Former President John Dramani Mahama
Former Consul to Dubai, Daniel Osei, says it will be a disaster for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to allow former President John Dramani Mahama to lead the party as its flagbearer for the 2020 general election.
He said Mr Mahama, who appointed him consul, does not have the ‘discipline,’ ‘focus’ or the ‘moral turpitude’ to be the NDC’s flagbearer for 2020, adding that there’s no way Mr Mahama, whose life has been characterized by indecision as he stated in his autobiography, can lead the party to victory.
NDC’s Interest
“If possible, Mahama should not contest in the flagbearership as that will not be in the NDC’s interest,” Mr. Osei, who served under President Mahama, fired on Kasapa FM in Accra yesterday.
He said, “Mahama was not simply defeated by Akufo-Addo, he lost the Ghanaian electorate across board because his reign was terrible and his personality also didn’t help matters.”
The former consul added, “He gave deaf ears to issues raised by doctors and several other professional bodies. For the first time we lost the military and we started losing the military as early as 2014.”
Kidding Himself
According to Mr Osei, “Mahama is kidding himself if he says he’s coming back because the grassroots are calling for him. When he becomes our flagbearer he’s going to face the whole nation and these groups of persons are still there and they remember what he did to them.”
The former president, after being humiliated at the polls on December 7, 2016, announced over the weekend via Facebook that he was lacing his boots to contest again; but his comeback attempt is starting another round of ‘serious infighting’ in the NDC.
Even though he had always admonished his competitors not to peak against the ongoing reorganization of the party, strangely he took to the social media to announce his readiness to contest for the position of president once again.
But his announcement did not surprise the teeming members of the party because it is an open secret that he would contest the 2020 polls.
Other NDC chieftains who have declared their intention to challenge Mr. Mahama are second deputy speaker of parliament, Alban Bagbin; former NHIS boss, Sylvester Mensah; former Trade and Industry Minister, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah; former UPSA Rector, Prof. Joshua Alabi and Kweku Rickett Hagan, former Central Regional Minister.
Consul Osei has become a thorn in the flesh of the Mahama camp and has been firing from all cylinders since the so-called ‘Unity Walk’ programme began.
In December last year, he said he observed that the incessant tagging of party members, who disagreed with the camp of former President John Mahama, was dividing the NDC further, making it difficult for the party to unite.
He said events showed that it is the Mahama camp which is endangering the party since the former president’s core supporters have become intolerant of dissenting views and constructive criticisms.
“Because the focus has been on engineering the return of former President Mahama, more than building the party, they see any advice not emphasizing their position as bad and must be defeated with insults and the attack dogs, even if the advice is good for their agenda in the long term. If former President Mahama becomes the flag bearer, doesn’t he stand to benefit from a stronger party, if attention is paid to treating this lame horse of a party as he now describes us?”
Scandal-prone
Some of the NDC flagbearer aspirants have been cautioning against selecting Mr Mahama to lead the NDC once again.
Mr Alabi, for instance, has said among other things, that it would be too dangerous for the NDC delegates to give Mr. Mahama the nod for 2020 because in his view, he (Mahama) is scandal-prone and has corruption tag on him.
By William Yaw Owusu