Flashback: How do you expect ‘sweet’ results when you gave me ‘quinine’ executives? - Nketia

Two years after losing the 2016 elections to the New Patriotic Party, General Secretary for the National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, revealed that he had very little control of events that led to the defeat of the party.

Mr. Asiedu Nketia who was being accused by a section of the party faithful that he contributed to the loss of John Dramani Mahama in the 2016 elections said that he cannot be blamed for the unfortunate turn of events when the ‘right persons’ who could have very well helped the course were voted out and the ‘bad’ ones led by Kofi Portuphy were led in.

Read the full story originally published on November 11, 2018, on Ghanaweb

General Secretary for the National Democratic Congress, Asiedu Nketia has said he had very little control of events that led to the defeat of the party in the 2016 elections particularly because he was given the ‘wrong’ persons to work with in his position.

Mr. Nketia who is being ‘rejected’ as preferred candidate for the position of the General Secretary by some party executives says he cannot be blamed for the unfortunate turn of events when the ‘right persons’ who could have very well helped the course were voted out and the ‘bad’ ones led by Kofi Portuphy were led in.

“In 2014, you [delegates] decided to vote out all the people who worked with me to win two successive elections and brought in new people to work with me. We went into the 2016 elections and lost.”

“If you put gari into three bowls and add sugar to one, add honey to another and add Quinine to the other, will they taste the same,” he quizzed. “…so in this case, is it my fault as the general secretary or the people you gave me to work with?”.

General Mosquito revealed that he managed to win the elections for the NDC in 2008 with the help of the previous executives. The new batch he maintains, were a huge contributing factor to the party’s woes in the 2016 polls.

The embattled General-Secretary was reacting to comments by some executives of the party that have called for his rejection in the upcoming polls.

NDC National Treasurer, Alhaji Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, called for the rejection of Johnson Asiedu Nketia at the party’s national congress scheduled for Trade Fair in Accra next week.

According to him, Asiedu Nketia is insolent, insubmissive and a dictator. “There has never been an issue raised by Chairman Portuphy or myself at our meetings that Asiedu Nketia has approved before. When I make suggestions they throw it away saying it’s illegal. Chairman Portuphy is unable to control him. Asiedu Nketia is a dictator. He has a bad attitude. He does not listen to advice. He likes insulting people. When you say something and it goes against them, they push the young guys to insult you,” he said on ‘Ekosii Sen’ programme on Accra-based Asempa FM.

Endorsement of Mahama

Meanwhile, the General Secretary, who is being challenged by his deputy, Koku Anyidoho, in the upcoming NDC National Congress scheduled for November 17, 2018, has endorsed the candidacy of former President John Mahama for the 2020 presidential polls.

According to General Mosquito, with him and Mr. Mahama as General Secretary and flagbearer respectively, the NDC would be victorious in the 2020 elections.

He explained that “anyone in need requires help. So as we have all joined the party and the party has gotten to a point of need, we don’t have to turn our backs to the party…So I don’t want to turn my back to the party. I believe that with my experience, I can help the party to recapture power with President Mahama as our flagbearer to bring the party back.”

Interestingly, the NDC embarrassingly lost to NPP under the leadership of the two stalwarts of the party.