Professor Albert Kwadwo Adu Boahen, an Ashanti from Juaben but born in Oseim, Eastern Region, was the first Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) under the 4th Republican Constitution of Ghana. This is the man credited with breaking the “culture of silence” in Ghana. He was the Co-founder of the Movement for Freedom and Justice and served as the first Chairman of the movement.
Professor Adu Boahen contested the 1992 Presidential election on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and lost to the NDC’s Jerry John Rawlings.
Prof. Adu Boahen bagged over 1.2 million votes, representing 30.29%, trailing the NDC’s Presidential candidate, Jerry John Rawlings, 58.4% by a gap of 1.1 million. Prof. Adu Boahen’s electoral fortunes were better than the party’s score in 2024 in terms of the presidential margins.
In 1992, the country was transitioning from military to democratic dispensation with a hostile and repressive political spectrum, which largely explains Prof. Boahen’s electoral defeat.
Prior to the 1992 Presidential election, below is the result for the internal presidential primary of the NPP:
- Prof. Albert Adu Boahen – 1, 121 votes (56.60%)
- Dr. Dsane Selby – 343 votes (17.30%)
- John Agyekum Kufuor – 326 votes (16.50%)
However, ahead of the 1996 Presidential election, Prof. Adu Boahen was REJECTED by the delegates of the NPP during the party’s internal presidential primary as follows:
- John Agyekum Kufuor – 1, 034 votes (51.99%)
- Prof. Albert Adu Boahen – 710 votes (35.70%)
- J. H. Mensah – 110 votes (5.53%)
Did NPP Delegates reject Prof. Albert Adu Boahen in 1996 because of his Tribe or Religion or being from the Ashanti Region with base in the Eastern Region? Certainly NOT.
Ghana’s political history, especially the Presidential slot in the NPP, has peculiar historical features; a candidature for a second-time bid for the presidency has never been an “entitlement or consolation prize”.
The delegates of the NPP reward meritocracy for the second-time bid or third-time bid, not tribe or ethnic or religious affiliation.
Let’s reject any Presidential candidate who would adopt emotional blackmail tactics based on “Tribal-Religion-Demographics Minority Victim Theory” to create an impression that he is being contested because he is a Northerner or a Muslim, or Traditionalist, or from any other minority tribe.
Politics and democracy are all about competition, and cooperation after competition.
Issued by:
Razak Kojo Opoku
Founding President of UP Tradition Institute
