By
William Yaw Owusu
Tuesday,
September 19, 2017
Details are emerging about the report of the
Professor Kwesi Botchwey Committee that investigated why the National
Democratic Congress (NDC) lost the December 7, 2016 general elections,
describing former President John Dramani Mahama as living the life of a movie
star in the run-up to the election.
“President Mahama lived a life of a movie star,” the
65-page Executive Summary of the report, kept like a state secret, states on
Page 27.
Damning
Conclusions
The supposedly confidential report - a copy of which
is in possession of DAILY GUIDE - made damning conclusions on the role played by
Mr. Mahama and a few of his aides in the massive electoral defeat of the NDC
last year.
According to the report, President let himself down
with his attitude towards the campaign, saying, “John Mahama lost the elections
and not the NDC.
“President Mahama ignored the Akuse strategy. It
included no flamboyant campaign, no amorphous group, etc,” it said.
It also maintained that “the president’s inner
circles were so intolerant that when you criticize the president, you are
condemned.”
Collation
Mess
The report described the NDC’s collation of the
election results as ‘complete mess,’ saying, “The situation brought
dysfunctionalism in the party to a head!”
It said the NDC was “intolerant of the media and
disrespected its own media.”
“Party spokespersons go and mess up with other
stations and come to do the damage control on Radio Gold.”
According to the report, there was “disconnection
between the government and party, as well as disconnection between the party
and the grassroots.”
Some have said that the damning revelation is going
to make it difficult for Mr. Mahama - who is lacing his boots to lead the NDC
once again for the 2020 presidential election – to make a comeback, but recent
events show clearly that the former president is on course to become the NDC
flag bearer again.
Implementation
Committee
The 13-member committee, chaired by Professor Kwesi
Botchwey with influential personalities like the former speaker of parliament,
Edward Doe Adjaho on board, had presented the report on Monday, June 19 and the
party subsequently formed an Implementation Committee (IC), made up of
respected NDC gurus like Kofi Totobi Quakyie, Nana Ato Dadzie, Kwame Peprah,
among others, to work out the modalities of re-organization of the party as
recommended in the report.
However, the Implementation Committee did not even
know that the Functional Executive Committee (FEC) of the NDC had already set
up sub-committees to commence work until recently.
Subtle
Attempt
Some members are already complaining bitterly about
what they claim to be a subtle attempt by the camp of former President Mahama
to take control of the NDC so that his ambition to lead the NDC again will be
fulfilled.
Some cynically claim that the Mahama camp is getting
its people to head the various sub-committees so that the damning verdict about
the former president and his inner circle in the report would be watered down.
Angry
Members
The situation has got some NDC members of the grassroots
- who believe the former president
might not be the ideal candidate for the party for the 2020 presidential
election - agitated because they are claiming that it was these same bigwigs
who were indicted in the Prof Kwesi Botchwey Committee report.
“They have been able to push the former president’s
trusted lieutenants to head committee positions for the reorganization
exercise, even though these same groups of people were mentioned as
contributing heavily to our disgraceful defeat on December 7, 2016,” an NDC
source said.
Old
Faces
According to him, the report had tasked the party’s
leadership to assemble persons with ‘unquestionable’ backgrounds to spearhead
the reorganizational process, but it is turning out that the same old faces are
doing the work.
"Former President Mahama is bent on doing
everything possible to ensure that he becomes the NDC 2020 flag bearer. He
wants to do it without any fierce competition. As we speak, he has managed to
get his loyalists like Julius Debrah, Dzifa Ativor, Prosper Bani, Nana Oye
Lithur, Omane Boamah and others to take over committees formed to implement the
report,” the source claimed.
Implementation
Sub-Committees
The source said that the FEC had formed
sub-committees such as Women’s Affairs Committee, to be headed by Dzifa Aku
Attivor, former Minister of Transport, with Nana Oye Lithur, former Minister of
Gender and Social Protection, in support.
There is also the sub-committee for Welfare and
Fundraising to be headed by former Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah and former
Interior Minister, Prosper K. Bani, while Fonu Kapatakpa and Abigail Elorm
Mensah are said to be heading the Committee on Youth.
Abrupt
Meeting
“Recently, FEC meeting ended abruptly because of
disagreement over the inclusion of these people. Page 26 specifically mentioned
their names as persons who contributed to our defeat. When this point was
raised at the FEC meeting, it resulted in exchanges,” the source revealed.
Real
Intentions
According to the source, almost all those appointed to
the sub-committees are also lacing their boots to contest national positions
when nominations open.
The source claimed for instance, that Julius Debrah
would contest for the national chairman slot; Dzifa Ativor, national vice
chairperson; Nana Oye Lithur, national women’s organizer; Prosper Bani, Volta
Regional chairman; and they are said to be doing it to consolidate their hold
on the party so that Mahama would have unfettered access to the flagbearership
position.
Brokering
Deals
According to the source, some of those appointed
into the sub-committees are said to be campaigning vigorously at the FEC to get
their names deleted from the Prof Botchwey report, and that delayed the release
of the report to the public.
“They want to
do this to dwarf Rawlings and the Ahwois’ influence in the party, but it won't
work,” he charged.
No comments:
Post a Comment