NPP Chairmanship Race: 7 Persons Set To Succeed Freddie Blay

Seven New Patriotic Party (NPP) ‘heavyweights’ have picked nomination forms to stake their claim for the Party’s National Chairmanship position.

The aspirants are: Stephen Ayesu Ntim, Stephen Asamoah Boateng, Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, Joseph Ayikoi Otoo, Sammy Crabbe, Akwasi Osei-Adjei, and George Kwabena Abankwah-Yeboah.

The Party is expected to vet all the aspirants from June 17 to June 19, 2022, ahead of the National Executive Elections, scheduled to take place at the Accra Sports Stadium from July 15 to 17, 2022.

In this article, the Ghana News Agency chronicles a brief profile of all the seven national chairperson aspirants, in no order.

Stephen Ayesu Ntim
Mr Stephen Ayesu Ntim is an astute Systems Engineering Professional, and a French scholar from the University of Ghana and Universite Nationale de la Cote d’Ivoire. The 64-year-old Programmer/Analyst is a product of the University of Ghana (1984) and the University of Minnesota, USA (1991), from where he holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in French and Linguistics and MBA in Management Information Systems respectively.

He was born on July 18, 1958 at Wamfie, Dormaa East District in the Brong Ahafo Region (B/A) of Ghana.

On his political journey, Mr Ntim was a member of the Danquah-Busia Club that transformed into the New Patriotic Party in 1992. As an NPP veteran, he has served the Party in various capacities, and now a permanent national patron.

Between 2001 and 2005, he served as the National First Vice Chairman of the NPP, and has since then contested four times for the chairmanship position without success. In the 2018 contest, he placed second after polling 2515 votes against Freddie Blay’s 3,021 votes.

Mr Ntim will be contesting the National Chairmanship position for an unprecedented fifth time and would be hoping to rewrite history and lead the NPP in the next four years.

Stephen Asamoah Boateng
Popularly known as Asabee, Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng is a former Director-General of the State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA). He is a former a Member of Parliament for the Mfantsiman West constituency, and a former Minister for Local Government Rural Development and Environment, Tourism, and Diaspora Relations.

He was born on born August 18, 1958, and comes from Konongo in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

Mr Boateng is a graduate of the Univeristy of Ghana, where he obtained his first degree and holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the Henley Management College, Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom.

He commenced his political career as a political activist and the secretary of the Central Committee of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) from 1979 to 1982. He became MP for Mfantsiman West in 2004 but lost it to Aquinas Tawiah Quansah of the National Democratic Congress in 2008.

Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi
Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi is a well-respected academician, born on 21 August 1945 at Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region. He is a former Minister of Education under the John Agyekum Kufour Government and former Director General of the Ghana Education Service. Prior to that, he served as the Dean at the Faculty of Science, University of Cape Coast, and Policy Adviser to the Ministry of Education.

Prof. Ameyaw-Akumfi entered the University of Ghana in 1965, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science Honours (B.Sc. Hons) in Zoology in 1969. He pursued his Masters’ in Zoology at the same University and completed the course in a year in 1970. He proceeded to the University of Michigan in 1972 where he pursued a Master of Science in Zoology and a Ph.D. in Zoology.

Prof. Ameyaw-Akumfi is currently the Board Chairman of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).

Joseph Ayikoi Otoo
Mr Joseph Ayikoi Otoo is a former Ghana’s High Commissioner to Canada. He is also a former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice under former President Kufuor.

He was born in Mamprobi, a town in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. After obtaining his GCE Advanced Level certificate, he was admitted to the University of Ghana in 1976 to pursue a degree in Law. Upon completion in 1979, Mr Ayikoi Otoo enrolled at the Ghana School of Law. He was called to the Ghana Bar in 1981.

He served as Chairman of the Constitutional Committee of the NPP in 2010 and was a member of the Party’s Vetting Committee that vetted the presidential hopefuls for the 2011 primaries.

Mr Ayikoi Otoo was the NPP’s Parliamentary candidate for the Krowor Constituency in the 2008 and 2012 general elections – but lost his bid on both occasions.

Sammy Crabbe
Mr Sammy Crabbe is a former Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the NPP, and a former Second Vice Chairman of the Party. In 2016, the NPP’s National Executive Committee suspended Mr Crabbe indefinitely alongside then General Secretary Kwabena Agyepong and then Chairman Paul Afoko over “anti-party” conduct.

Despite his suspension, Mr Crabbe initially declared his intention to a contest the 2018 NPP Chairmanship race, but rescinded his decision after Party activist Hajia Fati, violently attacked and prevented him from picking nomination forms when he visited the Party’s headquarters in the lead-up to the national executive elections.

It is, however, not clear if the Party has officially reinstated Mr Crabbe after the reversal of the suspension of Kwabena Agyepong, last year.

Akwasi Osei-Adjei
Mr Akwasi Osei-Adjei is a former Minister for Foreign Affairs in the John Kufour Administration. He is a former Member of Parliament for the Ejisu-Juaben Constituency (from 1997 to 2008).
He also served as a Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry in 2003. He later became a substantive Minister for Foreign Affairs in July, 2007-2009.

Mr Osei-Adjei was selected as the NPP’s Parliamentary candidate for Ejisu-Juaben in 1992, but the Party boycotted that election. He contested and won the seat for the first time in 1996, and retained it in 2000 and 2004.

Whiles in Parliament, Mr Osei-Adjei served on several committees, including House Appointment, Trade and Industry, Tourism, Communication, and Finance.

George Kwabena Abankwah-Yeboah
Mr George Kwabena Abankwah-Yeboah is currently the National Treasurer of the NPP. He hails from Kwahu Mpraeso in the Eastern Region of Ghana but was born and has lived in Accra Korle- Worko.

He attended the Achimota Secondary School and holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Masters in Business Administration (Finance option) and a Bachelor of Law from the University of Ghana-Legon.

Mr Abankwah-Yeboah is a founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who has risen through the ranks of the Party from being a polling station chairman in 2006, to being a member of the Greater Accra Regional Finance Committee, the Greater Accra Regional Treasurer and the Deputy Director of Campaign and Fundraising in 2016.