2020: Mahama bad news, 'liability' – NDC group

A group within the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) calling itself Bring Back NDC (BBN) has said former President John Mahama is bad news for the party as far as the 2020 elections are concerned.

In a statement signed by Hannan H. Legend, Director of Operations, the group said the main opposition party is at a “crossroads and there is a battle not just among ages but between aspiring heirs of social justice and sustainable development against protégées of nepotism, cronyism and corruption. Legacy versus property! And indifference is in the defence of the latter.

In the group’s estimation, the “very utterances, actions, and inactions of former President John Dramani Mahama led us into this conundrum and he remains an electoral liability in 2020 and the near future. Therefore, our victory ahead of 2020 is not guaranteed with him despite the false starts of the Nana Addo-Bawumia government.

“The way forward for the party, in our view, as informed by an invaluable insight of private and public discourses, is for the rank and file to eschew all forms of pride, prejudices and discriminations, and dispassionately discuss and decide on party issues especially on internal elections,” it said.

Find below the full statement

WE CAN’T WIN 2020 WITH JOHN MAHAMA

It’s been seven months and three weeks since the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was humbled in an election which it incessantly proclaimed to be in comfortable lead and cruising to victory. The electoral defeat as painful as it is, was not unavoidable. This claim is buttressed by the Report of Professor Kwesi Botchwey Committee.

NDC is currently entangled in a blame game and deepening interest-based divisions pitching the young against the old, women against men and former appointees against the never-appointed all in the name of salvaging the sinking image of the party. In the midst of this, a sincere soul-searching introspection indicates there is a silver lining beneath the storm: an opportunity to regroup, re-strategise and recapture power in 2020!

The main opposition party is at cross-roads and there is a battle not just among ages but between aspiring heirs of social justice and sustainable development against protégées of nepotism, cronyism and corruption. Legacy versus property! And indifference is in the defence of the latter. The very utterances, actions, and inactions of former President John Dramani Mahama led us into this conundrum and he remains an electoral liability in 2020 and the near future. Therefore, our victory ahead of 2020 is not guaranteed with him despite the false starts of the Nana Addo-Bawumia government.

The way forward for the party, in our view, as informed by an invaluable insight of private and public discourses, is for the rank and file to eschew all forms of pride, prejudices and discriminations, and dispassionately discuss and decide on party issues especially on internal elections.

And this must be an all-hands-on-board affair chiefly aimed at reclaiming the prestigious principles of probity and accountability. We particularly encourage the old party guards who were neglected to put behind the past and join hands with party leadership to work for victory in the next elections. The neglect of the grassroots and the youth must also be addressed if we are to win election 2020.

Bring Back NDC (BBN) is a composition of ordinary party members across the country whose membership of the party are based among other things on family background, geographical location, professional history, political role models, circumstances of the emergence of the party and so on. We may be young and less visible for now but we are armed with the believe that one doesn’t need to be a Methuselah to make change in the party in particular and the world at large but with vision and mission, it is permissible and possible! WE HAVE JUST BEGUN!! EYE ZU, EYE ZA!!!

Signed

HANNAN H. LEGEND (Director of Operations)