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Your Excellency the Vice President Our National Chairman

General Secretary

My brothers and sisters

We started out to create a modern political party, based on technology that is available to us in the 21st century, using ICT to create a modern database of our members.

We opened registration for all our members who wished to be registered biometrically and be issued with NDC party ID cards.
The results have been overwhelming. More than one million people have filed to be registered in our database as members of our great party.

I have been a member of this party since 1994. Never have I seen the base and the grassroots of our party so energized and motivated as I have during the 10-region “Changing Lives and Transforming Ghana” tour that climaxed last Thursday in Ho in the Volta Region.

Early this year, haven registered a substantial number of our members on the database; it was proposed that we use the register of members as the basis for the selection of our Presidential and Parliamentary candidates.

There was so much objection and skepticism accompanying the proposal. Many reasons were adduced as to why such an idea would not be feasible.

On this occasion therefore, I want to salute our great Chairman, our indefatigable General Secretary, our functional executives and NEC members, who stood firm and resolved that universal suffrage must be the basis for the selection of our Presidential and Parliamentary candidates.

Even when the register was finalized and being exhibited, many were those who felt strongly that the register had been infiltrated by non NDC members whose sole aim was to vote against our viable Parliamentary candidates or vote no in the Presidential ballot.

I said during the “changing lives and transforming Ghana tour” that this new “system might not be perfect, but it is certainly better than the system we used previously.”

Most political parties use a smaller representative Electoral College system. As far as I know, this is the first time in Africa or any part of the world, any political party has opened up participation in such a critical process to all its members.
NDC has set a standard which I am sure would be emulated in the future by other political parties not only in Ghana, but in Africa and the rest of the world.

We are a social democratic party and we believe that power must reside with the people. As leaders we must have confidence to place the destiny of our party and our country in the hands of our people.

The Electoral Commission has just informed us, that with the results of 265 constituencies tallied, I have obtained an endorsement of 95.1% from members of my party.

General Secretary, Party members,
This figure is significantly higher than the 50% + 1 endorsement our constitution requires me to obtain.

With the novelty of this new system and the greater participation it afforded all members of our party to vote in these primaries, I feel very humbled by this overwhelming endorsement I have received.

Since I swore the oath of President on 7th January 2013, I have done my best to uphold that oath and take decisions that are in the national interest.

I am not perfect as a human and I believe that no human can lay claim to perfection except the almighty God.

It has been a challenging three (3) years. An election petition that created uncertainty and dragged on for 8 long months; market fires that affected almost regions of the country; nationwide strike actions; serious challenges with the economy; and most serious of all a power shortage, which is still with us.

These are just a few of the challenges that confronted the early years of my administration.

In these 3 years, I have been confronted with situations that have required me to take difficult decisions that ultimately have been in the interest of the nation. In all such times, I have done this by seeking the face of God, but also in the realization that the alternative of not acting would be worse for our people.

As leader of our party, not all our members would have agreed with my style of governance or the decisions I may have made, but yet I believe we have the same objective and need to work together to achieve our shared dream.

Working together in these Presidential and Parliamentary primaries, we have achieved something very beautiful. And in recording the history of this moment, all who worked in our party to make this possible will have their names written in letters of gold.

His Excellency the Vice President, Our Honourable Chairman,
Our party has spoken! Please let me first congratulate the vast number of NDC members who turned out to vote.

I wish to thank all our party members, male and female, young and old, and all who endured the long queues with the determination to cast their vote in the knowledge and confidence that, that single vote will make a difference.

Our party has proved again what true democracy is. NDC is a party of unity, peace and democracy. A party that makes the difference; and a party that leaves no one behind.

I wish to congratulate all persons who filed their nominations to participate in these primaries, especially the women.

It takes courage to step into the political arena and it is particularly difficult for women. I regret that the number of women selected in this process is still unacceptably low.

We must as a nation discuss ways by which we can increase the participation of women in our Parliament and at the local government level without subjecting them to the rigours of such a selection process.

The parliamentary elections will be declared, and I wish to warmly congratulate those who emerged from this process of parliamentary primaries. But probably most of all, I commend those who would not be selected.

You are a part of the history and glory our great party has made. Without your participation there would have been no process. There are no winners and no losers in this contest.

As I said it has been a family contest. I expect that any hard feelings flowing out of this contest would be put aside so we can all work together for the victory of the party in 2016.

I intend very soon to hold a family meeting that will bring all who contested the primaries together. This will certainly be before the end of this year’s break. We must smooth over any disagreements arising out of these primaries before the end of the year.

