By William
Yaw Owusu
Saturday
September 09, 2018
An opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC)
Member of Parliament, George Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, has said the party should
not allow former President John Dramani Mahama to lead the NDC in the 2020 presidential
election.
Mr. Ricketts-Hagan, a former Central Regional
Minister during the Mahama administration and currently the party’s MP for Cape
Coast South in the Central Region, said “the party needs rebranding with a new
face and it should not be the former president”.
"Those who came before us, including President
Mahama, have done their best and I think it is time that a new face appears on
the NDC’s scene to take the country forward and that is the reason I am
contesting,” he said on Accra FM.
The NDC flag bearer aspirant stated: “The NDC under
John Mahama’s administration did a lot of infrastructural projects more than
his predecessors and Ghanaians appreciated that work, but I always say that we
could have done more.
“There are other areas of governance that we fell
short and, so, after introspection, it has become necessary that the NDC rebrands
itself and provides new leadership for the new battle ahead. It is for this
reason that I believe in our party, the NDC, and in the country, we need to
move forward with a new leader.”
Letter
of Intent
In his letter of intent to lead the NDC for 2020
submitted recently, Mr. Ricketts-Hagan had said that the NDC needs new
‘vision’, ‘direction’ and ‘start’ which should be hinged on the party’s
principles of probity and accountability in order to win the 2020 election.
Mr. Ricketts-Hagan, who was also a deputy Minister
of Trade and Industry and also a deputy at the Ministry of Finance had said in
his letter of intent that “I am of the firm belief (sic) that the NDC party, if
well strengthened and reinvigorated to reflect the modern aspirations of our
people, it will continue to remain relevant to Ghanaians because it is
naturally the only political party in Ghana that can genuinely and sustainably
develop the resources nature has endowed us with by making use of full
mobilization of talents and energies of all our people to get us out of
poverty, improve the living conditions of our people and hold a better prospect
for our people.”
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 flag bearer for 2020.
All the NDC stalwarts who have declared their
intentions to lead the party in 2020 are saying the former president is
‘damaged goods’ and cannot be the flag bearer but he is adamant and is
determined to call the shots once again.
So far, about 10 aspirants have declared their
intentions to contest Mr. Mahama who is tipped to carry the day.
Other NDC aspirants and gurus in the party have
variously cautioned that the NDC would be doomed if Mr. Mahama is elected to
lead them in 2020 because according to them, he supervised the worst NDC
electoral defeat in the history of the party.
However, Mr. Mahama is adamant and appears to have
already set up his machinery for 2020 and was only waiting for the party’s
primaries in December, 2018.
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