Stop the blame game – Asiedu Nketiah cautions NDC members

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, has cautioned members and sympathisers of the umbrella family to desist from blaming some personalities in the party as the cause of their defeat in the December 7 general polls.

Some party functionaries have resorted to blaming each other in traditional and social media for being the main causal agent for the overwhelming defeat the Akatamansonians suffered at the hands of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the general elections.

While some are blaming the national executives of the party for doing too little to ensure the party retains power, others are also blaming some Ministers of state and the party’s Members of Parliament for the show of opulence and arrogance in the discharge of their duties.

But Nketiah, known in the political circles as General Mosquito, addressing journalists at a press conference to outdoor the party’s National Election Review Committee at the party’s headquarters in Adabraka, Thursday, said such blame game must cease.

He, however, urged all aggrieved party members to channel their views through the National Election Review Committee for redress.

“We will like to emphasise that as we strive to understand the challenges that confront us, we must maintain our discipline as a party and not allow this to be compromised in any way,” he noted.

In the Presidential poll, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the NPP beat the incumbent, John Dramani Mahama of the NDC lost to become the 5th President of the 4th Republic in the history of Ghana.

The former Attorney-General polled 5,716,026, representing 53.85% while Mr. Mahama garnered 4,713,277, representing 44.43% of the results of 271 constituencies declared by the Returning Officer and Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei.

In the Parliamentary polls, the NDC against lost is majority seats of 149 to 104 while that of the NPP increased from 122 seats to 171 seats.

The NPP will in the Seventh Parliament of the 4th Republic form the Majority while the NDC becomes the Minority side of the House.

The National Election Review Committee chaired by former Finance Minister, Prof. Kwesi Botchwey, is to conduct a comprehensive review of the planning, execution and outcomes of the party’s campaign and participation in the December 7, 2016 general elections with a view to establishing what went wrong in order to guide the party’s activities moving into the future.

The Committee has twelve members namely;

Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho

Alhaji Huudu Yahya

Commander Asaase Gyimah

Dr. William Ahadzie

Dr. Ibrahim Zubairu

Razak Abu

Hon. Juliana Azumah Mensah

Hon. Barbara Serwaa Asamoah and

Four Members of the party’s Parliamentary Caucus, including the Minority Leader.

They have a mandate to review and validate the results of the 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary elections; Find out the causes of the poor performance of the NDC in both the Presidential and Parliamentary elections; Deal with any other matter reasonably related to the above objectives; and Make recommendations to the National Executive Committee (NEC) about the way forward.