Dr Ekua Amoakoh, spokesperson for New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and member of the party’s Health Committee, faced repeated clashes with colleagues over her analysis of health sector data ahead of Ghana’s 2024 elections. Her research, which drew on official records from the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, and National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), contradicted some party members’ claims during heated political debates.
In a personality profile interview on JoyNews’ PM Express with Emefa Adeti, Dr Amoakoh recounted how her assignment to compile the NPP’s health sector record became a source of internal conflict. “My first job was to go to the Ministry of Health and collect all their data. Because I came with a skill set, I was given the health sector to do all the research,” she said. The project aimed to document the party’s performance across successive administrations, covering areas such as health infrastructure and national health insurance.
The exercise extended beyond the NPP’s current time in government. Dr Amoakoh included data from the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) era, the administration of former President John Agyekum Kufuor, and that of the late President John Evans Atta Mills. The goal was to assess health sector developments over time and build a factual narrative around the party’s record.
However, her findings often clashed with party rhetoric during the election year. “It was very difficult to be an NPP person. My own colleagues were fighting me. And I was like, ‘You people, I don’t understand. I sound like I was in government. I’m here with you people. I’ve just gone there, and you are coming to fight me,’” Dr Amoakoh recalled. The disagreements grew so intense that she left a party group chat in 2024 after exchanges became increasingly heated.
The tensions stemmed from the politically charged atmosphere. Dr Amoakoh attributed the conflicts to the “height of propaganda” surrounding the 2024 general election. She described situations where presenting official documents that disproved claims led to angry disputes. “You are looking at documents that disprove something someone is saying, right? But they are so angry that they are arguing with you with their heart and soul and mind,” she said.
She admitted her own unwillingness to back down added to the friction. “We can be fighting, and one time I realized that, nah, this is getting too far,” Dr Amoakoh said. Despite the challenges, she stuck to the data she collected from government sources.
The research was intended to support the NPP’s campaign messaging by providing an evidence-based account of the party’s health sector achievements. Dr Amoakoh’s approach involved rigorous data collection from official institutions, aiming to trace health policies and infrastructure changes over multiple governments, not just the current one.
Her role as spokesperson for Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the NPP’s flagbearer for the 2024 elections, put her at the centre of political communication. Yet, the internal disputes over data accuracy revealed divisions within the party regarding its public narrative on health.
Dr Amoakoh’s experience reflects broader challenges in political campaigns where official data can conflict with partisan messaging. Her insistence on evidence-based claims met resistance from colleagues prioritising electoral narratives. The episode underscores the tensions between research and politics in an election year marked by intense propaganda.
Her account on JoyNews remains one of the few detailed explanations from inside the NPP’s campaign about how factual data shaped and sometimes disrupted party discussions ahead of the elections.
According to Joy Online.
