Communications Director of the newly rebranded United Party (UP), Solomon Owusu, has defended the party’s decision to adopt the name ‘United Party,’ insisting it represents a revival of the principles and ideals of the original UP tradition.
According to him, the move is not an attempt to copy the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Speaking on TV3’s The Key Points on Saturday morning, Mr. Owusu explained that the rebranding from the Movement for Change to the United Party Plus was carefully considered to reflect both the historical roots and the modern aspirations of the new political movement led by Alan Kyerematen.
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“We are taking all the good ideas of the old UP and reflecting on the current situation to add new values — that is what makes it UP Plus.”
“The ‘Plus’ means we are building on the foundation of the old UP, but positioning ourselves to meet modern political realities,” he stated.
Mr. Owusu rejected suggestions that the party’s new identity infringes on the NPP’s historical claim to the UP tradition, arguing that the NPP has, over time, strayed from the broad-based ideology that originally defined the United Party.
“The NPP has reduced itself to what they call the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition, leaving out other founders who played critical roles. If you are not from these three gates, you have no real opportunity in the current NPP. We, on the other hand, want to build a national party where everyone matters — from the Ga, Ewe, and Nzema, to every other group in Ghana,” Mr. Owusu explained.
He claimed that the UP’s original history had been twisted for political propaganda, alleging that some key figures like Baffour Osei Akoto had been deliberately excluded from the narrative.
“Those who wrote the history conveniently took out people like Baffour Osei Akoto, who was a founding father of the NLM and part of the UP tradition,” he asserted.
Mr. Owusu emphasized that United Party Plus is determined to reclaim and modernize the true values of the old UP — inclusiveness, national unity, and economic empowerment — while appealing to Ghanaians disillusioned with the two dominant parties.
“We are not here to divide the tradition; we are here to restore it. Our vision is to make Ghana the economic powerhouse of Africa by 2040,” he added.