Former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, is confident that he will win the flagbearership race of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He expressed optimism that the party’s delegates will vote massively for him to lead the party in the 2024 general elections.

According to him, the delegates will choose a competent person to lead the party.

“Well you go into a contest to win, so I’m in the contest hoping to win, and I know that God will bless me to win this contest,” Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto said.

Speaking on the Point of View on Citi TV, with Bernard Avle, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto said he’s not worried that Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is in the race adding that he does not have any advantage over him and the other hopefuls.

“The incumbency of the Vice President does not worry me at all, it doesn’t give any advantage over others. The party people know who is who. You just have to make sure that they know you are in the race. Most of our delegates are rural people, they benefitted from Planting for Food and Jobs. They are part of the 1.7 million farmers that have benefitted from the PFJ. So they relate to what I’m doing,” a flagbearer hopeful of NPP said.

He added, “NPP is not an ethnic party, it’s a national party so if the delegates decide who is competent enough to lead them, they will vote for the person. So what is it about tribalism and all that, I can’t understand it”.

Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto who has been silent after resigning explained that he does not want to break the party’s rules by campaigning vigorously.

“The party has regulations, and I’m the last person to break regulations which state that until the party sets a date and invites potential contestants to come and pick forms and so on and so forth, there should be no campaigning. This has been grossly overlooked by a lot of people, I wasn’t going to stampede into that. But it doesn’t mean that I’m not working,” he explained.