Peter Boamah Otokunor
MEMBERS OF the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) are begging Ghanaians to feed the party with fresh ideas to enable them to prepare their manifesto for the 2020 general elections.
Ghanaians that are ready to freely supply credible information and ideas to the largest opposition political party are free to do so between now and December 7, this year, the party has announced to the public.
Speaking on Kumasi-based Hello FM, Peter Boamah Otukonor, Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, confirmed a letter he had authored to that effect that is circulating on social media.
He entreated Ghanaians, especially those that have the NDC at heart, to assist in this direction, saying “the NDC has opened its doors for patriotic Ghanaians to supply the party with information as to what should be done to help develop our country so that we will capture the ideas in our manifesto for the 2020 polls.”
“As I speak with you now, the party has opened its doors to receive suggestions and ideas from the public so that we can capture them in our manifesto. This important exercise will end in December 7, 2019,” he announced.
Political Pundits Reaction
Interestingly, in the history of Ghana’s political landscape, this is the first time a major political party has boldly come out to appeal to the public to feed it with ideas and plans to enable it write its manifesto as though it does not have plans on its own to develop Ghana should it form the next government.
NDC Defends Action
Mr. Otukonor, who didn’t see anything wrong with the NDC’s ‘fresh’ political strategy, said “you cannot do the same things all the time and expect different results. That is why we have started this new exercise.”
He said the NDC believes that Ghanaians are feeling the heat of what he called “the poor leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government” and, therefore, the citizenry are the right target for the NDC to ask for ideas for their 2020 manifesto.
He claimed the country “critically needs a saviour after the appalling leadership style of the NPP administration so far”, and added that Ghana needed a ‘rescuer’ in 2020 and the NDC, with former President John Mahama, was poised to win the polls and save the country.
Original Statement
In the original statement signed by Mr. Otokunor, the NDC said, “The objective to develop a ‘Grassroots Manifesto’ is driven by the need to give meaning to our Social Democratic principles of inclusivity and mass participation in the pursuit of growth and development of our country.”
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi