Former President John Dramani Mahama
A former Executive of the Tema East constituency branch of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Stephen Ashitey Adjei, has branded former President John Mahama as the NDC’s confusionist-in-chief.
At a press conference in Tema, Mr. Ashitey Adjei, told journalists and party faithful in attendance that the former President is using his privileged position in the party to either make the party chase its tail or mark time when it should be moving forward.
“For example, why hasn’t Mr. Mahama communicated his intentions about the 2024 presidential primary; is he running or not? Given that he holds so much sway in the party, his silence unnecessarily stalls the party which ought to be making preparation towards electing its flagbearer by now.”
According to Moshake, “Mr. Mahama’s silence has left everybody confused and flatfooted the NDC. He is simply too confusionistic.”
The NDC is said to be gearing up towards electing the party’s flagbearer and parliamentary candidates having successfully completed constituency, regional and national executives elections.
For the presidential primary, two people - former hardworking and resourceful Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor and former Mayor for Kumasi, Kojo Bonsu, have declared intentions.
Many people expect former President Mahama to contest again even though constitutionally, he will have only one term in office if he wins to become president a second time.
“For a party in opposition, we are supposed to be taking steps ahead of the party in power in terms of preparation towards the 2024 elections, however, while everyone else interested in leading the NDC has declared intent, Mr. Mahama has chosen to keep everybody in limbo by not declaring his intent; this is not helpful because it defeats a badly needed single purposed actions,” Moshake said.
He points out that the current stagnation that the former President is creating, is not the first.
“After the 2016 election failure, he and his family declared that he would not run for office again; only to turn up again in the 2018 primary for 2020 flagbearer and declared his intent to contest again.”
Moshake adds that, “Mr. John Mahama also has the habit of promising multiple people the position of running mate only to swerve them.
“These confusionist tactics was what drove a wedge between him and our party’s founder, former President Jerry John Rawlings,” Moshake said.
He called on the NDC to “call Mr. Mahama to order over his confusionist tactics because it holds the party to ransom.”
Moshake suggested that Mr. Mahama be impressed upon to make his intentions available so that the party can plan properly.
“Otherwise, the leadership of our party should prevent him from the primary so that Dr. Kwabena Duffuor can win easily and stay in power for at least 8 years.”
