Former Mayor of Kumasi, Kojo Bonsu, who was unsuccessful in his quest to become the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) flagbearer for the 2024 elections has revealed that he never stood a chance in the presidential race.

Mr Bonsu went up against former President John Dramani Mahama in the party's primaries held on May 13, 2023.

Ahead of the elections, the former president was tipped as the winning candidate but this did not persuade Mr Bonsu from throwing in the towel.

Although Dr Kwabena Duffuor withdrew from the race due to some alleged inconsistences with the voters register, Mr Bonsu did not back down despite corroborating his claims.

After the elections, Mr Bonsu has finally admitted to the fact that he never considered himself a worthy opponent to Mr Mahama to begin with.

“To be honest, I didn’t believe I could beat former President Mahama from the start," he said on Citi TV's Face to Face.

But he quickly added that "I was hoping that maybe people would change their minds and vote for me."

Over 356,000 delegates participated in the party’s primaries held in a total of 420 voting centres across the country.

After counting was done, Mr Mahama secured 297,603 of the votes cast, representing 98.9% to beat Kojo Bonsu, who garnered 1,381 votes, representing 1.1%.

Mr Bonsu in his interaction revealed why he decided to contest despite knowing the odds were not in his favor.

According to him, he had identified a challenge with Mr Mahama's campaign strategy, and the only way for the former president to work on that deficiency was for him to contest.

“We would not have known that there are problems down there because there are areas that he [Mahama] wouldn’t have visited. But because of these primaries, he [Mr. Mahama] went everywhere. Normally, he would only focus on certain regions, but now he has been everywhere.”

The former Kumasi Mayor also registered his displeasure with Dr Duffuor over his decision to file an injunction against the party's primaries.

He said: “I did agree with him on the photo album, but I didn’t think he should have taken the matter to court. It was an internal issue that we could have resolved internally. It wasn’t a serious problem."

"He could have gone to court earlier, but waiting until the last minute gives the impression that you have ulterior motives to disrupt many things,” Mr Bonsu added.

Dr Duffuor eventually withdrew the injunction case from the court.

Meanwhile, Mr Bonsu has assured of his commitment to supporting the party at all levels to ensure it emerges victorious in the next polls.

Source: The Independent Ghana