Mills’ death sympathy gave incompetent NDC 2012 victory but never again – Minister

Upper East Regional Minister Tangoba Abayage has revealed that fighting within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and sympathy arising from the demise of former President John Evans Fiifi Atta-Mills cost the elephant family the 2012 polls.

She reiterated claims by NPP members that the National Democratic Congress(NDC) has nothing to offer Ghanaians, claiming that in 2008 and 2012, the NDC won the elections not because of policies or programmes

Speaking at a Conference organized by the Tertiary Students Confederacy of the New Patriotic Party in Bolgatanga recently, the Minister alleged that the NDC has no message for the 2020 elections just like it had none for the previous elections, rehashing the refrain by the NPP that:” The alternative is empty”.

“And I ask myself the question, in 2008, Chairman, what was the policy statement of the NDC? Can anybody tell me? I can’t remember. But you know in 2008, because we were fighting, because we were fighting within our house, the enemy came in and took over. In 2012, can anybody tell me one policy statement the NDC had? 2012, no! 2012 they rode on the emotions of Ghanaians – just because we’re crying over the demise of the former President, Atta-Mills. So they rode on that and came to government. [But] in 2016, they didn’t have any emotions to ride on again. And the policies they had was “edey bee keke!” She lashed out.

The Minister explained that it was the well-thought-out campaign messages encapsulated in their manifesto that won the NPP the 2016 elections as opposed to NDC that had no campaign message.

“And while they were at it, we were talking about free SHS;1 village 1 dam; 1 district, 1 factory; creation of new regions; allawa ooo allawa (restoration of allowances)… And they were doing edey bee keke! Our manifesto was pregnant…2020, our manifesto will be ‘pregnanter’! They say they’re an alternative. They are not an alternative. No!” she emphasized.

The Conference by TESCON discussed among others the contribution of TESCON to the NPP over the years.