2016: NDC executives hijacked campaign funds; change all of them – Bonsu

A flag bearer-hopeful of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kojo Bonsu has suggested a total overhaul of the leadership of the party.

According to him, the party’s leadership is to blame for the NDC’s 2016 election defeat. He has called for the election of a new set of leaders ahead of the 2020 polls.

Mr Bonsu is of the opinion that “the party lost touch with the grassroots”, adding that the leadership is to blame for failing to coordinate the top hierarchy with the grassroots properly.

For him, it was for this reason that several incumbent leaders lost their positions at the constituency and regional primaries and predicted more casualties at the national level when the party holds its national congress.

“I’m referring to the organisation, the central party, the constituency executives, that is why you realise there is a ‘tsunami’ from the [top of the] party down. Most of the people lost their positions. It is because they were not doing their work effectively,” he told Accra-based Starr FM, on Thursday, 4 October 2018.

He emphasised that the leadership “did a poor job in the sense that it is what you call decisions from the top that run down, so, if the hierarchy of the party is not doing the right thing and the regional people are not doing, the constituency are not doing it, they are all in tandem, it is part of everything. So, you can’t give the blame to one person, it is a group, it is an effective organisation, if it is nil, you are in trouble”.

Asked by the host if all members of the current leadership should be removed, even at the national level, he answered: “That will bring change and democracy to the party, I’m for it”.

Mr Bonsu also criticised some party leaders for hoarding funds that were meant for campaigning at the grassroots.

“The grassroots were neglected and I can assure you that neglect cost us a lot of money, that is why the 2016 election defeat was a big shock,” he said, adding: “Let’s say the president provides money to the party, it has to trickle down to the grassroots for them to be able to do effective organisation [but] monies get to the middle, it doesn’t go. People don’t even look at the branches and their chairmen… It made everything difficult for them”.

In his opinion, the grassroots are important to the party and under no circumstance should they be ignored.