Declares war on NDC, Plots NPP Comeback
By Gifty Boateng
After defeat and exile, former Communications Minister Ursula Owusu is back with fire and ambition and claims that Ghanaians were duped to vote for the NDC. She wants to lead the ailing NPP to fight back.
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has resurfaced on the political stage with a fiery denunciation of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), branding the Mahama-led administration as “clueless,” “incompetent,” and a mere “caretaker government.”
Her remarks, delivered in a statement marking her 61st birthday on October 20, coincide with her formal declaration to contest the General Secretary position of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Owusu-Ekuful, who suffered a personal defeat in the December 2024 elections losing her Ablekuma West parliamentary seat to Reverend Kwaku Addo of the NDC had remained conspicuously silent in the months following the NPP’s electoral collapse.
Her reentry into the fray signals a renewed ambition to shape the party’s future direction, even as critics question her legacy and accountability.
In her statement, the former minister accused the NDC of ascending to power through deception, claiming the party “lied its way into government” with “phantom promises” that eroded public confidence in the NPP.
“This caretaker NDC government is not in office because it is preferred,” she wrote. “It is there because it manipulated public sentiment and caused belief in us to wane.”
Owusu-Ekuful’s tenure under former President Akufo-Addo, which spanned eight uninterrupted years, remains mired in controversy.
Allegations of impropriety including the KelniGVG surveillance contract and the sale of Vodafone Ghana to Telecel continue to haunt her record. Civil society watchdogs, notably IMANI-Africa, have expressed frustration at the lack of accountability.
“It is sad that KelniGVG, that crookish monster, continues to siphon millions while the current government does nothing,” IMANI President Franklin Cudjoe lamented.
He criticized the silence of her successor, Samuel Nartey George, who had previously vowed to investigate the scheme but has since gone quiet.
Despite the unresolved allegations, Owusu-Ekuful remains defiant. Her rhetoric is steeped in party nostalgia and calls for renewal. “We lie not in a good place,” she told NPP delegates. “But as our great tradition has demonstrated, we will thrive.”
Her campaign for General Secretary pits her against a slate of male contenders, including former EPA head Kwabena Kokofu, ex-MP Eugene Boakye Antwi, and incumbent Justin Frimpong Kodua. Yet she remains confident in her credentials, describing herself as “nurtured, proven, and prepared” to lead the party’s administrative engine.
“Scathed, we refuse to be burnt,” she declared. “And in the unlikely circumstance that we set ourselves in a blazing inferno, we will rise. Like the Phoenix, we will be ready.”
Owusu-Ekuful emphasized the urgency of repositioning the NPP ahead of the 2028 elections, warning that Ghanaians remain in “dire need of change.” She called for the party to “re-shape, re-organize, and restore belief” in its capacity to govern.
Her closing remarks underscored a vision of unity and purpose. “Across the country and the diaspora, the NPP family comes together as onebound by the desire to recapture power and do better for mother Ghana. This is our ultimate resolve. It is mine too.”
Whether her bid will galvanize the party or deepen internal fault lines remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: Ursula Owusu-Ekuful is back, and she’s not pulling any punches.