John Mahama
THE LONDON-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has beset the National Democratic Congress (NDC), throwing the opposition party into disarray for suggesting that ex-President John Dramani Mahama, who led the party three times with two unsuccessful election campaigns in 2016 and 2020, is now a spent force.
According to the research and analysis division of the Economist group, even though the NDC “stands a reasonable chance of winning” the 2024 general election, it can only achieve that with a new candidate to revitalise its prospect, thereby igniting what critics called a “time bomb.”
The latest EIU five-year forecast for Ghana, which was released on April 13, 2022, indicated that “under constitutionally mandated term limits, the incumbent President, Mr. Akufo-Addo, cannot run for a third term.”
The EIU said its baseline forecast is anchored on the “ongoing public dissatisfaction with the slow pace of improvements in governance – such as infrastructure development, job creation and easing of corruption – will trigger anti-incumbency factors and push the electorate to seek a change.”
The report pointed out, however, that Ghanaians do not believe Mr. Mahama, who is considering to run again, represents the change they are looking for, and called on the “NDC to try to revitalise its prospects with a fresh candidate.”
The EIU’s proposal for the NDC to change its presidential candidate to guarantee wide support for the party, has beset the opposition party, whose national executives thought they had overcome their political crisis after the Supreme Court debacle over the election petition.
Already, the NDC Deputy General Secretary, Peter Boamah Otokunor, has discredited the report of the EIU, describing it as unscientific and one which does not deserve attention.
“I have maintained that you do not use guess work and conjectures in analysing political situations or economic situations. I have my own position about the EIU reports, I think they are not credible enough and they do not provide any credible recommendations for any political strategist to apply,” he told 3FM.
For Otokunor, the report is only a rehash of public knowledge on how governments change hands every eight years in Ghana, intimating that a suggestion by the EIU for the NDC to present a new candidate is laughable.
“I have seen the aspect on the Election Watch and I think it is most ridiculous to suggest that we could win 2024 if we change our candidate,” the NDC Deputy Chief Scribe stressed.
He said he would advise the NDC to select Mr. Mahama to lead it in 2024 since he “stands very tall” among all the people gunning for the flagbearership slot.
Kojo Bonsu
Before the EIU’s report, a contender for the NDC flagbearership, Kojo Bonsu, had indicated that former President Mahama’s reputation had been soiled beyond repair with “numerous allegations of corruption and women affairs.”
He said he stood a better chance to wrestle power from the ruling NPP than Mr. Mahama since he (Kojo Bonsu) was clean with his reputation intact.
Duffuor
While the NDC is in the spin over the EIU’s proposal to drop ex-President Mahama, a Political Communications lecturer, Dr. Kobby Mensah, is projecting former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, as an alternative, describing his recent “Ahotor Project” as novel and fantastic party gesture.
He said all political parties need such projects to resource their parties’ base, and urged the NDC to outline the modalities for the project being undertaken by Dr. Duffuor, who has declared his intention to lead the opposition party in 2024.
He has already been trying to make it a dead heat for ex-President John Dramani Mahama, who enjoys better footing in the crucial race.
Dr. Duffuor seems well poised to dislodge Mr. Mahama from the seat by reviving his campaign and preparing to launch his ‘NDC Ahotor Project for Grassroots’, whose pilot phase came off on Thursday, April, 7, 2022, at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region.
He earlier on received a delegation of NDC constituency chairpersons from the Greater Accra Region, led by Tony Afenyo, the constituency chairman, at his office at the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) at the Airport Residential Area in furtherance of his presidential bid.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu