NDC bigwigs scrambling for control – Asiedu Nketia

The General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has disclosed that the NDC is going through torrid times after losing the 2016 elections to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as there is massive scramble for the control of the party.

Speaking Wednesday on Morning Starr, he said every Tom, Dick and Harry in the party is ambitious and wants to control the party.

“It is part of politicking…the parties…the political party is a group of individuals who may share similar ideas as to how the government ought to be…the society ought to be run and they capture power to be able to put their ideas into practice,” he told Francis Abban, the host of Morning Starr.

“So that is the foundation of politicking. That there must be ambition. There must be struggle for control of state power between parties. If you come inside the parties, there must be ambition there too.

There must be struggle for the control of the party so that those who emerge would have their views upheld and those views will control the direction of the party,” he added.

Addressing factionalism in the NDC, Mr. Nketia who was recently elected for a four-year term as a vice president of the Socialist International (SI) said he was not in the position to deny or confirm its existence in the NDC.

But party building, he said “is necessarily clashes of opinions and so there must be schools of thoughts in every mature political organization.”

As a result, averred Mr. Nketia, quality decisions will always emerge to ensure the success of the party.

On his relationship with former president Jerry John Rawlings, he said suggestions of existence of rancor between the two of them are untrue.

But when the host quipped: “He is your best friend?”—Mr. Nketia replied: “I haven’t said so.”

He said he relates to him as the founder of the party, same as the way he relates to the Chairman of the NDC and former President John Mahama as chairman and as immediate past leader of the NDC respectively.

“You don’t need to be friends with people for you to work with them,” said Mr. Nketia.