By William
Yaw Owusu
Tuesday August
21, 2018
There appears to be a consensus among the leadership
of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that former President John
Dramani Mahama will lead the NDC into another electoral debacle if he is
elected as the party’s flagbearer for 2020.
All the NDC stalwarts, who have declared their
intention to lead the party in 2020, have described former President as
‘damaged goods’ who cannot be the flagbearer but he is adamant and determined
to call the shots once again.
So far about six aspirants have declared their
intention to contest John Mahama, who is tipped to carry the day but has not
declared yet.
Intense
Campaign
The aspirants are currently criss-crossing the
country to woo delegates to their respective camps ahead of the December 7
contest, and one of the contenders, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, appears to
be very vocal in urging the NDC to reject Mr. Mahama.
The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament and MP for
Nadowli Kaleo in the Upper West Region is the latest to turn the heat on John
Mahama.
Mr Bagbin, who toured the Volta Region over the
weekend, asked the delegates not to endorse the former President but rather
select him (Bagbin) to lead the NDC in 2020.
He claimed Mr Mahama sidelined those who worked hard
to bring him and the NDC to power and rather surrounded himself with those who
did not contribute anything to the NDC’s victory but rather interested in
acquiring wealth.
He said most of the Mahama boys are proud owners of
Toyota Land Cruiser V8 and mansions, while the large majority of the party
supporters are wallowing in poverty.
Cronyism
& Rejection
“Now, the people that are with me who are supporting
me and who believe in me, and believe in the things that I said I am going to
do – when I get that power, it’s those people that I have to use to do what we
promised the people. When you get into power and decide to leave them, and then
go and bring some other people that have not worked with you; that do not
believe in you; that do not know your policies to work with; you will definitely
have problems,” Mr Bagbin told the chiefs and elders of Nkwanta in the Volta
Region last Tuesday as part of his campaign tour.
According to Mr Bagbin, upon his assessment of the
former President’s performance, he has come to the conclusion that Mr. Mahama
contributed to the party’s massive defeat in 2016 and should not be allowed to
lead the NDC in 2020, saying in any human institution, a leader could only get
the best from his people if he recognized and rewarded those who sacrificed to
make that institution a success.
Rich
& Powerful
He said the ‘latter day saints’ in the party became
rich overnight, acquiring wealth at the expense of the ordinary party members.
“Don’t tell me that the boys that suddenly came
closer to the president within four years can build mansions and buy Land
Cruisers and you say there are no resources, where are they getting the money,
their salaries?” Mr Bagbin quizzed at the meeting of constituency executives in
Keta.
“So, father for all is good but don’t forget that
you have a wife and children and so if you can’t even take care of your wife
and children, how can you take care of all of them? We have a problem that we
have to look into,” he said.
“We used to have a lot of the youth with NDC. Today,
the youth are leaving and joining NPP and other parties. In Volta Region, the
world bank of the NDC where we used to harvest the votes; in 2016 they showed
us the red card.”
He said “something is wrong that is why they did
that. Not because they don’t like NDC but something went wrong so they showed
us the red card. We used to get over 85% turnouts and voting for the NDC. The
last election we got about 62%. Something is wrong. And so when I say we must
change I am not talking about only changing the leader John Dramani Mahama but
I am also talking about the way we do things as a party,” he said.
The
Rawlingses
Mr. Bagbin said “it is very important that you will
see that the people who are committed to the NDC are leaving one by one. Even
our first mother, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings has to go and form another
party. We don’t see anything wrong with it?”
He added “the Founding Father, Jerry John Rawlings
is now criticizing us. We need to sit up and go into these issues because
politics is about numbers and we need all the numbers. When you look at our
cadres – when you look at our founding fathers – how have we taken care of
them?”
Media
Hostilities
Addressing constituency executives from Central,
North and South Tongu and Akatsi North and South at Sogakope, Mr Bagbin also
said that the NDC government did not help pro-NDC media outlets and that
contributed to the party’s defeat.
He said “we have forgotten that every message we
hope to carry across is supposed to be done by the media, why then do we become
hostile towards the media?”
He said that a number of pro-NDC newspapers
collapsed under the previous government, adding that there was no cordial
relationship between the NDC as a party and as a government with the media.
He promised to introduce measures that will woo the
heart of the media in order to disband what he called the existing media cabal.
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