By William
Yaw Owusu
Wednesday
May 23, 2018
Former Consul to
Dubai, Daniel Osei, says it will be a disaster for the opposition National
Democratic Congress (NDC) to allow former President John Dramani Mahama to lead
the party as its flagbearer for the 2020 general election.
He said Mr Mahama, who
appointed him consul, does not have the ‘discipline,’ ‘focus’ or the ‘moral
turpitude’ to be the NDC’s flagbearer for 2020, adding that there’s no way Mr Mahama, whose life has been
characterized by indecision as he stated in his autobiography, can lead the
party to victory.
NDC’s Interest
“If possible, Mahama
should not contest in the flagbearership as that will not be in the NDC’s
interest,” Mr. Osei, who served under President Mahama, fired on Kasapa FM in Accra yesterday.
He said, “Mahama was
not simply defeated by Akufo-Addo, he lost the Ghanaian electorate across board
because his reign was terrible and his personality also didn’t help matters.”
The former consul
added, “He gave deaf ears to issues raised by doctors and several other
professional bodies. For the first time we lost the military and we started
losing the military as early as 2014.”
Kidding Himself
According to Mr
Osei, “Mahama is kidding himself if he says he’s coming back because the
grassroots are calling for him. When he becomes our flagbearer he’s going to
face the whole nation and these groups of persons are still there and they
remember what he did to them.”
The former president,
after being humiliated at the polls on December 7, 2016, announced over the
weekend via Facebook that he was
lacing his boots to contest again; but his comeback attempt is starting another
round of ‘serious infighting’ in the NDC.
Even though he had
always admonished his competitors not to peak against the ongoing
reorganization of the party, strangely he took to the social media to announce
his readiness to contest for the position of president once again.
But his announcement
did not surprise the teeming members of the party because it is an open secret
that he would contest the 2020 polls.
Other NDC chieftains
who have declared their intention to challenge Mr. Mahama are second deputy
speaker of parliament, Alban Bagbin; former NHIS boss, Sylvester Mensah; former
Trade and Industry Minister, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah; former UPSA Rector, Prof. Joshua
Alabi and Kweku Rickett Hagan, former Central Regional Minister.
Consul Osei has
become a thorn in the flesh of the Mahama camp and has been firing from all
cylinders since the so-called ‘Unity Walk’ programme began.
In December last
year, he said he observed that the incessant tagging of party members, who
disagreed with the camp of former President John Mahama, was dividing the NDC
further, making it difficult for the party to unite.
He said events showed
that it is the Mahama camp which is endangering the party since the former
president’s core supporters have become intolerant of dissenting views and
constructive criticisms.
“Because the focus
has been on engineering the return of former President Mahama, more than
building the party, they see any advice not emphasizing their position as bad
and must be defeated with insults and the attack dogs, even if the advice is
good for their agenda in the long term. If former President Mahama becomes the
flag bearer, doesn't he stand to benefit from a stronger party, if attention is
paid to treating this lame horse of a party as he now describes us?”
Scandal-prone
Some of the NDC
flagbearer aspirants have been cautioning against
selecting Mr Mahama to lead the NDC once again.
Mr Alabi, for instance, has said among other things, that it would
be too dangerous for the NDC delegates to give Mr. Mahama the nod for 2020
because in his view, he (Mahama) is scandal-prone and has corruption tag on
him.
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