Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin And John Dramani Mahama
Former majority leader of parliament, Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, has stressed that former President John Dramani Mahama was responsible for the massive defeat the National Democratic Congress (NDC) suffered at the hands of then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2016.
“We gave him (Mahama) the opportunity and we saw the end results – we lost with a record of over one million votes,” the NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Nadowli Kaleo in the Upper West Region, fired a salvo on Joy Fm.
He said that due to Mr. Mahama’s abysmal performance at the polls, there is no way the former president can win the internal contest to become the NDC’s flag bearer in 2020.
Mr. Bagbin, current 2nd deputy speaker of parliament, noted, “It’s the same thing – the good things that we did are credited to him, and, so, you don’t just take the assets; you also take the liabilities, so, he is mainly responsible for our loss.
“You lead, we follow, and, so, at the end of the day, when you mislead us, you cannot go and say that it’s somebody who has rather misinformed you to mislead us, no!”
Mr Bagbin thumped his chest that in spite of Mr. Mahama being touted as the frontrunner for the NDC 2020 flag bearer’s contest, the former president stands no chance.
“He started from 100%, and, so, if that 100% has reduced to 58%, then it’s good news,” Mr. Bagbin said in reaction to a recent survey conducted by the Department of Political Science, the University of Ghana.
“We were all under him; all of us in the NDC were under him; he was the first gentleman. He had all of us supporting him – 100% – and so, if that support has now reduced to 58%, which means that 58% of us are now supporting him, well, it’s good news for us the aspirants.
“It means as we go along, that will still be ebbing away and it’s most likely that by the time we get to the national primaries – maybe by the end of this year – it would have reduced to something below (58%),” Mr Bagbin underscored.
He also said he had no regrets when he criticized then President Mahama in public, insisting, “I don’t regret it at all,” and said it was time to stop “hero worshipping” because “nobody is a god.”
The 2nd deputy speaker said some of the members of the NDC lacked the courage to tell Mr. Mahama in the face that he was going wrong.
He said he had no ill-feeling towards the former president. “President Mahama has always been a very good brother of mine. I got to know him in senior high. He was one year behind me; his senior brother, Alfred, is my classmate and we finished sixth form together,” he recalled.
By William Yaw Owusu