Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Saturday, April 08, 2017
The political turbulence that has hit the opposition
National Democratic Congress (NDC) following the party’s humiliating defeat in
the 2016 general election is continuing unabated.
This is because cadres and activists of the party are
putting pressure on the national executives to organize an early congress to
save the NDC from further disintegration.
Early
Congress
“We urge the current leadership of the party to call an
early congress to forestall the despondency that is fast creeping in, to be
exploited by adventurists,” Akuamoah Ofosu Boateng, secretary of the cadres,
said in a statement yesterday.
The party has already set up a 13-member Kwesi Botchwey
committee to look into why the NDC lost the election.
But even before the Botchwey Committee, which has been
facing challenges, would submit its report, there are cacophonous voices
calling for early congress and stepping aside of the current executives.
The cadres warned that before the congress was held, “The fraudulent party register that was
hurriedly put together without first piloting it to access its integrity should
be replaced,” and hinted of a court action if that was not done saying, “We
call on well-meaning members of the party to challenge its use, if need be, in
court.”
Flamboyant
Rallies
According to the cadres, the NDC, which they claimed was
founded on social democratic principles of probity and accountability as well
as grass root participation, rather embarked on a profligate adventure during
the 2016 electioneering campaign, which cost them dearly.
“The NDC 2016
campaign was characterized by flamboyant rallies
full of opulence and fanfare devoid of any political or ideological substance that
did not resonate with the actual people on the ground,” the statement
indicated.
Disjointed
Structures
“The structures of the NDC at the national, regional and constituency
levels refused to work at the grass roots. The Branch executives were virtually
sidelined when logistics and funds were provided from the higher levels.
Members at the branch levels were frustrated and neglected. The NDC campaign in
2016 neither energized the base nor encouraged new people to join the party.
“About one million of
our own people who voted for the NDC in 2012 felt excluded, alienated, disillusioned and abandoned by the
party they have loved ever since its
inception in 1992. They therefore decided to sit on the fence and watch
the unfolding events.”
Cadres
Snub
According to the cadres, the NDC national executives
deliberately ignored them during the campaign and said the party bigwigs saw
them as a nuisance in the run-up to the elections.
“The cadres of the National Democratic Revolution, who had
worked hard to unite their forces into the United Cadre Front (UCF) and had
been accepted and endorsed by the
National Executive Committee at a press conference organized at the
National Headquarters of the party, were
deliberately sidelined and ignored in the whole
campaign period,” the statement claimed, adding, “Indeed, before and
during the 2016 elections, these cadres
were seen by some leaders of the party and former government appointees
as a plaque to be avoided.”
Bad
Policies
According to them, the Mahama-led government abandoned the
policies and programmes “tailored to benefit the ordinary working people, but was
happily pursuing projects that largely
benefitted the elite and the privileged class in the society.
Business
People
The cadres said that the NDC leadership “did not only show
clear signs of exhaustion from eight years of
government, it also displayed a lack of ideological commitment to
social democracy if at all some of them
understood it.
“Key operatives became businessmen and women with business
proposals in their armpits as a past-time and therefore, lacked the zeal and
focus to drive a successful election.”
They also said some NDC leaders were bankrupt of new ideas,
while some appointees “demonstrated arrogance, showed vulgar opulence and
self-conceitedness in the mist of poverty and social deprivation.”
According to them, it was glaring that per the happenings in
the NDC, “the party was going to struggle to hold on to power in the 2016
elections.
“No wonder the NDC suffered a humiliating defeat never seen
in the annals of the party's political history.”
They added, “It is therefore not an understatement that the
party needs reorganization, if it is to be relevant in the current political
dispensation and to recover itself.”
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