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Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the former Majority Leader, has refuted claims that religion or ethnicity played a role in the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) defeat in 2024.
The former majority leader highlighted that no data gathered after the 2024 general elections cites religion or ethnicity to be the cause of the NPP’s defeat.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s The Point of View, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu explained, “The enquiry we did in the Ashanti region did not produce that; it is not one of the factors”.
“In fact, those two questions, ethnicity and religion, were asked of the people everywhere in the Ashanti region, and the Oquaye committee also asked similar questions — the group of professors asked. The conclusions don’t support this at all. And yet, people are trying to inject that into that.”
“Even though the Vice President and the President don’t share responsibility, the presidency encapsulates the two, so you cannot extricate yourself, especially when you sit in cabinet meetings,” he said.
When asked whether Dr Bawumia’s leadership of the Economic Management Team (EMT) made him a central figure in the economic challenges.
According to Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Dr Bawumia’s Economic Management Team function was largely advisory.
He added, “That is a reality. But nobody should forget that executive authority is vested in one person. That is not to extricate Dr Bawumia from every blame. The Economic Management Team he headed, their role was only advisory.”
Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu further emphasised that Dr Bawumia is not solely to blame for NPP’s 2024 defeat.
He explained, “Even though the Vice President and the President don’t share responsibility, the presidency encapsulates the two, so you cannot extricate yourself, especially when you sit in cabinet meetings”.
“That is a reality. But nobody should forget that executive authority is vested in one person. That is not to extricate Dr Bawumia from every blame. The Economic Management Team he headed, their role was only advisory,” he stated.
He stressed, “Do they force their observations on the President? I’m saying that in the situation, you can’t whitewash Dr. Bawumia and extricate him from any of the things that people considered not good — the policies and programmes people think were not very good. You cannot extricate him completely.”
Meanwhile, Former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has rejected claims that the party’s electoral loss was due to his religion or ethnicity.
According to Bawumia, he told former president Akufo-Addo he would not run again if Prof Mike Ocquaye’s report attributed the party’s defeat to me.
Dr Bawumia stressed that if the report had held him responsible for the defeat, he would have prioritised the party’s interests over his personal ambitions.
Speaking to delegates at Abuakwa on Saturday, September 13, 2025, Dr Bawumia detailed, “Before the Ocquaye report came out, I had a meeting with Akufo-Addo and others. We were having a discussion about the reasons why we lost the 2024 election.
“I told Akufo-Addo that if the findings of the Ocquaye report indicate that because I’m a Muslim or because or I’m a Mamprusi-Kusasi, we lost the election, I will step down and not contest anymore. This is what I told Akufo-Addo. Because I will not choose my interest over the party’s interest. The party’s interest must always be ahead of me.
“I told Akufo-Addo that because of the party, I will sacrifice any ambition, including the fact that if I contest, we will lose. But when the Ocquaye report, Ashanti report and Konrad Adenauer Foundation report came out, all of them pointed to the same conclusion – religion, tribe was not a factor in the 2024 election,” Dr Bawumia added.