The National Coordinator of the District Road Improvement Programme (DRIP), Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye, has announced that he will resign from his position to contest the National Chairmanship of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), should the current chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, decide not to seek re-election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking in an interview on Eyewitness News on Thursday, June 11, 2026, Mr. Vanderpuye said he believes he has the experience and credentials to lead the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell, I have made it clear that in case he [Johnson Asiedu Nketia] decides to contest the National Chairmanship again, I wouldn\u2019t want to contest him because he\u2019s my senior brother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe started together in Sunyani; he\u2019s one of the people that I respect so much, and so I wouldn\u2019t want to contest him if he decides to contest. But if he\u2019s not contesting, I\u2019m ready to offer myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former Minister for Youth and Sports said his long-standing involvement in the NDC demonstrates his readiness for the position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was the youth organiser of the Democratic Youth League of Ghana, the Future Leaders Organisation. I\u2019ve always been part of this. I\u2019m also a foundation member of the party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Vanderpuye traced his political journey within the party, noting that he served as a ward secretary during the formation of the NDC in 1992 while working at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn 1992, when the party was being formed, I became a ward secretary. Even though I was working at that time at GBC, I offered myself to be a ward secretary in Koloakum Ward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also highlighted his experience as a parliamentary aspirant, deputy minister, cabinet minister, and campaign official in previous NDC administrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was a parliamentary aspirant as far back as 1996. Former deputy minister for trade, former deputy local government minister, former minister for youth and sports, director of operations for President Mills\u2019 campaign, and officer at the presidency in those days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo I think I have what it takes to lead the party if our current national chairman so decides that he wouldn\u2019t contest again,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked whether he would step down from his role as DRIP National Coordinator if he enters the race, Mr. Vanderpuye confirmed he would resign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, because I think this party has given me so much. I want to give back to the party. Yes, I\u2019ve been, you see, this party has given me an opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The National Coordinator of the District Road Improvement Programme (DRIP), Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye, has announced that he will resign from his position to contest the National Chairmanship of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), should the current chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, decide not to seek re-election. Speaking in an interview on Eyewitness News on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":49728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43,1],"tags":[288,4397,3782,8349,10387,7960,7489,11959,6693,913,7916,911,3577,4981,192,2264,11493,1555,3874,281,7574,3805,6200,8297,7945,10329,5784],"class_list":["post-49727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-asiedu-nketia","tag-asiedu-nketiah","tag-cabinet","tag-cabinet-minister","tag-campaign","tag-case","tag-chairman","tag-chairmanship","tag-congress","tag-democratic","tag-deputy-minister","tag-election","tag-future","tag-gbc","tag-ghana","tag-government","tag-interview","tag-johnson-asiedu-nketia","tag-lead","tag-ndc","tag-presidency","tag-president","tag-race","tag-resign","tag-sunyani","tag-trade","tag-youth"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49729,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49727\/revisions\/49729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}