After the festivities, we would have barely 10 months to go to the election. We must all work to win the elections of 2016. With the party’s continued stay in power, I am certain that there will be enough responsibility to be placed on the shoulders of all of you to work for the good people of Ghana.

Ladies and gentlemen,
As the parliamentary results are declared, we must analyze the results and the implications of the results going forward. We must analyze the loss by some of our experienced parliamentary hands in the primaries.

We must also analyze the election of a relatively youthful parliamentary bench. These are all issues the party must ponder over and start to strategise about.

I wish to thank those who voted YES to endorse my candidature. But I also wish to thank those who voted No either in error or deliberately. In the order of nature, it is the interaction of agreement and dissent that creates human progress.

You cannot produce power with only the positive pole. You need the positive pole and the negative pole to produce energy. In voting NO, you have proved to the world that our party has enough space and tolerance to accommodate dissent.

My brothers and sisters,
I feel deeply honoured for being endorsed by you as your Presidential Candidate for the 2016 elections. You lift me up, you give me strength! I thank you for the confidence reposed in me.

I thank you all for showing that we are the bastion of free democratic expression in Ghana. As President and Candidate, I will do everything in my power to focus on the needs of the Ghanaian people. It is my duty to leave a lasting legacy for our party.

It is therefore with a great sense of humility, respect and confidence that I accept this mandate you have given me to lead the most modern, most youthful, most efficient, most organized, most stable, most peaceful, most united and most democratic party in Ghana.

This resounding mandate has filled me with a renewed sense of strength and confidence about our ability to blaze the trail of democratic practice in Ghana. We have once again demonstrated that despite our diversity, we are a peaceful and united force, focused on bringing change and transformational development to our country.

Together we began the transformation of Ghana, and together we’ll continue. We have a moral duty to empower all Ghanaians, to fight against prejudice, poverty and inequality, and to use all our creative resources to build a 21st century nation that we can all be proud of!
We should transform Ghana’s economy so that we are no longer dependent on price fluctuations on the international commodities market.

And it appears the resilience we desire in our economy is already occurring. Oil revenues into the budget have dropped by 50% and gold, another of our leading exports continues to slump on the world market, and yet our economy has taken these shocks in stride and is still on track to post positive growth by end of the year.

We have to create more sustainable jobs that will allow every Ghanaian to enjoy a decent living.

Transforming any nation is not easy and it does not occur with the stroke of a pen. It takes persuasion, attitudinal change, reorientation, and the right policies and leadership. NDC is offering that leadership.

My brothers and sisters,
We have come a long way. But our mission will not be complete until poverty will be eradicated in Ghana; until every child has access to quality and free education, until Ghanaian girls and women are genuinely empowered; until all Ghanaians are truly equal under the law, until all of us live a meaningful life within an inclusive community.

I thank you all for the courage with which you have accompanied me on this mission. I am deeply grateful to each and every one of you. You inspire me, Ghanaians inspire me!

I understand your needs and desires, and as your President I will continue to work hard so that not a single Ghanaian is left behind. As your leader, this is my pledge to you! You will continue to be in my heart and in my mind.

The path ahead is not an easy one, but it is the right path. I will continue to walk on this path, because there is no greater honour than the one bestowed upon us when we create a modern, inclusive nation, and a peaceful, flourishing society.

Excellency, Chief of Staff,
I will continue to do justice to all manner of persons without discrimination for gender or ethnicity.

Let our recent primaries be our guide. Let us pursue a peaceful campaign, devoid of insults and violence. Remember that nobody ever gets elected based on how much violence they are capable of, or the level of invectives they are able to spew.

The election will be based on issues and as I said earlier on the tour not on the health or infirmities of any person. As Prof said, let’s remember only God knows each person’s allotted time on this earth.

Let me on this occasion thank the National Executive Committee and the Functional Executives for the support you have given me and the efficiency with which you have conducted the primary.
I express my thanks to the Electoral Commission of Ghana for the support and cooperation you have given our party.

Let me also express my thanks to my hard working Vice President who has not only been a wonderful assistant but also a good counselor and a friend.

On this occasion, I wish to salute my predecessors, President JJ Rawlings and Professor John Evan Atta Mills of blessed memory. I also salute ex-appointees of the PNDC and NDC and all my senior comrades, too many to mention who continue to give me good counsel and absolute support.

It is on the good foundation you laid that we continue to build.
By His Grace! Inshallah!

The ever-fulfilling God will speak once again and shall lead us to a resounding victory in 2016.

We are #Changinglives,
We are #TransformingGhana
May God bless our Mother Ghana!