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I read with extreme satisfaction amid a glint of smiles all over my face the news of Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur’s intention to join the race for the NDC’s2020 flagbearership slot.
"Well-wishers have come to me and I am thinking about contesting the NDC’s 2020 flagbearership slot" (Amissah-Arthur, 24/07/2017).
If we were to go by the NDC’s logic on the selection of a flagbearer, there should be no argument over the obvious choice of the NDC Party’s next presidential candidate.
Yes, per the NDC’s convention, the next person in line should be the erstwhile Vice President, Amissah-Arthur.
The painful truth, however, is that the party loyalists are blatantly refusing to acknowledge former Vice President Amissah-Arthur as their next flagbearer.
Take, for instance, instead of outdooring the automatic choice, Amissah-Arthur as their flagbearer for 2020, the Mahama loyalists are moving heaven and earth to have him return as the party’s next presidential candidate. How bizarre.
In fact, it would be hypocritical, unconscionable, capricious and unfair, if the former Vice President Amissah-Arthur was to be sidelined in the search for the next flagbearer of the NDC Party.
Believe it or not, politics has sadly ceased being the noble profession it used to be. It is absolutely true that politics has been infiltrated by the dishonourable lots disguised in the clothing of the morally upstanding.
If you, dear reader, will kindly take time off and peruse through the archives of the 2016 electioneering campaign files at your own convenience, you will definitely understand exactly what I’m trying to drive at.
During the 2016 electioneering campaign, the NDC Party leadership, led by former President Mahama, told the good people of Ghana that the obvious choice of a party’s vacant flagbearership position should be the former vice president.
Ironically, the NDC Party leadership insisted back then that it was the NPP Party that has an unparalleled record of dumping its vice presidents without providing them the opportunity to lead the party.
It is a known fact that the National Democratic Congress has a special convention when it comes to the selection of their flagbearers. Indeed, NDC does not believe in democracy when it comes to the selection of their flagbearers.
If we take a stroll down memory lane, the party’s founder and the first president of the NDC Party, J. J. Rawlings, defied all the stiff opposition and hand-picked his then Vice President, the late Mills as the flagbearer during the 2000 general election.
It would, however, be recalled that the late Mills unsuccessfully contested two previous elections in 2000 and 2004.
The late Mills then chose John Dramani Mahama as his running mate in the 2008 general election, in spite of the fierce resistance by the critics of Mahama.
The late Atta Mills nonetheless came victorious after the election round-off in December 2008.
Bizarrely, the Vice President Mahama woke up one morning in July 2012 and became the president of Ghana in the afternoon of the same day following the sudden death of President Mills.
As it was expected, former President Mahama completed the remaining months of the Mills/Mahama administration amid harsh economic conditions.
In line with the NDC’s accepted norm, former President Mahama subsequently received his party’s acclamation to lead the party in the December 2012 general election.
In the 2012 general election, President Mahama selected Amissah-Arthur from the Central Region of Ghana as his running mate.
I guess such a move was designed to placate the people of the Central Region, who were reeling from the sudden death of President Mills.
In spite of the NPP Party’s contention of the 2012 election results in the apex court, President Mahama was pronounced the winner by the Supreme Court of Ghana.
Unsurprisingly, however, on 7th December 2016, the discerning Ghanaians revisited NDC apparatchiks irreversible arrogance of power , incompetence and the gargantuan sleazes and corruptions and rightly voted them out of power.
Tell me dearest reader, wouldn’t it be hypocritical on the part of the NDC Party leadership if they failed to select former Vice President Amissah-Arthur as their next flagbearer?
“The word hypocrite is rooted in the Greek word hypokrites, which means “stage actor, pretender, or dissembler.
“So a hypocrite is a person who pretends to behave a certain way, but really acts and believes the total opposite.
“Hypocrites are experts at blaming others, while empathetic people are experts at blaming themselves. You absorb their poison and begin to believe it as truth.
“Hypocrites spend their lives cheating, betraying, conning, and deceiving. But despite this disgusting pattern of behaviour, they still feel entitled to point out (or invent) a minor mistakes in others—and they’ll point them out repeatedly, to negate & excuse all of their own horrible actions” (See: ro.pinterest.com/pin/517773288395161135/).
In sum, we must condemn with no uncertain terms the unfairness being displayed by the NDC Party with regard to Amissah-Arthur’s 2020 flagbearership bid.
