Ing. Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, NPP flagbearer hopeful, former General Secretary and ex-Press Secretary to President John Agyekum Kufuor, has laid out a blunt challenge to contemporary notions of leadership — arguing that integrity, character, vision and empathy, not riches or spectacle, should define who leads the nation.
Speaking in an interview on Adom FM monitored by AP Media, Ing. Agyepong said the standards by which leaders are judged must change if Ghana is to move forward. “The measure of leadership is completely different. Leadership needs someone who has integrity, character, vision, empathy — and not someone who is rich,” he declared. To make the point, he joked that if wealth were the only qualification, the world’s richest people — like Bill Gates or Aliko Dangote — would be filling presidential offices.
Drawing on his own record, Agyepong reminded listeners of his long public-service resume. “I have been press secretary to a President for close to six years and everyone knows my body of work,” he said, noting that his time in Kufuor’s office was defined by discipline, transparency and punctuality. “When I was press secretary to former President Kufuor, did you hear something bad about me like corruption? I handled weekly affairs and press briefings. If you give something to me, I do it — and I do it diligently. I’m an achiever.”
At the core of his message was a promise to restore propriety and build a legacy of accountable governance. “I will stand for propriety and fight, and leave a legacy. Public service is about service to the public,” he said, stressing that leadership must be rooted in humility and a genuine desire to serve.
Ing. Agyepong also condemned the culture of ostentation among public officials, particularly the habit of flaunting status on social media. “We should stop that — that character where we flaunt everything on social media as public officials. If I am president I will sack you the next day. You must have a focus that you are serving,” he warned, framing the practice as corrosive to public trust and an affront to citizens who endure daily struggles.
His remarks combine a critique of performative politics with an appeal to a return to disciplined, values-driven leadership — the very traits he says marked the Kufuor era and which he seeks to revive. As Agyepong pitches himself to delegates and voters, he is selling a simple but potent promise: leadership measured by service and moral authority, not by wealth or spectacle.
Whether that message will translate into broad appeal remains to be seen, but for now Ing. Kwabena Agyepong is staking his campaign on character, competence and a clear, unapologetic call for a more responsible public service.
