Former President John Dramani Mahama
Alban Bagbin in August 2018 blamed former president John Dramani Mahama for the National Democratic Congress’s defeat in the 2016 elections.
According to him, Mr. Mahama’s failure to reward “loyalty” cost them the presidential elections. He again warned the party against electing him as a flagbearer ahead of the 2020 elections.
“Something is wrong. And so when I say we must change I am not talking about only changing the leader John Dramani Mahama but I am also talking about the way we do things as a party”, he said in an address to the Chiefs and Elders of Nkwanta in the Volta Region.
Read the full story originally published on August 17, 2018, on Ghanaweb
The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has appealed to delegates of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) not to give another chance to former President of the Republic, John Dramani Mahama, to lead the party into the 2020 general elections.
To him, having assessed the performance of the former Ghanaian leader, he can only conclude that he contributed greatly to the defeat of the party in the 2016 elections and therefore does not deserve to lead the umbrella family for a third time.
Per his assessment, he said the former President failed to reward loyalty which therefore gave room for apathy to set in, a situation, he noted, was the root cause of the NDC’s abysmal performance in the last general elections.
Addressing the Chiefs and Elders of Nkwanta in the Volta Region on Tuesday, August 14, 2018, Hon. Bagbin who is also the Member of Parliament for Nadowli/Kaleo said in any human institution, a leader could only get the best from his people if he recognizes and rewards those who have sacrificed their all to make that institution a success.
“We used to have a lot of the youth with NDC. Today, the youth are leaving and join NPP and other parties. In Volta Region, the world bank of the NDC where we used to harvest the votes; 2016 they showed us the red card. Something is wrong that is why they did that. Not because they don’t like NDC but something went wrong so they showed us the red card. We used to get over 85% turnouts and voting for the NDC. The last election we got about 62%. Something is wrong. And so when I say we must change I am not talking about only changing the leader John Dramani Mahama but I am also talking about the way we do things as a party”, he said.
He added “Now, the people that are with me who are supporting me and who believe in me, and believe in the things that I said I am going to do – when I get that power, it is those people that I have to use to do what we promised the people. When you get into power and decide to leave them, and then go and bring some other people that have not worked with you; that do not believe in you; that do not know your policies to work with; you will definitely have problems. So, father for all is good but don’t forget that you have a wife and children and so if you can’t even take care of your wife and children, how can you take care of all of them? We have a problem that we have to look into it. It is very important – that you will see that the people who are committed to the NDC they are leaving one by one. Even our first mother, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings has to go and form another party. We don’t see anything wrong with it? The Founding Father, Jerry John Rawlings is now criticizing us. We need to sit up and go into these issues because politics is about numbers and we need all the numbers. When you look at our cadres – when you look at our founding fathers – how have we taken care of them?” he quizzed.
He said his concerns have never changed since he used to express them the way he was doing when the NDC was in government but did not get any results because those in authority didn’t see the need to change their ways.
The results of turning a deaf ear to all those concerns raised by him and some other party functionaries, the Nadowli/Kaleo lawmaker noted, was the woeful defeat the NDC suffered at the hands of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2016 general elections.
In the 2016 Presidential elections, the NDC then led by President John Dramani Mahama polled 4,713,277 votes against 5,716,026 votes that was garnered by then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.