NDC Clamours For Mahama’s Return

Contrary to the perception that former President John Dramani Mahama has lost his relevance in the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) after losing to the ruing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2016 election, Today can authoritatively say that Mr Dramani Mahama’s popularity has rather been soaring within the rank-and-file of the party.

According to our investigations, every Tom, Dick and Harry in the NDC today still wants former President Dramani Mahama to come back and lead the party in the 2020 election.

And though Mr Dramani Mahama is yet to formally announce his candidature for the NDC’s flagbearership race slated for somewhere in November this year, our checks at the Adabraka headquarters of the party showed that the whole NDC hierarchy favours Mr Dramani Mahama’s ticket.

That, according to our source at the party’s head office, includes, Members of Parliament (MPs), national, regional, constituency executives and some stalwarts of the party.

Others, who are also in favour of his candidature, Today gathered, include some members of the party’s Council of Elders, National Executive Council (NEC) and the grassroots.

“We believe we can only recapture power if we give the mantle of leadership to former President Dramani Mahama. Anything short of that will let’ us remain in opposition for long,” a member of the party’s national executives who pleaded to speak on condition of anonymity told Today recently.

Our checks further indicated a group has been formed whose members meet regularly to strategise on how to ensure that Mr Dramani Mahama and the NDC recapture power in 2020.

For instance, at one of their recent meetings held at the Cantonments office of the former president, Today‘s intelligence indicated that the types of vehicles that came there were enough to confirm the popularity of Mr Dramani Mahama in the NDC.

“We (group’s name withheld) have settled on former President Mahama to win power back for us, not because some of us served under him, but at the moment, he is the only person in the NDC who has the political clout to win power for us,” the source told Today.

Members of this group, the source said, “have vowed to do everything possible to make Mr Dramani Mahama come back to rescue NDC.”

While admitting that the other NDC presidential hopefuls were equally good materials, our sources pointed out that, the group believes Mr Dramani Mahama will “easily win power for the party in 2020,” considering his track record and his affable nature.

“We are leaving nothing to chance come 2020, and that is why we think we should all rally behind former President Dramani Mahama to do the magic for us,” a member of the group said.

For the members of the Council of Elders of the NDC,“ Mr Mahama is the party’s last hope for the 2020 election.”

And in their view the destiny of the NDC is tied to Mr Dramani Mahama’s return, the source added.

A founder member of the party at a meeting last month with one of NDC’s presidential hopefuls revealed that Mr Dramani Mahama was the only hope for the party, and that failure to bring him back to lead the party will be disastrous.

Also, for the majority of the NDC MPs who are in support of Mr Dramani Mahama’s return, “they cannot go back to their constituencies in 2020 to campaign without former President Dramani Mahama being elected as the flag-bearer of the party.

“We (MPs) owe it as a duty to ensure that the interests of our constituents are served by granting them their request,” our sources said.

The group, according to the sources, disagreed with those who hold the view that it will be politically suicidal to bring back Mr Dramani Mahama when he will only serve one-term in the event that he wins the 2020 election.

However, the group, the sources said, hold the view that “the political calculation doesn’t add up,” explaining that the future success of the NDC will depend on the next Mahama’s government.

The NDC will by the end of this year elect a flag-bearer to lead the party in the 2020 general elections.

Already some party stalwarts, including the Second Deputy Speaker, Alban Kingsford Bagbin, former Chief Executive Officer of National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), former Trade and Industry Minister, Dr Ekwow Spio Garbrah, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies (UPS), Prof. Joshua Alabi, and few others had declared their intentions to contest the position.

Source: Today Newspaper