Election 2020: DPP throws support behind John Mahama

The Democratic People’s Party (DPP) ahead of the 2020 presidential polls, says it has endorsed the candidature of the opposition National Democratic Congress flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama following the party’s decision to pull out of the contest.

Addressing the party’s National Conference held at the Kama Center in Accra on Monday, November 23, 2020, General Secretary, Alhaji Muhammad Salisu Sulaimana said the party out of respect and honour decided not to contest the presidential election following the death of the wife of the party’s Leader and Flagbearer, Thomas Ward Brew.

According to the General Secretary, the party before deciding to stay out of the race had seen firsthand the many debilitating plights of the masses and was working to develop a solid responsive programme and accelerated action plan for the country.

“Whiles contemplating how to participate in a rescue programme for our dear country, we were welcome with a manifesto dubbed ‘The Peoples Manifesto’ from a sister Social Democratic party, the NDC, a party that shares our principles and ideology.

The content of the manifesto was strikingly deep and convincing. This led to the call for a National Executive Committee meeting which led to the resolution to offer an unalloyed support to President John Dramani Mahama and the NDC in order to win and deliver on his vision which birthed the pragmatic programmes and policies contained in the Peoples Manifesto,” he added.

The DPP, therefore, underscores that it shall mobilize all efforts and command at its disposal to throw its weight behind John Dramani Mahama and the NDC in the 2020 general elections.

“We are of the view that Ghana requires strong and committed leadership to reengineer the social-economic development of mother Ghana.

To give real meaning to our quest to see a President John Dramani Mahama government in 2021, the DPP shall immediately deploy all party members to join the NDC campaign teams at all levels – Constituency, Regional, and at the National level,” the General Secretary Stated in his address.

Read below the full Address by Alhaji Muhammad Salisu Sulaimana at the 2020 DPP National Conference

KEYNOTE ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLES PARTY AT THE 2020 NATIONAL CONFERENCE HELD AT THE KAMA CONFERENCE CENTER, ACCRA ON MONDAY, 23RD NOVEMBER, 2020

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, on behalf of the founder and Leader of the Democratic Peoples Party, I will like to welcome you once again to the 2020 National Conference of our great party.

The DPP remains one of the strong pioneer political parties of the Fourth Republic. Over the past few years, we have been working to reorganize the base of the party in order to give a massive showing in this years General elections, unfortunately as nature will have it, due to an unforeseen sudden demise of the beloved wife of our founder, leader and Flagbearer Comrade Thomas Ward Brew, the National Executive Committee of the DPP decided not to contest in the 2020 General Elections out of respect for and in honor of our beloved mother Mrs. Ward Brew.

Following our reorganization work across the country, we gathered the true debilitating plights of the masses and was working with a team of expects to develop a solid responsive programme and action plan for the accelerated development of our ailing economy.

Whiles contemplating how to participate in a rescue programme for our dear country, we were welcome with a manifesto dubbed ‘The Peoples Manifesto’ from a sister Social Democratic party, the NDC, a party that shares our principles and ideology.

The content of the manifesto was strikingly deep and convincing. This led to the call for a National Executive Committee meeting which led to the resolution to offer an unalloyed support to President John Dramani Mahama and the NDC in order to win and deliver on his vision which birthed the pragmatic programmes and policies contained in the Peoples Manifesto.

We therefore want to use this opportunity to announce that the DPP shall mobilize all effort and command at her disposal of the party to throw its weight behind H.E John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress in this years General Elections. We are of the view that Ghana requires a strong and committed leadership to reengineer the social economic development of mother Ghana.

To give real meaning to our quest to see a President John Dramani Mahama government in 2021, the DPP shall immediately deploy all party members to join the NDC campaign teams at all levels – Constituency, Regional and at the National level.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is instructive to note that, in all our reorganization rounds across the country we observed that the youth are crying for jobs, corruption remains high on the lips of the people, nepotism has remained an issue that our compatriots are speaking about particularly that they took cognizance of the president, then candidate who promised to operate a government that is devoid of family and friends.

Everywhere we went, people are concerned about their health and have regretted the neglect by this government of numerous projects started by the previous administration. In some instances, we have seen how the lack of availability of these essential basic infrastructure is affecting the very livelihoods of the people we seek power to protect and provide for.

Imbibed in the vision of John Mahama and the NDC, is the desire to provide Free Primary Healthcare. As a nation, we must come to terms with the popular saying that health is wealth. We must also appreciate the fact that one does not need to be wealthy to be able to access health in a nation that claims to care for the vulnerable.

As it stands, the automatic exclusion clause that prevents people from accessing health universally, is the payment of premiums. We are elated that the John Mahama’s vision focuses on making health and wellbeing an easy access.

Due to the importance we place on the aged, we are heavily enthused about the promise to ensure the provision of a pension scheme for cocoa farmers and a 13th month pension payments for pensioners.

Indeed, until we discovered oil, cocoa has been the nation’s primary export and had fueled the wheels of this economy. Today, cocoa continue to drive our economy with various governments targeting how to reach good yield. However, the farmer who is to ensure that the nation get what is wishes for, has no future at old age. We are excited that for the first time, cocoa farmers would get this incentive.

Ladies and Gentlemen, In the Peoples Manifesto, there is a commitment to boost infrastructure and to create jobs under the USD10 billion BIG PUSH agenda. Jobs are critical if we must have every citizen sharing in the wealth of this nation. A rising unemployed youthful population, is a severe national security threat. For this reason, assurances of providing 250,000 jobs each year for the next four years, aimed at ensuring the provision of jobs to our youth, must be welcomed.

As stated earlier, we have come face-to-face to the losses of our nation and its citizens over abandoned infrastructure projects that were started by the erstwhile Mahama administration. These infrastructure include schools, hospitals, roads among others which were naturally providing all forms of jobs.

We are convinced that the commitment and assurances of the next Mahama administration to complete all these projects and to add more, would inure to the benefit of our citizens across the country.

Ladies and gentlemen, most important of his commitment is the fight against corruption under his Operation Sting programme. In that commitment, is the desire to deal with his own appointees who are found guilty as well as those from outside his government. Today, the government is deeply buried in corruption.

From BOST fuel saga, through Cash for Seat, Oslo gate, Kelni GVG, Bond Saga where CHRAJ actually confirmed insider trading, among others, we have seen no leadership from the President but rather has become the biggest proponent, a Chief Clearing Agent for corruption and a protector of same, shielding his appointees from prosecution (after all, what else can we expect from a government that is largely dominated by family and friends where an attempt to fight corruption may just end up incurring anger from the rest of the family members and friends).

This government has failed to deal with corruption, and we owe it a duty to throw our support behind a credible, honest and trustworthy Leader who has the commitment and the proven record in the fight against corruption.

We are also inclined to work for the victory of John Mahama in order to install a government that works for the benefit of ALL. Today, key and juicy opportunities are traced to the family of the president and his friends. A few days ago, we woke up to how a supposed company was incorporated by individuals close to the president, with sums of monies authorized from our state owned bank.

We are in a country where all of a sudden, the only financial institution that has found the competence to serve as transaction advisors and book runners, is linked to the President. We live in a country where oil proceeds are allocated to the spouse of the President to run her foundation. The audacity to look us in the face and defend this is completely heartbreaking.

We live in a country where businesses linked to individuals who have political leanings towards parties other than the NPP, have been hounded out of their businesses. People have lost their babies which they nurtured into banks for reasons that only the government understands.

We have the case of Heritage Bank where nothing has been established against its owner, but the mere fact that the owner has been dragged before court, was sufficient for his bank to be taken away from him.

We cannot live like this ladies and gentlemen. Ghana must be restored for all. The prosperity of this country must be evenly distributed for the benefit of all. Today, the nation has been plunged into Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) category. Data from the World Bank shows how Ghana has been taken into huge debts that we have not seen before. Just recently, the IMF predicted that Ghana would end the year with a 76% Debt to GDP, its highest ever. The sad thing is that there is absolutely nothing significant to show for this huge debt accumulated to be paid for by a future government.

Ladies and gentlemen, continuing on this path is a recipe for disaster. We may just wake up to a day when the little over 600,000 public sector workers cannot be paid their earned salaries. This is why we must all put our hands to the wheel to restore Ghana back to its winning ways.

The declaration we make today, is based on strong introspection. We have convinced ourselves that we need all forces that can be marshalled to show this current government engulfed in corruption, an exit on 7th December which is just a few weeks away.

The DPP on this day, declare support for Candidate John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress for the 2020 elections. We announce our withdrawal from the race and would put every resource, both human and financial, at helping the re-election of Candidate John Dramani Mahama as President of the Republic of Ghana come 7th December.

We call on all well-meaning Ghanaians to join hands with the DPP to ensure we help a credible and truthful man, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, back to the seat of president, because he has been there before and has proven committed towards developing a Ghana that provides opportunities for all.