incumbent John Boadu (JB) but was snatched from him by  the Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) Justice Frimpong Kodua (JFK) in a rather keenly contested bout.

Though John Boadu had been tipped to retain his position and had won the open support of a number of party bigwigs, reality started to dawn on him at the Conference grounds when during the introduction of all aspirants, JFK attracted the loudest cheers from the delegates. The cheers were deafening and scary.

When the votes were counted in the early hours of Sunday, JFK had won with 2,837 votes, with John Boadu trailing behind him with 2,524 votes. The latter was shocked.

Others contenders for the General Secretary position were Former Mayor of Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, Iddrisu Musah had  104 votes, Frederick Opare Ansah had 50 votes  and Ramseyer A. Agyeman-Prempeh  had just 8 votes.

The new National Executive  elected by the National Delegates Conference to lead the NPP for the next four years are :

The winners who will now lead the party into the 2024 elections are; National Chairman – Mr. Stephen Ntim,  First Vice Chairman- Danquah Smith Buttey, Second Vice Chairman – Rita Asobayire,  Third  Vice Chairman – Alhaji Masawudu Osman,  General Secretary – Mr. Justin Frimpong Koduah,  National Organiser – Henry Nana Boakye (Nana B),  National Women Organiser – Kate Gyamfua,  National Nasara Coordinator – Abdul Aziz Haruna Futah,  National Youth Organiser – Salam Mohammed Mustafa and  Treasurer – Dr Charles Dwamena.