State newspaper Graphic is reporting that The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto has initiated private meetings to launch his presidential ambition for the flagbearership of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
According to the publication, during the weekend, he initiated a private meeting with some top-notch power brokers of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
At the said meeting, he made his presidential ambition known to those who gathered, which included some constituency chairmen in the Ashanti Region.
Dr. Afriyie Akoto, a close pal of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and therefore his presidential ambition is seen as interesting, given the speculations that President Akufo Addo prefers his current Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia to succeed him a the flagbearer of the party in the 2024 polls.
At the weekend’s meeting in Kumasi had reportedly told the power brokers of the party that he had had incessant calls on him to enter the presidential race to replace President Akufo-Addo in 2024.
However, Dr. Afriyie Akoto’s less-than-par records at the Agric Ministry and the perception of him by some political players as being “arrogant” may haunt his ambition, as he appears to be in the race with Dr. Bawumia and Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, the current Minister of Trade and Industry.
The 71-year-old Dr. Afriyie Akoto had served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for two terms representing the people of the Kwadaso constituency in Kumasi from January 7, 2009, to January 6, 2017.
He will be nearing an octogenarian status by 2024 and would be well into his 80s if he should win the primaries in his party and go on to win the Presidential elections in 2024 and possibly get the conventional eight-year tenure.