After listening to the aspirant, I asked myself why the man is still aspiring to lead the NDC after carefully enumerating the causes of our defeat. Undoubtedly, John Mahama is the star of the NDC .
With great oratory skill coupled with his unprecedented governance record, John Mahama will not leave a chance to win over the hearts and minds of electorates. He knows how to strike a right chord according to place, people and time in respective constituencies, regions etc. There are many strategic surprises yet to be unravelled in times to come. We know he is good at throwing surprises. Mahama is far far ahead of the other aspirants in terms of political experience. He doesn’t need the national executives support to defeat them convincingly in the coming contest. Silvester doesn’t have the guts and wherewithal to stop John Mahama’s march to the Jubilee House. Silvester spoke as if the aspirants were made to furnish the executives with their bank accounts or declare their assets. The argument he is pushing -that the Ghc 420,000 was charged to skew the election in favour of John Mahama is baseless and legless.
So, let’s find out how the party settled its bills (electricity etc) after the defeat. Contributions made to the party by the aspirants to settle some of its bills including electricity, water etc.
As someone aspiring to lead the Party, I expect him to measure comments he put out for the public’s consumption. The election is over- How to get rid of the elephant is the next agenda.
All that aside, party discipline is also important. Under the Westminster system, a member of each PARTY is officially designated or elected as a whip whose role it is to enforce a party discipline. We operate that here. The party as the main vehicle also have rules, conventions and laws regulating its activities. It behooves on all including senior comrades like Sylvester to make sure comrades adhere strictly to these rules and tenets. So, for an aspirant to vehemently condemn our executives for failing to settle electricity bills is unfortunate and unnecessary. How much did he contribute to the party when he occupied the boss of NHIA position. How many times did he visit the party’s office (headquarters) after the defeat.
He focused is on Akufo Addo’s failure and how he deceived Ghanaians with his promises. Doesn’t that vindicate John Mahama? John Mahama was kicked our of office because of the many lies and promises the Npp told Ghanaians which had been confirmed by Sylvester.
Nana Akufo Addo donated an amount of Ghc 600,000 to the Npp to support the party’s election activities. Was it accepted by the party’s leadership to skew the election to his advantage? Using unfair condemnation, distorted stories and lies to gain reputational benefits is dangerous. The problem with hatred is that it quickly escalates. What starts as mere intolerance or political bias could easily become more alarming. Some politicians use the pyramid of hate to drive awareness and small intolerance acts can turn into dangerous ones. Why has the man who magnanimously appointed some of the aspirants into his administration, become their target. That base of the hate pyramid is when their prejudice is expressed through jokes , criticism, false allegations and other expressions of their bias. It feels and appears harmless but quickly moves to the next level and that is what we beginning to witness internally.
John Mahama will emerge the winner, the delegates, supporters, sympathisers etc have spoken via their donations towards his filing fee etc.
After the 2016 election, I wrote series of articles on party funding in opposition. The 2020 election campaign is not going to be about experimentation and susu collection. The party- from the branches to national must be resourced adequately and that will involve money. The party does not have a well designed mechanism to raise funds internally. The party will still depend on donations and internal funds mobilisation. It is now clear that about 80 percent of the responsibility (of raising funds for the party’s campaign) would rest on the presidential candidate.
I wrote about the West Africa Network and the influence it has on elections in West Africa. It started in the 90s and still dictating the pace of politics in the subregion. The NDC is lucky going to have a candidate who understand these dynamics, who is highly respected by these kingpins in the region and who have suddenly become the darling “boy” of these political lords. Do they understand why organisations and educational institutions are conferring awards on the Former President? Why he is being invited by respected institutions across the globe to talk about good governance, corruption etc?
Sylvester is one of the young men in NDC I admire and respect highly hence my worry and disappointment. What he told the delegates was false, needless, and baseless. After all, Ghanaians via their contributions towards John’s filing fee have shown their readiness to support him till he wears the victory crown.
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