Mahama's 'men' sidelined Atta-Mills' – Mettle Nunoo

Campaign Manager for the late President John Evans Atta-Mills; Rojo Mettle Nunoo has said that the transition from the Atta-Mills administration to the Mahama administration under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was handled very poorly.

According to him, the new team from the Mahama side, failed to acknowledge the fact that there were loyalists to the late Prof. Atta Mills who were known and worked closely with him in the party. Sidelining these persons he said, was a major factor in the party’s loss in the 2016 polls.

“If people who worked very closely with the late Prof. Evans Atta-Mills were very closely known by the party and prof and suddenly there was no prof for a transition and you have a new team, many people who were loyal to the party but were not known to the new team would be sidelined. We did not manage that transition very well, that to me was a major weakness of the party”, he said.

Speaking in an interview with JoyNews, Mr. Mettle Nunoo admonished the older generation to give way to the younger ones in the party. According to him, the younger generation has a lot more to offer with their freshness than the older would have, adding that there are other equally important roles party members could play to grow the party.

“We’ve got to give people opportunity to serve also, so if in your party, the older generation still want to hold on to ministerial appointments, I think it will be asking for too much, there are so many ways you can serve in a government.

Meanwhile. Mettle Nunoo revealed that former President John Mahama’s campaign team ignored critical findings by a research group in the party prior to the 2016 elections.

Rojo Mettle Nunoo said the former President Mahama and his campaign team dismissed crucial campaign intelligence provided by a team of experienced members of the party he led.

According to him, a survey his team conducted revealed the party’s 2016 campaign message was out of touch with the people and subsequently provided suggestions for messages that would resonate with the Ghanaian electorate.

“We did a 32,000 household survey across all the 10 regions of this country, identifying attitudes, behaviours, perceptions and desires of the people of Ghana,” he said.

The former Deputy Health Minister said the managers of the governing party’s campaign did not appear to want to hear contrary views because they believed they were winning.

He said even though the findings of the group were made available to the presidency at the time, “sometimes people want to hear what they want to hear.”

“I believe strongly that our message – our research data – was not accepted, it did not impact the strategy of the election and it was a disaster waiting the happen,”

Responding to the Mettle-Nunoo’s claims however, the NDC Deputy General Secretary; George Lawson said the revelation is news to him.

“I am not aware of what he is talking about...the President [John Mahama] is an individual,” he said to suggest that perhaps the said report was presented to the former President alone, but not the party leadership.