Arrogance, High Cost of Living Made Us Very Unpopular – Bawumia Lists Major Reasons for NPP’s 2024 Election Blowout Loss

Former Ghana Vice President and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer for the 2024 elections, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has listed four major reasons behind the party’s blowout loss in the 2024 general elections.

Speaking during the launch of his nationwide thank-you tour in Takoradi on Saturday, April 26, 2025, Dr Bawumia said the party’s survey of their party members to diagnose the reasons for their loss identified four major reasons: the unreasonably high cost of living, the ‘haircuts’ associated with the domestic debt exchange programme, the electronic (e) levy tax, and the ‘arrogance of power’ exhibited by the party in refusing to listen to its members.

Bawumia said they were almost universally met with these reasons as the main contributors to the NPP’s loss.

Explaining further, Bawumia said the first major reason they were told about was the unaffordable cost of living, which made life very difficult for the ordinary Ghanaian.

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“If you check all the studies we’ve conducted so far, the big issues are cost of living…the prices of goods and services went up, and hardship became common. It was a major issue that caused immense anger among Ghanaians,” Bawumia said.

Bawumia added that another major reason was the trap of ‘arrogance of power’ that the party fell into. He said the government failed to listen to its own members, particularly when many, including a majority of MPs in Parliament, called for Ken Ofori-Atta to be removed as Finance Minister, and the government, particularly President Akufo-Addo, did nothing in return.

“Another major factor was arrogance of power. It means we stopped listening. Party members were telling us that we should reshuffle (the ministers), but we didn’t listen for eight years,” he said.

Bawumia said the e-levy was another unpopular government decision that contributed to the NPP’s defeat. Finally, the domestic debt exchange programme, which led to many investors in government bonds, including retirees, losing large sums on their investments, was cited by Bawumia as a huge contributing factor in the party’s loss.

Dr Bawumia has kicked off a thank-you tour to express gratitude to the party’s followers for their support in the 2024 elections, despite their defeat. Bawumia has insisted that the NPP lost because the party could not turn out its base and has called for unity among the top candidates in the previous flagbearer race, arguing that if united, the NPP would easily win the 2028 elections.