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Discreet but unassailable information reaching The Custodian indicates that kingmakers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), worried about the future of the party and its probity and accountability heritage, have decided to drop Jonah into the big, blue sea to save the party from sinking.

Therefore, as the paper goes to the press, there are reports that men of substance and integrity would be dispatched by the party to former President John Dramani Mahama to virtually put a pistol to his head to make an announcement not to run again for the flagbearer slot and go with the decision of the party to pick a fitting replacement.

Additionally, he party is also working at ensuring that in the 2020 and subsequent elections, the General Secretary and National Chairman executive positions served the interests of party rather than President and non-party interests.

Palace coup

The party believes that the deal discouraging the former President from the 2020 race would work. However, in the event of any resistance, the Plan B is for teeming leading members to move in to meet all delegates region by region and state convincing reasons why Mahama should back off.

Should that fail, the NDC ambassadors would be further moving full throttle into a nationwide campaign to openly fight the ex-President and offending flagbearer by campaigning against him.

According to our very reliable sources, including senior members of the NDC in the Central and Volta Regions, the decision was based on four trends that reared up their ugly heads under the Mahama tenure into the last elections.

These are the gradual loosening of the grip of the reins of party power from cadres to new and inexperienced boys and girls handpicked by former President Mahama; the 2012 struggle by John Mahama to win the Presidency ‘by grace’ in the Election Petition and the resounding defeat he embarrassingly suffered in the hands of then candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on the wings of ‘useless propaganda.’

Recovering Zongos and Northern Seats

Similarly, to give the opposition NDC a better image and return it to the cadre corps, another move is in place to work out the return of Huudu Yahaya to the national executive as Chairman of the party to help recover the party in the three regions of the North from the clutches of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), which for the first time since 1992 made some respectable gains in the Regions, winning five seats in the Upper West and three Upper East as well as the Zongos.

While a straight win, according to the political strategists, may be a tough one, they fathom that it could be the beginning of a battle on the part of the NDC to win a future conclusive war.

The idea that the times are still hard, in spite of the NPP’s control of the ship of state could be a rallying cry for the time being, they believe in the designing of more nameless and faceless propaganda portals to fight the retooled NPP media onslaught machinery.

General Secretary

The position of the General Secretary was still under contention at the time of going to the press, with Koku Anyidoho posting as a serious threat to incumbent Johnson Asiedu Nketiah.

Some leading members of the party including Central Regional Chairman Bernard Allotey Jacobs are strongly backing Koku to topple his boss.

However, in the worst case scenario of Johnson Asiedu Nketiah retaining his position as General Secretary, then he must make a firm commitment to respect venerable personalities in the party and learn to work with everybody in the supreme interests of the NDC, including Founder Papa Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings.

Others also insist that he must apologies to the duo before that deal is reached.

The deal, our sources also add, hints of a national campaign machine that respects the NDC constitution, with the spending officers being the General Secretary, the Chairman and not the flagbearer or presidential candidate as occurred under the last John Mahama administration and campaigns.