Mr Stephen Ashitey Adjei, an executive member of the Tema East branch of the NDC has exclusively attributed the defeat of the National Democratic Congress in the 2016 polls to former President John Dramani Mahama.
“Yes it is true that President Mahama has already come out to take responsibility for our defeat, but everybody knows that move was a fanciful one to court sympathy. The truth is that he is responsible for our defeat and the causes of our defeat could have been totally avoided,” Mr Adjei, who is popularly known as Moshake said at a meeting of some NDC executives in Tema Community 4.
Mr Adjei said the former President Mahama’s unbridled utterances at certain levels and the maltreatment of Ghanaian workers were instrumental in the loss.
According to him, grievances of workers who had written to complain to him were totally ignored and in some cases, he said, those grievances that were attended to by late President Mills, Mahama failed to follow through from where Mills had left off.
He said that one typical example of disrespect that President Mahama showed Ghanaians was his open declaration that he had caught the dead goat syndrome and had become impervious to numerous demonstrations that Ghanaian workers had been constrained to undertake.
“How can a President leading a political party which was in office with the people’s mandate turn round and tell the people that ‘I am now adopting the dead goat syndrome?
He added that the former President had also mismanaged relations with the party’s Founder, former President Jerry Rawlings, alienated the party’s elders and even the party’s administrative structure.
“What was even most unattractive, according to Moshake, was that the former President was perceived to have given the most juicy state contracts to his younger brother, Ibrahim Mahama.
“It was a perception that we should have dealt with, but what could anybody have done at the time when President Mahama and his family had hijacked the whole party and its operations?” Moshake asked.
He agreed that poor flow of communication, especially in the media space, was a contributory factor to the NDC’s loss as he consciously ignored all the pro- NDC media including his own Presidential media.
According to Mr Adjei, President Mahama had been on a high horse because he had surrounded himself with people who tickled his ears instead of those who would tell him the truth.
“He sent Dr. Tony Aidoo out of the country and treated party elders like outsiders, forcing the likes of Honourable Alban Bagbin to advise him publicly,” Moshake pointed out.
He advised that the new crop of NDC flagbearer aspirants should be well assessed by delegates to ensure that personalities that would lead the party were humble and up to the task.
Moshake said he was not going to throw support behind any particular candidate, because all the prospective flagbearer aspirants whose names are in the media were all Presidential materials, but praised Mr Alban Bagbin, a Deputy of Parliament after holding a meeting with him in Tema community four.
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