By
William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday,
September 20, 2017
Stanislav Xoexe Dogbe, the trusted aide of former
President John Mahama, together with former Minister of Communications, Dr.
Edward Kofi Omane Boamah, have been heavily criticized in the report of the Professor
Kwesi Botchwey Committee that investigated why the National Democratic Congress
(NDC) embarrassingly lost the December 7, 2016 general elections.
According to the report, apart from the former president,
who was described as living a life of a ‘movie star’ in the run-up to the
crucial general elections, the two aides should also take a portion of the
blame for the NDC’s unprecedented defeat.
Between Pages 26 and 27 of the 65-page Executive
Summary of the 455-page report which the NDC has kept like a state secret, it
recounted how the behaviour of Stan Dogbe, in particular, caused the then
ruling party’s massive defeat.
Mahama
Naked
According to the report, “Dr. Omane Boamah and Stan
Dogbe were the president’s undoing. The president was virtually naked with the
two around him.”
Apparently referring to the NDC’s much hyped garnering
of one million votes from the Ashanti Region during the electioneering campaign
last year - which never materialized - the report indicated that the votes
could have been garnered from elsewhere, had it not been for the fanfare and
road show-like campaign.
“Doing away with Stan Dogbe and Omane Boamah could
have earned the president one million votes so he didn’t have to look to the
Ashanti Region for the one million votes,” the supposedly confidential report -
a copy of which is in possession of DAILY GUIDE - said.
“Omane Boamah and Stan Dogbe convinced the president
that he was more popular than the NDC ticket,” the report stated, adding “The
two were also the shadow actors of the government.
“The
president’s inner circles were so intolerant that when you criticize the
president, you are condemned.”
Mahama
Comeback
The report recommended, “If John Mahama wants to
come back he should purge himself of Stan Dogbe and co,” adding, “…we will be
surprised if President John Mahama decides to continue to keep Stan Dogbe, Dr.
Omane Boamah, Joyce Bawa Mogtari and still have hope of winning elections.”
Damning
Conclusions
The ‘confidential’ report has made damning
conclusions on the role played by Mr. Mahama himself in the massive electoral
defeat of the NDC last year.
According to it, Mahama had 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.”
Mahama
Adamant
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 bent on becoming the NDC flag
bearer again.
Even though the report has clearly recommended that
he should not surround himself with persons like Joyce Bawa Mogtari, Omane
Boamah and Stan Dogbe, among others, Mrs Mogtari, who was the spokesperson for
the failed Mahama 2016 re-election campaign team, is still the spokesperson of
Mr Mahama as former president.
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, 2017
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 it again will be
fulfilled.
They 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 circles in the report would be watered down.
Angry
Members
The situation has gotten 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.
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