By William
Yaw Owusu
Saturday
August 04, 2018
Sylvester A.
Mensah, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health
Insurance Authority (NHIA), has become the first stalwart of the National
Democratic Congress (NDC) to officially announce his intention to lead the
opposition party as presidential candidate in the 2020 election.
The NDC flagged off the race on Thursday and
announced that presidential hopefuls can start campaigning.
Interestingly, the party has not elected national
officers to preside over the process and set guidelines for the conduct of the
candidates.
Sources said the main opposition party was stampeded
into lifting the ban on campaigning following declarations by Minority MPs to
back John Mahama.
However, the party gave a caveat in lifting the ban,
saying aspirants should notify the party before hitting the ground running.
So far, five people have declared their plans to
take part in the election, which has been slated for December 7, 2018, exactly
two years to the next general elections.
The presidential hopefuls are John Mahama, Joshua
Alabi, Sylvester Mensah, Alban Bagbin and Ekwow Spio-Garbrah.
Bizarre
Essay Contest
Interestingly, although all the other aspirants,
including former president John Mahama, have hit the ground running, former
Trade and Industry Minister, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, bizarrely prefers to organize ‘Essay
competition’ to test his popularity
before making up his mind.
Mr Spio-Garbrah, whose leading campaign team member
dumped him recently, published an advertisement in a newspaper on Wednesday and
asked NDC communicators to declare him fit to lead the party in 2020.
The advert reads: Flagbearership contest for the NDC
National Essay Contest open to elected NDC Communication Officers and the essay
topic is: “Why do you think Ekwow Spio-Garbrah will be a good leader for the
NDC and a very good president of Ghana.”
Spio’s advert said “the essay competition is open to
all NDC elected communicators at the branch and constituency and aspiring
regional and national communicators.”
It said that the closing date is August 15, 2018.
The winner would take home GH¢3,000, GH¢2,000 for
second prize winner, GH¢1,000 for third prize and GH¢500 for 4th to
8th positions, and GH¢200 for 6th to 10 positions
respectively.
Serious
Aspirant
Barely 24 hours after the leadership of the party
released a timetable for the party’s upcoming elections from regional to
national level, Sylvester Mensah, wrote a letter to the General Secretary of
the party to notify him of his intention to enter the race to become flagbearer
of the NDC.
“I am pleased to thank you and the entire National
Executive Committee of the party for officially declaring campaign activities
towards the party’s presidential primaries open,” Mr. Mensah said in the
letter.
He stated: “Having engaged in a nationwide
consultation on the future leadership of our dear party, I am able to confirm
that I would be contesting the vacant position of flagbearer for our dear
party, the NDC,” adding “it’s my conviction that this communication satisfies
the initial requirement of notification of intent to the party.”
It is an open secret that even though campaign
activities towards the party’s presidential primaries official began on
Thursday, some of the aspirants started campaigning about a year ago.
Mahama’s
Bid
Former President John Mahama, who wants to lead
Ghana again, has been campaigning under the guise of ‘Unity Walk’ which other
aspirants said has been skewed in his favour by the leadership of the party.
Already, some elders of the party, especially those
from the Volta Region, which is the NDC’s stronghold, have dumped Mr. Mahama
for Joshua Alabi, the immediate–past Rector of the University of Professional
Studies (UPSA).
Former Foreign Minister under the Rawlings-led NDC
administration, James Victor Gbeho, recently called Mr. Mahama a failure for
leading the party to lose the 2016 election miserably.
The experienced diplomat, who was once MP for Anlo,
said the time has come for the party to rebrand and build on its shortfalls in
2016 by electing a flagbearer, who has a better chance of leading the party to
win the 2020 election.
“The reality now is that we are rebranding
everything. In all democracies around the world, when you go to an election and
you lose as badly as we did, the leadership steps aside not because you want to
sack people, but it gives the party an opportunity to rebrand itself to look at
its faults and change its ways and that is what we are doing now,” Mr. Gbeho
told NDC faithful at a meeting at Ashaiman.
He said the NDC would make a big mistake if it
relies solely on appearance and votes for Mr. Mahama again for the next
election, saying it would be wrong to just follow somebody because of his good
looks.
“My brother
(Hon Ken Dzirasah) and I sat down one afternoon by the riverside in Sogakope.
We thought a lot about our party. We thought a lot about the younger
generation. And we asked ourselves who can lead us now? After consultations, we
agreed that our best hope was in no other person than Professor Joshua Alabi,”
he asserted.
Dzirasah’s
Jab
A former Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ken Dzirasah,
also said Mr Alabi is more marketable than former president Mahama.
“I want to say that after several reflections on the
way forward for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), myself and my good
brother Ambassador Gbeho conducted few investigations and came to the
conclusion that the most marketable personality that could carry us into the
year 2020 as flagbearer is Joshua Alabi.”
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