Former Vice President and 2024 flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has dismissed claims that his religion contributed to the party’s defeat in the 2024 general elections.
He argued that Ghanaians would not reject a candidate solely based on their religious background, insisting that suggestions linking the NPP’s loss to his Muslim faith lack merit and are not supported by data.
Speaking at the start of the party’s post-election Thank You tour at its headquarters in Accra on Wednesday, April 23, Dr. Bawumia pointed to his overwhelming victory in the party’s internal presidential primaries as proof.
“When we finished the election, there were so many people giving different reasons for why we lost. But people were speaking without data. One of the reasons people offered was that they didn’t vote for us because our presidential candidate was Muslim.
“When I heard that, I said, this doesn’t make sense. This is not the Ghana that I know. We went for primaries with 10 contestants—I was the only Muslim among nine Christians, but the NPP still voted for the Muslim candidate,” he said.
Dr Bawumia cited Assin South in the Central Region as an example, where he polled more votes than the NPP parliamentary candidate, Rev John Ntim Fordjour, a Christian clergyman.
“My good friend Rev Ntim Fordjour—he is a Reverend Father—but I did better than him in his constituency. He did so well and mobilised the votes for me and I thank him very much,” he added.
The former Vice President also drew attention to post-election studies conducted by independent institutions, which, he said, debunked the idea that religion or ethnicity played a decisive role in the outcome of the elections.
“Those issues have been ruled out in all the findings of different surveys that have been done,” he emphasised, stressing the need to rise above divisive narratives.
“So as a party and country, I’m very happy that religion and tribe have not entered our political discourse. We should therefore not allow people to play propaganda with religion and tribe. We are one nation. We will all live together whether we are Muslims or Christians; we will all work together for the good of this country,” Dr Bawumia concluded.