As speculation builds over who will contest the National Democratic Congress (NDC) National Chairmanship, Hon. Akwasi Opong-Fosu, Board Chair of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) and a former Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, has cautioned against reducing the race to a contest of personalities, arguing instead that the party needs durable internal systems that do not depend on any single individual.
“Once nominations are announced, all positions become vacant,” Opong-Fosu said in an interview on *TalkTime with Kwesi Pratt Jnr on Accra-based Pan African Television*, addressing the wave of names — including his own — already being floated for the chairmanship. When asked by the host, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., whether he would still wish to contest if the NDC’s current Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, decides to run for the office again, Hon. Opong-Fosu admonished that an internal political contest should not just be about personalities but systems. “We do not have to make contesting positions within political parties a personality issue. That is one of the challenges. We need to build political systems that outlast personalities.”
The remark came as Opong-Fosu discussed his own emerging consideration of a chairmanship bid, which he says was prompted by approaches from various groupings within the party rather than his own personal ambitions. Even so, he was careful to frame the broader contest in institutional rather than individual terms, suggesting that the health of the NDC’s internal processes matters more than the identity of any single office-holder.
His comments touch on a recurring tension in Ghanaian party politics, where internal elections for positions such as national chairman have historically exposed factional rivalries that can outlast the contests themselves and, at times, strain party unity heading into general elections. By explicitly separating the legitimacy of the process from the ambitions of any one contender, Opong-Fosu positioned himself as advocating for a more institutional approach to leadership transitions within the party.
Opong-Fosu, who has spent more than four decades in Ghanaian public life — including an uninterrupted eighteen years as a District Secretary across Obuase and Tepa, and also served as Member of Parliament for Amenfi East as well a Former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development — described his approach to political office throughout his career as one guided by “calling” rather than self-promotion. He extended that philosophy to his remarks on the chairmanship race generally, suggesting that no candidate, including himself, should feel entitled to a position based on qualifications or profile alone.
“You can have all the qualities, you can have all the competencies, but when you elect yourself, thinking that you are the most qualified to be in a particular position, it is a bit presumptuous for me,” he said, reiterating a theme that ran throughout the interview.
He said he continues to consult senior party figures, including President John Dramani Mahama as well as grassroots activists, before deciding whether to formally enter the race, but stressed that whatever the outcome, the party’s institutional integrity should take precedence over any individual’s ambitions. His remarks are likely to resonate with party members concerned about internal cohesion ahead of the flagbearership and chairmanship contest that is already drawing multiple prospective candidates and heightened factional interest.
The NDC has not yet announced a formal timeline for chairmanship nominations, though internal discussions are reportedly intensifying across the party’s regional and constituency structures.
