Former President John Dramani Mahama
Pressure is mounting on the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to launch its manifesto for the December 2020 general election.
After selecting its flagbearer former President John Dramani Mahama more than one year ago, the NDC appears to be ‘struggling’ to launch its manifesto.
Its opponent, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in the past two months, has selected its presidential candidate and running mate and also launched its manifesto just last weekend.
Interestingly, the NDC that appears to have ‘time’ on its side is still trailing its main opponent regarding the itinerary for Election 2020.
The NDC elements even introduced their running mate, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, after the NPP had acclaimed President Akufo-Addo and Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia when in actual fact former President Mahama was selected by the NDC to lead the party in February 2019.
Feet dragging
On July 1, during the Republic Day holiday, Mr. Mahama had posted on social media that he received the NDC manifesto from the party’s Manifesto Working Committee and the indications were that they were going to launch their manifesto.
He had said, “Happy Republic Day! I have received a copy of our manifesto for the December 2020 elections from the Manifesto Working Committee. This document, The People’s Manifesto, will represent the NDC and my social contract with the good people of Ghana. I thank you all for your contributions to the compilation, and as I have promised, I look forward to the Policy Dialogue Series through which I will be sharing details of the various sectors and themes of the manifesto.”
A leaked document, which their critics claimed was the real manifesto, had July 2020 as the publication date.
August 29 Agenda
Recently the NDC said it had set August 29 for the launch of the party’s manifesto for the 2020 elections.
Kakra Essamuah, NDC Communications Director, had told Graphiconline that “ours is provisionally fixed for August 29; it is provisional, it is not something that has been firmed. When it is firmed-up, it will be announced.”
“As far as the NDC is concerned, everything that we do is according to our own plan, we are not looking at what the NPP is doing and the reason is very simple, all parties will go to the poll on the same date but we have different plans leading to that date (sic),” saying that “they (NPP) have not brought forth any original or new ideas as to what they would do if they are given the chance to lead this country. They and their supporters have now sunk to very dirty campaigning which does not promote democracy and our image as a country that loves democracy (sic).”
August 31 Date
In the ensuing heat, the party’s communication officer, Sammy Gyamfi, said at their press conference yesterday that they would launch it on Monday, August 31.
“The flagbearer of the NDC has indicated that our manifesto will be launched this month. I am a member of the manifesto launch committee and it was decided that our manifesto would be launched on August 31. And to those of you who are wondering whether it will be in Accra or another region, it will be in Accra,” he disclosed.
Nana Fire
During his tour of the Western and Central regions, President Akufo-Addo fired the NDC members in Takoradi and said “they have no message for Ghanaians.”
“The NDC and its flagbearer have not been able to come out with a clear message or a policy they will implement geared towards the people’s development. Aside from that it takes the NDC and its leader too long to make decisions.
“It took a long time for them to decide who should be their running mate and it has taken them a long time for them to come out with their manifesto,” the President stated.
Free Copy
During the launch of the NPP manifesto, the NPP General Secretary, John Boadu, made a sarcastic statement to the effect that the NDC could feel free to copy from the NPP document, suggesting that the opposition party lacks ideas to prepare one independently.
“They announced two months ago that their manifesto was ready, but they have not been able to launch it. Obviously, they are waiting for us to launch our manifesto so they can copy, as usual, since they have no original ideas. Well, we have launched ours so they are free to copy.
“We are here to witness the unveiling of the document that will see to the consolidation of the gains made in the unprecedented national digitization agenda of this government; the gains made in the provision of value for money infrastructure for all, not just for the big cities; the gains made in the One District One Factory; the gains made in the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative,” Mr. Boadu pointed out.
Sekou Jab
Sekou Nkrumah, son of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who has broken ranks with the NDC, mocked his former party when he appeared to suggest that they could just go for the NPP manifesto and prepare just the opposite for launching.
“Why are people asking for the NDC manifesto? They should just get the NPP one and just read the opposite!” he posted on Facebook.
NDC Stance
The NDC members, despite having no manifesto of theirs, have been shredding the NPP document, claiming it is empty.
NDC Deputy General Secretary Peter Boamah Otokunor described the NPP manifesto as ‘recycle of promises’ and claimed the promises were not feasible.
“You would see clearly that the manifesto they put out was not a manifesto that inspired hope. We expect that a manifesto for a government that is in power will inspire hope and provide the needed vision that Ghanaians can rely on to make any meaningful decisions, but here we are; it is the same old recycled, outrageous promises without any basis or clear direction. Most of the promises were made because they thought that they had to say something,” he claimed.
By Ernest Kofi Adu