ABA Fuseini
Leaders of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have gone on their knees to beg the rank and file of the party to forgive them.
They are now admitting that they really messed up and that led to the party’s massive defeat in 2016, noting that the division in the party ahead of the polls caused them a lot.
They have subsequently appealed to them to support them (leaders) to win the 2020 general election.
At an event in Koforidua in the Eastern Region organized by the Tertiary Institution Network (TEIN) – the tertiary institution wing of the NDC – the party’s MP for Sagnarigu, ABA Fuseini, said, “Those of us in the leadership of the NDC in the run-up to the 2016 elections, committed many mistakes – from his Excellency the President to the Vice President, to the ministers to us the MPs, the National Executives, every one of us, even including some of us in this room……”
He added, “And so like Ex-President Mahama has passionately accepted responsibility and appealed to us, I want to reiterate that we should find space in our hearts to forgive one another.
“We should find space in our hearts to leave what happened yesterday behind, I’m not saying we should forget it; let’s keep it in our memory so that we don’t go back and make the same mistakes. But let’s forgive and move forward. When you trip and fall, you don’t look at where you’re falling, you look at where you tripped so that you can draw useful lessons.”
After the 2016 defeat, the NDC tasked a 13-member Committee headed by former Finance Minister Prof. Kwesi Botchwey, to find out why they lost; and the findings indicated among other things, that it was due to the abuse of incumbency and the corruption tag put on Mr. Mahama and his appointees.
The NDC candidate and incumbent President Mahama set record when he became the first leader in Ghana’s democratic rule to lose a second term bid in an election.
He was beaten with a margin of over one million votes by then opposition candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Apart from President Mahama’s humiliating defeat, the NDC also lost about 49 parliamentary seats to the NPP and are now minority in parliament with only 104 seats against the NPP’s 171.
Since Mr. Mahama declared his intention to lead the NDC once again, a serious ‘fight’ has ensued in the opposition party over who is the right candidate to be the flag bearer for 2020.
Although he is the main contender to beat in the yet-to-be organized NDC primary to select a flag bearer, some of Mr. Mahama’s opponents in his own party are having issues with him over the declaration.
They are saying that the NDC cannot win the 2020 election with Mr. Mahama as its flag bearer because they claim they can’t campaign on the ‘sordid’ track record of the former president.
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Koforidua