By William
Yaw Owusu
Saturday
September 01, 2018
In what can be considered as an attempt to avoid
keen competition in the upcoming congress, General-Secretary of the opposition
National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has claimed that the
changes in the leadership of the party was a major factor in the massive defeat
that the NDC suffered in 2016.
His position has come under threat since his deputy,
Koku Anyidoho, picked nomination forms to contest him. Some political analysts
have predicted that Koku is likely to defeat Mr. Asiedu Nketia, popularly
called General Mosquito, at the delegates’ congress of the party in October.
There is unconfirmed report that Asiedu Nketia had
sent emissaries to Koku to pipe down to allow him to go unopposed.
2014
Congress
The previous congress, held in 2014, acrimoniously
pushed out Dr. Kwabena Adjei and Yaw Boateng Gyan who had helped in bringing
the NDC to power in 2008 as National Chairman and National Organizer
respectively.
The NDC then brought in Kofi Portuphy and Kofi Adams
as National Chairman and National Organizer respectively after their campaigns
were glaringly sponsored from the Flagstaff House when John Mahama was the
president.
However, after just two years at the helm, Kofi
Portuphy and Kofi Adams alongside the NDC executives supervised the party’s
worst electoral defeat in 2016.
Fourth
Contest
Mr. Asiedu Nketia, who is contesting as General-Secretary
for the fourth time, is now realizing that it was that ‘wrong’ decision to
change Dr Kwabena Adjei and Yaw Boateng Gyan which ultimately hurt them in the
December 7, 2016, general elections, sending the NDC packing out of office and
making then President Mahama a one-term
president.
In essence, he is saying that the NDC should not
have changed a ‘winning team’.
Interestingly, these same political grouping including
Mr. Asiedu Nketia wanted their rival New Patriotic Party (NPP) to change its
leadership, particularly Freddie Blay as Chairman, when the ruling party went
to Koforidua to elect its national leaders last July.
Constant
Factor
"I am a constant factor in the two victories
and third defeat so when you are looking for causes of our defeat, you look at
the changes that took place," the NDC Scribe said on Joy FM, explaining that if two plus two is equal to four and you
replace one of the two with three the result is five meaning if you change a
winning team, you can only expect to lose.”
He said some in the party felt he had grown too
powerful and therefore sought to "clip his wings" by sponsoring
candidates to decimate the 2008, 2012 winning team.
He also said that the campaign messages for some of
the aspirants were "if you vote for me, I am going to clip his
wings," adding "those who felt their objective was to clip my wings
won and then we went into elections and lost.”
In analyzing the NDC’s worst ever electoral defeat
since the party was formed in 1992, the General-Secretary said "you don't
look at the constant factors; you look at the variables that came on
board".
He argued that if the "main objective" of
the new entrants to the NDC National Executive Committee was "not to clip
the feet of the elephant (reference to the NPP)" but that of the party's
General-Secretary "then we will be left with less power to win the
elections".
"All the discussions about Kwesi Botchwey
report, did you hear a single comment about me or about my performance?"
he asked when he tried to tout his political integrity.
In a related development, former President Jerry John
Rawlings who founded the NDC challenged the party’s delegates to select
candidates with integrity to lead the party during the regional delegates’
congress slated for today.
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