NPP running mate race: it is a Bawumia, Napo ticket for the December elections
The National Council of the New Patriotic Party has officially backed Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s choice of Energy Minister Matthew Opoku Prempeh as his running mate for the upcoming elections. This endorsement came on Thursday following prior consultations with the party’s National Executive Council and National Steering Committee.
Matthew Opoku Prempeh, widely known as NAPO, is the current Member of Parliament for Manhyia South and a former Education Minister. Bawumia’s selection of Prempeh is seen as a calculated move to strengthen party unity and expand support, particularly in the Ashanti region.
A report recent by the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) indicates that Dr. Prempeh, also known as NAPO, is the favored choice among NPP members for the vice-presidential position. The report highlights a strong consensus within the party, especially emphasizing the strategic importance of choosing a candidate from the Ashanti region, a key stronghold of the party.
According to the NIB survey, Dr. Prempeh received an impressive 76.2% support from party executives, particularly from constituency and polling station executives who made up the majority of the survey sample. His closest rival, Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister of Education and MP for the Bosomtwe constituency, garnered 10.1% of the responses, making him the second most preferred candidate.
Profile
Born on May 23, 1968, in Ashanti New Town, a suburb of Kumasi, NAPO hails from Pakyi No. 2 in the Ashanti Region.
He started his basic education at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Primary, and continued to Prempeh College in Kumasi for his middle school education
He studied Human Biology and Medicine at KNUST and completed his MB CHB in 1994. He continued with post-graduate studies in MSc. Clinical Epidemiology at the Netherlands Institute of Health Sciences in 1998, and at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he studied Leadership and Government (certificate course). In 2002, he pursued postgraduate training in surgery in the UK (MRCS).
Prior to entering parliament, NAPO served as CEO of Keyedmap Security Services Limited from 2004 to 2009.
He is also a medical doctor and served as a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2003.
