'NDC will be fit for purpose in 2020' – Potential running mate for Mahama

A potential running mate for John Dramani Mahama, Alex Mould, says the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will be fit for purpose by 2020 when Ghana goes to the polls to elect a president and parliamentarians.

The NDC, he said, has since losing the elections in 2016 to the New Patriotic Party, taken steps towards identifying and addressing all the pertinent issues and factors that contributed to loss with the view to repositioning the party to win back power.

“We know what the challenges are; we’ve done a lot of research as to why we lost the election. We’ve put a lot of things in place so we will be fit for purpose,” he said on TV3 Hot Issues Saturday.

Nana Akufo-Addo defeated Mahama by a margin of one million votes, forcing John Mahama to leave office as a one-term president.

The defeat was said to have divided the party with factions accusing each other of causing the misfortune of the Mahama-led administration that pride itself for what it termed massive infrastructural projects across Ghana.

For the founder of the party and former president Jerry John Rawlings, the party’s loss was traceable to general negativity, impunity, disrespect and corruption under the Mahama administration.

But Mr Mould said the party is righting the wrongs of 2016 and like the formation of a football team, the NDC is assembling the players, the coach and developing their strategy to “start the training” and build up to the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Although the next election is barely a year from now, Mr Mould who is a former chief executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, told the host of the Hot Issues, Nuong Faalong, that “we have some time”.

“When we get there, I believe we’ll have the right organisation, we’ll have the right people, we’ll have the right logistics and we should have the right funding to do it,” the man whose name has come up as a possible running mate for Mahama assured.

Mr Mould who has in recent times been vocal on topical issues in Ghana’s financial and energy sector said he has “been working with the party to make sure that our party is fit for purposes” come 2020.

“I believe [in] any organisation, if you are going in a competitive environment, you have to be fit for purpose; you have to have the right strategy, you have to have the right people, organisation, the structure, and you have to have the right human resources,” he said.

Mr Mould who described himself as someone deep rooted in the NDC, said he has been working within branch, constituency and regional executives of the party in ensuring they have the right structures put in place to do their work.