Editor of the Punch newspaper, Ebenezer Ato Sam, better known as Baby Ansaba has described President Mahama as “the Kwame Nkrumah we have been yearning for”.
According to him, the aura of attraction that Ghana’s first president Dr Kwame Nkrumah commanded, can be associated to the current President.
Baby Ansaba who recently joined the NDC after confessing that he deliberately made false publications about late President Mills, said on e.tv Ghana’s Breakfast TV that there was no need for the NDC to ride on the back of former President Rawlings during their campaigns for the upcoming elections.
In his opinion, the former president who doubles as the founder of the ruling party has lost relevance on the Ghanaian political scene as well as in the NDC party.
He was of the conviction that, President Mahama has the spark and charisma that a president would need.
“Mahama doesn’t need Rawlings to campaign for him. He has to campaign on his own merit because he has the spark, he has the charisma. Everywhere Mahama goes look at the crowd that follow him.”
Baby Ansaba’s comments come in the wake of publications that the former President Rawlings had thrown his weight behind his wife who is reportedly vying for the flagbearership slot in the National Democratic Party; a breakaway party of the NDC.
He said there was the need for the NDC to rally their support behind President Mahama if they want to consolidate power and “forget about the Rawlings persona because he doesn’t add anything to the NDC and he will not add.”
The Daily Guide on Thursday reported that the ex-president would be gracing the NDP congress which is scheduled to take place on Saturday. The former President has also taken on several platforms of the NDC; a gesture that he is working hand in hand with the leadership of the party to retain power comes December. Thus, his latest pronouncement of him supporting his wife has come as a surprise to many.
However, Baby Ansaba believes that it is important for the NDC to ignore him and if possible “expel” him from the party.
“If he says something that is going to affect the fortunes of the NDC, then I think that the leadership of the party should begin to assess his continuous stay in the NDC party and decide what to do with him.”
Host of Breakfast TV, Bismark Brown quickly interjected, “But how do you expel the founder?”
“Well we don’t know who will bear the cap but if he does something against them then they should... because people are even now going to examine the relevance of one, the relevance of Rawlings in Ghanaian politics, the relevance of Rawlings even in the NDC because of late wherever he’s been given the platform, whatever he says dissipates rather than attracts,” he explained.
“I think the problem NDC has is inflicting the Rawlings phenomena upon themselves. The earlier they show him the door I think that the better.”