Says ‘None Has Given Financial Support to The Party Than Him’.
As the New Patriotic Party (NPP) prepares to elect it next presidential candidate for the 2028 general election, some aspirants are conveniently leveraging on their supports in the past to the party as reason to elect them.
One of such presidential hopefuls and Member of Parliament (MP) for the Abetifi constituency Bryan Acheampong, is counting on his being a cash cow for the NPP to come out top of the contest, set for January 31, 2026.
The former Minister for Food and Agriculture’s assertion seems to downplay the many years of financial supports by the likes of presidential hopeful and self-acclaimed financier, Ken Ohene Agyapong and as well as former vice president Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
The parliamentarian, who in 2024 nearly acquired La Beach Hotel and others under a very controversial circumstances but for the active vigilance of the then minority and Labour, is using his financial backing to the party, as his trump card.
Addressing a meeting of delegates, Acheampong boasted that, no individual in the party has financially sponsored the NPP more than him since it inception.
He argued that while some may have supported the party with their time and energy, sweat, when it comes to funding, it he stands tall.
Like the typical Twi proverb of a lizard that said it will praise itself if no one will do it in it, the MP insisted that no one comes anywhere near what he has done for the party, when it comes to their days in opposition from 2009 to 2016.
“Some have suffered, maybe the work some have done I cannot do half I agree so if we have to mention about 500 people some of my names may not appear. But it will be difficult to say there is anyone in the pasty that paid money more than me. There is none. I am talking about contributing to fund the NPP”, he said amidst cheers.
He said not even the financial contributions of the founders of the NPP come anywhere near what he has offered the NPP. The MP said his important gestures are known by all and that former President Akufo-Addo is on record to have commended him profusely.
“There is no single person that has taken money from his pocket more than me since NPP was birthed. I am talking about what the Danquahs and Busias contributed we call something time value of money.
If they invested in that money and every year they had yields till date how much will that money be, it will be anywhere what I have contributed to the party. No body! In 2016, before we came to power, in 2017 when we came to power Akufo-Addo acknowledged that nobody helped in the campaign than Byran Acheampong.
No one, no one contributed more than me. I want to hear one person. In 2020 we were in government so no one needed my help?” he said.
According to him, he played a crucial role in supporting the NPP’s parliamentary candidates in the Eastern Region during the 2024 elections.
He maintained that he played a crucial role in supporting the NPP’s parliamentary candidates in the Eastern Region during the 2024 elections.
“I financed 27 out of the 33 NPP parliamentary candidates in the Eastern Region during the 2024 elections, giving each GHS 100,000 every month. I also gave GHS 2 million each to 26,000 NPP polling station executives in November, 2024,” he said.
The last time he came through for the party was his recent bailing out of the Ashanti Regional chairperson Bernard Antwi Boasiako, when he was arrested and detained by the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) for multiple offence including money laundering.
But his comments have sparked reactions from within the NPP viewing it as a way to undermine the efforts of other presidential hopefuls.
Ken Agyapong for instance, for years, has described himself as the self-financier of the party, who cannot be left out in the scheme of things.
It is these personal contributions that some say has given him the license to be influential and a bigwig of the party to the extent that, he verbally insults it high profile personalities and yet no one is able to order until recently the Bono Regional chairman Kwame Baffoe alias Abronye DC, stood up to him.
He has said his financial muscles outweighs everyone financier in the party and so the recent comments by his colleague party members is likely to rattle feathers in the former MP’s camp.
In a related to development, some former staff of the Abetifi MP have chastised for spending so much on his party while the wallow in abject poverty.
According to the former staff who worked for Acheampong’s newspaper The Republic Press, their condition of service was so abysmal that while working there, they kept asking themselves if their boss really cared about their well-being.
As at 2024, they received as low as GHS1000 a month, with no other benefit aside Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT). This year, everyone has left the paper leaving only the editor to run it.
The NPP flag-bearer hopeful’s assertions come amid a competitive race, with other notable contenders, including former vice president Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Kennedy Agyapong, former MP for Assin Central, Dr Yaw Adutwum, former Education Minister, Kwabena Agyei Agyapong, a onetime General Secretary, and Boakye Agyarko, former Minister of Energy.
By Gifty Boateng